ConvergeOne Scoops Up Fellow VAR Spanlink To Boost Cisco UC Business

ConvergeOne is acquiring fellow solution provider Spanlink in a deal set to expand both ConvergeOne's managed services and collaboration portfolios.

Financial terms of the deal, announced by both companies this week, were not disclosed.

According to Paul Maier, president of Southport, Conn.-based ConvergeOne, buying Spanlink will specifically grow ConvergeOne's footprint in the Cisco unified communications (UC) and contact center markets, which, as a Cisco Master Collaboration partner, had been Spanlink's area of expertise.

[Related: Partners: New WebEx Shows Cisco's Commitment To Revitalizing Collab Business ]

"Spanlink has very similar values to ConvergeOne around being customer-centric and around being services- and solution-oriented," Maier told CRN. "And what it also brings is expertise in Cisco unified communications and, specifically, Cisco contact center capabilities."

ConvergeOne's legacy collaboration business revolved largely around Cisco competitor Avaya. Maier said, moving forward, ConvergeOne will continue to invest in its Avaya business, even as Cisco is added into the fold.

He noted that most of ConvergeOne's enterprise customers leverage a mix of Cisco, Avaya and Microsoft collaboration solutions as it is.

"Now we will be able to provide those [UC] capabilities to our customers, regardless of whether they are Cisco or Avaya," Maier said. "Our intent is to continue to grow significantly our Avaya business while we embark on and start to grow our Cisco business."

The move also will provide a boost to ConvergeOne's managed services business; Spanlink in 2013 launched OnGuard, a managed services platform that provides proactive monitoring plus 24-by-7 engineering support for customers' call center, video, telepresence, and switching and routing environments.

Maier said the Spanlink team will remain at its Minneapolis headquarters but is being rebranded as ConvergOne Collaboration.

The new company is being led by Maier, while Eric LeBow, Spanlink's CEO, will become managing director, reporting into Maier.

ConvergeOne, which was acquired in May by private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group, consists of several operating units, including NACR, a top Avaya channel partner; ConvergeOne Technology, a managed service provider; and ConvergeOne Advanced Services (formerly SimpliCTI), a software-focused solution provider that ConvergeOne acquired in 2012.

As a private company, Maier said ConvergeOne does not disclose revenue. As of May, though, the company had more than 4,000 customers, many of which are Fortune 500.

PUBLISHED OCT. 10, 2014