365 IT Services Limited to be ” Trusted IT Services Supplier to Corporates ” ??
Posted by Chris on October 11th, 2011According to Peter Howells of 365 IT Services Limited it plans to be the ” Trusted IT Services Supplier to Corporates ” ( see more details at the end of this post – About Us ).
If you are going to trust your IT Services to a partner then you want to know that that partner has the experience and knowledge to provide that service and also you would like to think that they are going to be around for a while.
Lets take the last point first shall we ??
LMS Capital plc, the company that funded the management buyout from 365iT, supported by Peter MacLean, the Chief Executive of 365iT plc and now the Chairman of 365 IT Services Limited aswell ( complicated eh ?? ) is actually on a break up strategy !!
Yes, that’s correct, the company that wants to be corporates ” Trusted IT Services Supplier ” will soon be broken up !
The story here is quite complicated but if you look at the LMS Capital website ( Our News section )
http://www.lmscapital.com/Ournews/tabid/64/Default.aspx
there are two relevant Press Releases:
1. The ” Concert Party Request “.
2. Proposed change of Investment Strategy and Convening of General Meeting.
The gist of these is that shareholders representing around 37% of the shares of LMS Capital don’t believe in LMS Capital’s strategy of buy and build. They want to see the company broken up and sold. These ” rebel ” shareholders are led by the ( until recently ) Chairman of LMS Capital plc, Robert Rayne.
Whilst Peter Howells is an experienced Managing Director, Peter MacLean has been a miserable failure at trying to build up first of all Impera plc and then 365iT plc. The companies in 365 IT Services were, until very recently, in 365iT, missing is Fox I.T. which still remains in 365iT but has the Sword of Damacles hovering over it’s head while Peter MacLean decides how he is going ” wind down ” 365iT.
Strangely then the ” Services and Consultancy ” business is left in 365iT whilst MacLeans, clearly lacking, hands are in both pots.
http://www.365itservices.co.uk/
How long is it going to take for a company, thinking about partnering with 365 IT Services, to due proper due diligence only to find that 365 IT Services is to be broken up ” as soon as possible ” ??
It is a ludicrously badly thought out strategy that is doomed to failure. Competitors to 365 IT Services are going to have a field day. Their salespeople will cast F.U.D. ( Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt ) all over the deal and in many cases 365 IT Services Limited will fail to win business.
This does not even take into account the competitiveness of the market at the moment and the lack of investment by corporates in this type of service offering.
The world is moving towards managed services and cloud computing but 365iT shut down it’s ” managed networking ” arm and also closed it’s ” Cloud Computing ” business ( selling off the remains to someone with more vision and competence ).
About Us
365 IT Services Limited is a new company formed by a management buyout, backed by LMS Capital plc, of a number of business divisions from 365 iT plc.
These business divisions deliver a range of technology solutions extending from unified communications to network and system infrastructure, security, business continuity and managed services.
http://www.365itservices.co.uk/
The new company, 365 IT Services Limited is managed by Peter Howells who was the Managing Director and co-founder of 5i Limited, the unified communications specialist. Peter MacLean, Chairman and Chief Executive of 365 iT plc who also joins the board as Non-Executive Chairman will focus on corporate strategy and acquisitions.
Peter Howells, Managing Director of 365 IT Services said “Our aim is to become the trusted IT services supplier of choice for corporate businesses in the UK. Bringing together the separate divisions under one banner will provide us with one of the strongest portfolio of technologies and services possible and allow us to work closer with existing and new customers and business partners to achieve this goal.”
Howells added “Working with LMS Capital will not only ensure that we have the capital to fund organic growth but also provide access to a greater source of investment capital to acquire other businesses that will further strengthen our overall proposition in key areas of technology and services delivery.”
Commenting on the investment, Pieter Hooft, Managing Director UK Investments at LMS Capital, said “We are delighted to have the opportunity to be part of 365 IT Services Limited. Our due diligence has confirmed that the individual businesses are held in high regard by customers and key suppliers and we are confident that their integration into a single new company, under a management team that has a proven track record of profitable growth, will create an outstanding company that will take advantage of the rapidly changing IT landscape.”
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