Academia gets top marks with Smartdesc takeover

Acquisition of Smartdesc to enhance service portfolio and boost growth

Academia today made an A+ move to boost its technical services portfolio and managed services skills with its acquisition of MSP Smartdesc.

The newly bought company majors in the non-profit sector with sales across Microsoft hardware, software and cybersecurity.

It has a headcount of 80 staff across the UK and Europe generating a turnover of £9m.

The addition of Smartdesc to the Academia classroom will help the IT services and solutions provider for education, business and the public sector “vastly” improve its certification levels with new vendors.

“This acquisition is a significant milestone as we continue to deliver against our strategy for growth and expansion,” said Academia Group owner Andrew Harman.

“We're bucking trends at Academia and acquiring Smartdesc, with its expertise and leadership, is a major step in broadening our customer propositions and delivering even more value to customers."

As well as allowing Academia to deliver its propositions into the non-profit space, the Smartdesc deal presents opportunities to broaden its as-a-service offerings, thanks to Smartdesc’s strengths in IT strategy, IT helpdesk, infrastructure, data security, cyber, Azure & 365 management.

This deal follows Academia MD Mark McCormack’s comments from almost a year ago about the goal to work “deeply with fewer strategic vendors”, as it aims for between 15 to 20 per cent growth in 2024.

He told CRN the key priorities looking ahead were pursuing net new growth in public sector and commercial, broadening Academia’s as-a-service offerings for current clients, and sustaining profitability through recurring revenues.

Far from appearing out of thin air, these numbers are strongly backed by the 22 per cent revenue spike for the company in FY23.

“Welcoming Smartdesc into the Academia Group aligns perfectly with our long-term growth strategy, providing a tremendous opportunity to scale our support and managed services as well as strengthen our cyber security and infrastructure divisions,” said McCormack.