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Clearlake-backed ConvergeOne buys SPS
ConvergeOne, which is backed by Clearlake Capital, has acquired New Jersey-based Strategic Products and Services, a multivendor communication and networking managed service provider. No financial terms were disclosed. Houlihan Lokey served as investment banker to SPS on the transaction. Continue reading on PE HUB
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ConvergeOne, which is backed by Clearlake Capital, has acquired New Jersey-based Strategic Products and Services, a multivendor communication and networking managed service provider. No financial terms were disclosed. Houlihan Lokey served as investment banker to SPS on the transaction. PRESS RELEASE
EAGAN, Minn., August 17, 2017 — ConvergeOne, a leading IT services provider of collaboration and technology solutions, today announced that it has acquired Strategic Products and Services (“SPS”), a global, multivendor communication and networking managed service provider headquartered in New Jersey. Effective immediately, SPS is now SPS, a ConvergeOne Company. This acquisition solidifies ConvergeOne’s position as a leading provider of collaboration and IT enabled solutions in the market today. ConvergeOne serves as a trusted advisor to more than 7,000 customers, including 52 percent of the Fortune 100 and 40 percent of the Fortune 500 customers across the healthcare, finance, manufacturing, education, and energy industries. ConvergeOne’s deep technical expertise within collaboration, enterprise networking, data center, cloud and security solutions and its end-to-end service capabilities differentiate the company from other IT service providers. Through existing relationships with more than 300 next generation technology partners, ConvergeOne provides leading, multivendor solutions and services that solve customers’ business challenges regardless of their existing infrastructure. “This acquisition advances our strategy to continue to grow ConvergeOne’s managed services and cloud solutions,” said John A. McKenna Jr., Chairman and CEO, ConvergeOne. “With this acquisition, ConvergeOne gains scale, portfolio expansion with a growing video solution, additional managed services, and technical resources backed by decades of experience and certified expertise.”
“We are excited to support John and the management team in the combination of ConvergeOne and SPS,” added Behdad Eghbali and James Pade of Clearlake. “As a result of the acquisition strategy, ConvergeOne now has additional scale, resources, and a broader solutions portfolio to support the collaboration and IT solutions needs of its customers. With the SPS transaction complete, ConvergeOne further positions itself as the leading provider of multi-vendor IT solutions and managed services to enterprises.”
SPS, a ConvergeOne Company will be led by John F. Lyons, President and CEO, Enterprise, ConvergeOne. “This acquisition strengthens our organization with an experienced group of world-class sales and technical resources,” said Lyons. “ConvergeOne and SPS customers will gain more choices from a broader portfolio of services and solutions, delivered with the same great customer service both organizations are known for.”
“ConvergeOne’s investment in our business strengthens SPS and enables us to better service our clients and strategic partners now and into the future,” said Ed Nalbandian, CEO of SPS. “Being part of ConvergeOne, SPS is well-positioned to leverage our combined managed services capabilities to become a clear market leader. Going forward, it is business as usual, with additional resources, as we remain highly focused on our clients’ success.”
Houlihan Lokey acted as SPS’s exclusive investment banker for the transaction. About ConvergeOne
Founded in 1993, ConvergeOne is a leading global IT service provider of collaboration and technology solutions for large and medium enterprise with decades of experience assisting customers to transform their digital infrastructure and realize a return on investment. Over 7,000 enterprise and mid-market customers trust ConvergeOne with collaboration, enterprise networking, data center, cloud and security solutions to achieve business outcomes. Our investments in Cloud infrastructure and managed services provide transformational opportunities for customers to achieve financial and operational benefits with leading technologies. Uniquely positioned, ConvergeOne has partnerships with more than 300 global industry leaders, including Avaya, Cisco, Genesys, IBM, and Microsoft to customize specific business outcomes. We deliver solutions with a full life cycle approach including strategy, design and implementation with professional, managed, cloud and support services. ConvergeOne holds more than 2,180 technical certifications across hundreds of engineers throughout North America including three Network Operations Centers. More information available at www.convergeone.com. About Clearlake Capital Group, L.P.
Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a leading private investment firm founded in 2006. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake’s operational improvement approach, O.P.S.® The firm’s core target sectors are software and technology-enabled services; industrials and energy; and consumer. Clearlake currently has over $4 billion of assets under management and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 90 investments. More information is available at www.clearlake.com. About Strategic Products and Services
Strategic Products and Services is a global, multivendor communication and networking managed service provider. SPS provides strategy, consulting, design, implementation, support and managed services for interconnected communication systems, including telephony, video/multimedia, mobility and customer experience. With documented and repeatable processes, deep knowledge, broad competencies and certifications, the company enables clients to optimize their business communications with on-site, hosted or cloud-based solutions. With offices across North America and the United Kingdom, SPS partners with global industry leaders, including Avaya, Cisco and Microsoft. The company is also a founding member of the Intelligent Communications Alliance (ICA), a global partner network providing multi-national customers with a consistent approach to pricing, design, installation and support of integrated business solutions. More information available at www.spscom.com.

Clearlake-backed ConvergeOne buys SPS

Updates: Aerohive, EMIT Solutions, Ingram Micro Cloud, OutSystems, Plexxi, Serenova, Softech, Strategic Products and Services, UKCloud, Zerto & more. by Joe Panettieri • Apr 12, 2017
Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Wednesday, April 12, 2017. Actually, there are 16 updates for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents and telco agents to sip on. 16. Breaking: VMware acquires Wavefront for multi-cloud management. Is this a potential Cisco AppDynamics rival? Hmmm…
15. PC Sales Stabilize: PC shipments notched their first quarterly growth in five years, researcher IDC said, though the gain of less than 1 percent from a year earlier underscored persistent weakness in demand, especially from consumers, Bloomberg said. Related Partner Summit: Lenovo Accelerate 2017  is later this month. 14. SD-WANs: Windstream , which acquired EarthLink earlier this year, is making a major SD-WAN push at this week’s  Channel Partners Conference & Expo . Then again, just about everyone is making an SD-WAN push at the conference…
13. AWS Contact Center Tools: Serenova is demonstrating its AWS-based Contact Center at Channel Partners Conference & Expo 2017. I believe the system is built on Amazon Web Services’ Connect platform — which could redefine call center software. 12. Partner Program: OutSystems has launched a new  Global Partner Program , which connects systems integrators, technology consultants, and resellers with the company’s low-code development platform. In the past 12 months, OutSystems saw a 51 percent increase in contributing partners and a 78 percent increase in revenue generated from partners, the company says. 11. DRaaS:  UKCloud  has launched  Disaster Recovery to the Cloud , a self-service replication and recovery solution, powered by Zerto . Related Partner Summit: ZertoCon 2017 is set for May . 10. IT Spending Estimate: Overall IT spending will rise only 1.4 percent in 2017, down from a previous estimate of 2.7 percent, Gartner estimates. Among the markets facing continued pressure: Server sales, which are getting squeezed by cloud services. 9. WiFi Managed Services:  Aerohive has launched a range of new WiFi networking products specifically designed for MSPs and recurring revenue models. Mark Wright
Mitch Breen
8. Talent – Hyperconverged Infrastructure:  Plexxi , which focuses on  hyperconverged networking (HCN), has named Mitch Breen as its SVP of enterprise sales, and Mark Wright as VP of sales operations. Breen is a veteran of SimpliVity (recently acquired by HP Enterprise), and Wright is an EMC and Verizon veteran. Ed Nalbandian
7. Talent – MSP:  Strategic Products and Services (SPS), a multi-vendor systems integrator and managed services provider for communications and networking, has named Ed Nalbandian as its CEO, Michael Lucciola as president and Amit Basu as CIO. Nalbandian joined SPS in 2016 as COO. He previous was president of Enabling Managed Services (EMS), a managed services consulting firm. SPS works closely with Avaya, Cisco and Microsoft. 6. MSPs & Microsoft Azure: First National Technology Solutions  (FNTS)  has added Microsoft Azure to its list of cloud computing services. 5. Microsoft Pricing and Brexit: The UK government has inked a deal with Microsoft to prevent Whitehall from paying an extra £15m in license fees due to a post-Brexit price hike, according to The Register . That move may not sit well with other Microsoft customers across the UK. The software and cloud giant vowed to raise on-premises software prices by 13 percent and cloud-oriented pricing by 22 percent after Britain confirmed plans to exit the European Union. 4. IT Services and Taxes: Keep a close eye on the State of Pennsylvania’s tax code, and its implications for software-related services — including I T help desk services . We’ll share more details soon. 3. IT Services & H-1B Visa Fraud: Argentine information technology firm Sistemas Globales S.A. and its U.S. affiliate, Globant LLC, agreed to pay the government $1 million to settle allegations it had committed visa fraud in hiring foreign workers,  Law360 reported . 2. M&A – MSPs: Irish IT services firm EMIT Solutions  has acquired the managed services business of rival Softech for an undisclosed sum, the Irish Times reported. We’ll share more detail soon. Rene Bergeron
1. Partner Summits: Ingram Micro Cloud Summit 2017  is set for next week in Phoenix. It’s safe to expect SVP Rene Bergeron to share key business milestones for Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace. (Here are the data points Bergeron shared last year ). Also,  DockerCon 2017 will surface in Austin, Texas, next week. We’ll track both events, and their implications for channel partners. All Partner Summit Dates: Track all partner conference dates and locations here . Related Content

5 Channel Partner Updates: 12 April 2017

MINNEAPOLIS, MN--(Marketwired - Apr 6, 2016) - Calabrio , a customer engagement software company that provides analytic insights to catalyze growth, and Strategic Products and Services (SPS) , a leading Unified Communications System Integrator and managed services provider, today announced a partnership that will bring industry-leading customer engagement software to new markets. SPS helps clients across the world assess, plan and optimize contact center solutions to ensure a positive customer experience across every interaction. SPS brings more than 25 years of experience as a systems integrator and managed services provider, which affords it the necessary experience to help companies integrate the entire Workforce Optimization (WFO) application suite. Combining applications like call recording, quality management and analytics improves clients' business process and maximizes the value behind each interaction. Together, Calabrio and SPS equip and empower companies to gain an edge on the competition and accelerate overall business growth. "We're at an exciting time where we're experiencing tremendous growth and recognition in the industry," said Tom Goodmanson, President and CEO of Calabrio. "SPS is well-respected for driving its clients towards new integration strategies. It's a perfect match for helping us extend our vision of making the contact center a key informant of business strategy and a driver of growth. This partnership helps us deliver that message to new audiences. "
"Calabrio has been recognized as a leader in the industry for its commitment to delivering solutions that drive customer engagement strategies," said Kathy Sobus, Office of the CTO, Customer Experience Practice Leader at SPS. "We value Calabrio's expertise and look forward to working together to help our clients deliver an exceptional customer experience that drives business outcomes with the best technology in the market. "
About SPS
 Strategic Products and Services (SPS) is a global, multi-vendor IT solution provider for unified communications (UC). With documented and repeatable processes, deep knowledge, broad competencies and certifications, we enable clients to optimize their business with custom end-to-end communication solutions -- from strategy and design through implementation, support and managed services. Having achieved more than 25 years of profitable growth, SPS has offices across North America and the United Kingdom. The company is also a founding member of the Intelligent Communications Alliance (ICA), a global partner network providing multi-national customers with a consistent approach to pricing, design, installation and support of integrated business solutions. Visit www.spscom.com to learn more. Follow @SPSTechbeat on Twitter. About Calabrio
  Calabrio is a customer engagement software company that provides analytic insights to catalyze growth through customer service contact centers. The Calabrio ONE® software suite empowers everyone in an organization, from contact center agents to the CEO, with easy-to-use tools that provide a better understanding of the customer. Every customer interaction yields insights that expand customer-consciousness, which is how leading companies now drive growth and long-term corporate prosperity. Calabrio solutions are built on an intuitive, web-based architecture that positions and accelerates the contact center as an epicenter for customer insight. A pioneer in its industry for more than two decades, Calabrio has been named "Leader" by Gartner in its Magic Quadrant for Customer Engagement Center Workforce Optimization (2015). The company is also a member of the Cisco Solution Partner Program and the Avaya DevConnect program. Find news and information at www.calabrio.com . Follow @calabrio on Twitter. Calabrio, Calabrio ONE and the Calabrio logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Calabrio Inc. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

Calabrio and Strategic Products and Services (SPS) Partner to Bring Industry Leading Customer Engagement Technology to New Markets

January 20, 2016 --
PARSIPPANY, N.J., Jan. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Strategic Products and Services (SPS), a unified communications system integrator and managed service provider, today announced that in addition to serving as president, Thomas M. Praschak will assume the role of SPS chief executive officer (CEO). John N. Poole, who formerly served as CEO, will remain active on the executive board, assuming the role of executive chairman of the board. Praschak joined SPS as chief operating officer (COO) in 2013, and assumed the role of president in 2015. Throughout his time with the company, he has helped SPS execute its plan and strategy. He has been involved in the company's recent mergers and has actively met with SPS employees, partners and clients to devise a plan that builds upon the company's strengths and facilitates its evolution into a systems integrator (SI). "What sets SPS apart is the caliber of the team we have assembled, and I am proud of what we are building as an organization. We have a tremendous opportunity," said Praschak. "I am excited to accept my extended role as CEO and lead the SPS team in this next crucial stage of the company's development. "
SPS specializes in design, integration and managed services for unified communications (UC), including voice, video conferencing, collaboration and contact center. SPS teams with clients, providing professional services, managed services and cloud-based solutions to deliver exceptional results. Throughout his career, Praschak has helped companies make foundational enhancements and successfully transition into solution providers. Prior to joining SPS, he served as the vice president, service operations for Dimension Data and vice president, general manager for DecisionOne. He has also held roles with Marconi, Lucent Technologies and AT&T Bell Laboratories. About SPS
Strategic Products and Services (SPS) is a global, multi-vendor IT solution provider for unified communications (UC). With documented and repeatable processes, deep knowledge, broad competencies and certifications, we enable clients to optimize their business with custom end-to-end communication solutions  from strategy and design through implementation, support and managed services. Having achieved more than 25 years of profitable growth, SPS has offices across North America and the United Kingdom. The company is also a founding member of the Intelligent Communications Alliance (ICA), a global partner network providing multi-national customers with a consistent approach to pricing, design, installation and support of integrated business solutions. Visit www.spscom.com to learn more. Trade names listed are property of their respective owners. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sps-names-thomas-m-praschak-as-ceo-300207274.html
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SPS Names Thomas M. Praschak as CEO

SPS Acquires IPV Gateways
PARSIPPANY, N.J., Dec. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Strategic Products and Services (SPS) today announced the acquisition of IPV Gateways, a highly skilled and specialized provider of network security, MPLS network interconnectivity, telecommunications and data center management services. Founded in 2003 and having served as a strategic partner to SPS since 2007, IPV provides network design and assessment services, carrier exchange services, network management and security services via its Connectivity+ application platform. By acquiring IPV, SPS will grow its managed services business, with a specific focus on its hosted Anything-as-a-service (XaaS) opportunities. XaaS serves as a competitive differentiator for SPS, showcasing its expertise in designing, implementing and managing complex solutions. "We are excited to team with IPV, as it possesses the most sophisticated cloud-based services architecture in the industry," said John Price, SPS Vice President, Managed Services Practice Leader. "IPV's technical skills and SPS's client centricity will serve as a truly winning combination for our managed and XaaS business, granting us the unique ability to deliver our cloud and private cloud solutions directly to more than 600 global MPLS and network providers. "
SPS specializes in design, integration and managed services for unified communications (UC), including voice, video conferencing, collaboration and contact center. SPS teams with clients, providing professional services, managed services and cloud-based solutions to deliver exceptional results. Together, SPS and IPV have the skills, services, tools and infrastructure needed to serve as the ideal managed service provider and partner to clients, providing unparalleled value, support and security. "We at IPV are excited to join the SPS team," said Rob Price, Chief Technology Officer of IPV. "I believe that by combining SPS's comprehensive portfolio and IPV's core skills and services, we will be able to provide unmatched solutions to our clients. "
About SPS
Strategic Products and Services (SPS) is a global, multi-vendor IT solution provider for unified communications (UC). With documented and repeatable processes, deep knowledge, broad competencies and certifications, we enable clients to optimize their business with custom end-to-end communication solutions – from strategy and design through implementation, support and managed services. Having achieved more than 25 years of profitable growth, SPS has offices across North America and the United Kingdom. The company is also a founding member of the Intelligent Communications Alliance (ICA), a global partner network providing multi-national customers with a consistent approach to pricing, design, installation and support of integrated business solutions. Visit www.spscom.com to learn more. About IPV
The world's leading telecommunications and security specialist for video, IPV Gateways was formed in 2003 by telecom industry veterans. IPV's founders have extensive backgrounds with credentials that include building a coast to coast digital switched voice network for a major carrier, designing the original cable internet structure and consulting to major carriers on data and wireless architecture and design, as well as on performance and trouble situations. Learn more at www.ipvgateways.com . Trade names listed are property of their respective owners. SOURCE  Strategic Products and Services (SPS)
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SPS Acquires IPV Gateways

Calabrio is a customer engagement software company that provides analytic insights to catalyze growth through customer service contact centers. The Calabrio ONE® software suite empowers everyone in an organization, from contact center agents to the CEO, with easy-to-use tools that provide a better understanding of the customer. Every customer interaction yields insights that expand customer-consciousness, which is how leading companies now drive growth and long-term corporate prosperity.

Calabrio

MINNEAPOLIS , MN -- -LRB- Marketwired - Apr 6 , 2016 -RRB- - Calabrio Inc. , a customer engagement software company that provides analytic insights to catalyze growth , and Strategic Products and Services , a leading Unified Communications System Integrator and managed services provider , today announced a partnership that will bring industry-leading customer engagement software to new markets .

Nectar delivers business value by developing innovative solutions that arm IT organizations with actionable information that helps them adapt to change, manage complexity, and delivers quantifiable ROI and BI reporting. The company's flagship offering, Converged Management Platform™ (CMP) improves service delivery across integrated voice, data, video and application solutions by providing critical performance information to executives and technical resources. Armed with this knowledge, companies now have the foundation to align IT initiatives with business objectives, and to transform their infrastructure and free up critical resources.

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Strategic Products and Services (SPS) is a global, multi-vendor systems integrator of business communication solutions. As a specialized systems integrator, SPS has design, technical and implementation depth in all aspects of infrastructure technology, roadmap planning, consulting and ongoing services for contact center, unified communications and private cloud solutions.

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