Sharp's UK boss: 'We're turning ourselves into a managed IT provider'

Acquisition of MSP Complete I.T. will drive shift to managed services, claims UK MD Stuart Sykes

Sharp wants to transform itself into a fully-fledged managed IT provider following its acquisition of MSP Complete IT (CIT) and the slow decline of print.

The print vendor acquired £17m-revenue firm Complete IT in August 2019 as it looked to become less reliant on the declining print industry and instead focus on IT services.

Ranked #220 in CRN's VAR 350 and based in High Wycombe, Complete IT is a Microsoft Gold partner offering managed services, cybersecurity and outsourced IT support.

Speaking to CRN Sharp's UK MD Stuart Sykes said that, since it was acquired, the CIT business has been rolled out across the UK as Sharp looks to leverage its managed services capabilities across the whole business.

The CIT business was expanded from its existing footprint in the south of England to Sharp Business Systems (SBS) locations in Birmingham and Warrington,

And Sykes said there are plans to expand the business further to SBS locations in Scotland, northeast England and East Anglia.

"We are turning ourselves into a managed IT provider in the UK, and we see that as being a big part of our future," he said.

"Now that we've acquired the last piece of the jigsaw with the Complete IT acquisition, we need to show the market place through action that Sharp is a managed IT provider of which print is part of that."

Sykes said that plans to introduce CIT's managed services proposition to its print reseller channel were put on ice once the Covid pandemic hit.

But he reiterated that selling its new IT capabilities through the channel is still the long-term goal.

"The plan had been to first establish it in our overall business and then to work with our resellers see how they might want to package up those services to take to their customers.

"That was always the plan, we had already spoken to our major resellers to ask if they wanted to be involved in that, but Covid has just slowed that down," he said.

"We've established it really successfully in our direct business selling to our own end users and then after the pandemic is finished we'll then re-circle and try and make that channel proposition,"