‘Our long-term vision is focused on strategic M&A’: inTEC Group new CEO on channel plans

Rambridge’s leadership to drive MSP through consolidation and acquisitions

“Next year’s first quarter will be about unifying our process, training, and development paths to work better as one team and home in on the right customer offering fit for each sector,” inTEC Group’s new CEO, Melissa Rambridge, tells CRN in her first week in the role.

The Manchester-based consultancy made two major changes to its C-suite this week, with the appointments of Rambridge as CEO and Shane Hughes as COO.

According to the company, the new C-suite members will “usher in a new phase of growth and innovation for the company.”

“Their leadership, alongside the other highly experienced members of the executive team will ensure we continue to grow while staying true to our values,” stated Simon Howitt, chairman and co-founder of inTEC.

Rambridge is now at the head of the business, just six months after being named COO of the company.

“I joined the business at a really good and interesting time,” she says.

“The group was formed in 2016 and has gone through 15 acquisitions within the last seven to eight years.

“When I joined the group, it was time to take a breath and look at all the amazing entities that had been acquired, all the amazing people and skill sets within them, and consolidate these to make one inTEC, rather than 15 disparate businesses.’”

“My biggest achievement as COO was to recognise that potential and then look at whatever action should be taken to reach our goals.”

But the new CEO didn’t leave her former position vacant for very long, as Hughes will be transitioning from his role of group operations director to COO.

“Shane's brilliant,” says Rambridge.

“He comes with an absolute plethora of experience, with 30 years in operations.

“He'll be a brilliant right-hand man.

“He’s got the ability to cut through the noise, to look across the group and see what actions need to be taken.

“He's also really good at seeing people's strengths and bringing those to the foreground.”

Howitt will remain part of inTEC as co-chairman.

“He knows the business inside out, so he can take a step back and look at things as they're evolving to provide advice, not from an outsider perspective, but from someone that can stand above the dance floor and look down, so to speak.”

The new CEO also tells CRN she feels very excited about the next 12 months.

“2025 is all about creating one team, she says.

“We will also be homing in on our ‘unique’.

“What I mean by that is that we have a really unique position in the market.

“Through those 15 acquisitions, with everyone coming from a similar ‘family run’ company culture, we have an opportunity to add that personal touch to the scale, skills, and expertise that you usually get with a bigger company.

“We can combine the best of both worlds.

“My key goal within the next 12 months is to get us working as one team and be able to really embrace what we have as a group.”

“Past these 12 months, our longer-term vision is very much focused on strategic M&A.”

“We would like to assess opportunities overseas in the future, but my current scope is on the UK and Ireland.”

Keep reading to discover Rambridge’s past ventures and advice on leadership...

Evolution and advice

Even though Rambridge has worked with inTEC for less than a year, she is an IT vet who previously held the role of CEO at Surrey-based MSP Sweethaven, which was bought out by the company in July 2023.

The merger was spotlighted as one of the five biggest acquisitions of the year by CRN.

“Sweethaven was started 47 years ago by my father and my grandfather.

“When I first joined, it wasn't the MSP that it is today.

“It was a mixture of IT retail reseller, and it was just starting to branch into managed service provision within the education and the SMB space.”

Through her experience at Sweethaven, Rambridge proved her qualities as a CEO, as she grew the business “by 300 per cent” between 2019 and 2023.

“We were growing really quickly and had this huge opportunity, particularly in the education sector, to provide something really special.

“There was a decision to be made between acquiring other businesses, to increase our scale and capacity quickly, or becoming part of something that already had amazing scaling capacity to enable us to continue develop our service.

“Moving into inTEC was never an exit strategy, but a facilitator for Sweethaven to continue its growth path and to continue delivering its vision, especially in the education sector.”

Throughout her journey, the CEO has learnt a lot from her victories and setbacks and has divided these lessons into three categories.

“Firstly, nothing replaces hard work.

“If you find something that you're passionate about and you work hard on it, you will succeed.

“Secondly, realise how important communication is.

“No matter how much you think you're communicating now, do it more.

“Finally, there’s also no such thing as a new issue.

“No matter how difficult things are, if you talk to enough people, you work hard enough to think outside the box, you take on enough opinions and viewpoints and do your research, there will always be a way through it.”