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Former Insight boss Fenton slurps Microsoft ERP channel biz

Tectura UK forms backbone of buy and build strategy for industry vet

Former Insight EMEA president Stuart Fenton has picked up the UK arm of global Microsoft ERP integrator Tectura - the first in a planned mid-market roll up.

The acquisition of London-based Tectura UK, a subsidiary of US firm Tectura Corporation, was completed by Fenton and his investment biz QuantiQ.

After a decade running Insight, he left last summer and has since taken up non-exec director posts at FAST, the Cloud Industry Forum and Open Symetry.

Ironically, Fenton got to know Tectura when it implemented a challenging ERP project for Insight that initially went off the rails, and he told us he'd "learnt from the experience"

"The vast majority of ERP projects run smoothly, so you tend to hear about the horror stories and they all stem from the same problem; being poorly specified and managed from the start".

The 70-strong business of developers, consultants and sales folk turned over £15.3m in fiscal '12 ended 1 January and reported a net profit of £673k - the last numbers filed at Companies House.

Fenton told El Chan sales were now closer to £10m, claiming 85 per cent of what he's bought is generated by services to deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX and NAV, with some license sales.

It plans to launch new practices on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and cloud services particularly around the Azure platform.

He said the ERP and CRM channel remains fragmented, and QuantiQ will be targeting other mid-market firms with a view to further acquisitions.

"The market in the UK - total licenses and services - is about £3bn, so its a significant market," he said.

Clients include mid-market firms but the company plans to specialise in specific verticals including retail, manufacturing, distribution, life scences and business services.

Former Insight director Tom Nesbit has joined as marketing director and credit specialist Derek Walton, who was UK FD at Magirus, has been made CFO.

The Tectura brand will be retired, Fenton confirmed.

The UK arm of Tectura was part of Tectura Corporation, which claimed to be the world's largest Microsoft Dynamics reseller. The US, Canadian and Australian operations have been bought by UXC Eclipse.

QuantiQ was founded this year by Varsity Acquisitions LLC, an established Chicago-based investment firm led by chairman James Martin and CEO Fenton.

Terms of the Tectura deal were not disclosed. ®

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