ITHACA — ICS — an information-technology (IT) support firm with offices in Endicott, DeWitt, and Ithaca — announced it has acquired Brightworks Computer Consulting of Ithaca. ICS didn’t disclose the acquisition cost or any financial terms of the its acquisition agreement. As an IT implementation, support, and hosting-services company, the services that Brightworks offers will […]
ITHACA — ICS — an information-technology (IT) support firm with offices in Endicott, DeWitt, and Ithaca — announced it has acquired Brightworks Computer Consulting of Ithaca.
ICS didn’t disclose the acquisition cost or any financial terms of the its acquisition agreement.
As an IT implementation, support, and hosting-services company, the services that Brightworks offers will “complement” ICS’s existing capabilities, the firm contends.
ICS offers all the services that Brightworks provides, says Kevin Blake president and CEO of ICS.
“[The firm] has a lot of great customers in Tompkins County, and we can bolster some of [its] offerings by cross-selling some of things we do, like digital security, physical security, phone systems, printing, those types of things,” says Blake, who describes Brightworks as a competitor.
Blake, who is the majority owner of ICS, spoke with CNYBJ on April 10. Travis Hayes is the firm’s minority owner, according to Blake.
The acquisition closed on March 9. Blake met the Brightworks staff the following day, started integrating, and learned about the state’s working-from-home order later that week, he recalls. “It’s been a very interesting time,” Blake adds.
Part of ICS growth strategy
The transaction is part of Blake’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) growth strategy for ICS, which he has pursued for the past three years. The company’s acquisition of J.B. Kane in Syracuse in June 2018 was part of that plan.
Blake says he’s in negotiations with other managed-service providers (or MSPs as they’re known in the industry) as part of his M&A growth plan.
“We believe our industry is consolidating fast … because of cloud and security and what it takes to be an MSP these days. Smaller MSPs just can’t afford to make the investments that it takes to support clients that have some sort of compliance needs. We’ve made all those investments, and we’re actively pursuing other MSPs to join the ICS family,” says Blake.
He met Brightworks founder and sole owner John Guttridge at an MSP industry event in Orlando, Florida more than a year ago, and that when they started talking.
“We got serious about the [acquisition] conversation in November 2019,” he adds.
Adding employees, customers
With the addition of the 16 Brightworks employees, ICS has about 20 people working in Ithaca. The employees include Guttridge, who is now a senior account manager at ICS.
“Due to the ever-changing information-technology landscape and the growing cybersecurity needs, we wanted to find a partner that could support our customers with a higher level of maturity and serviceability than we could achieve in the near future,” Guttridge said in an ICS news release.
The company’s overall employee count is now at just under 100 workers, according to Blake. With the addition of about 100 Brightworks clients, ICS now services between 700 and 800 customers between New York and Northeastern Pennsylvania.
The Brightworks office in Ithaca, located at 123 W. State St., is a 2,300-square-foot space. ICS currently operates a 1,000-square-foot space located at 840 Hanshaw Road in the village of Cayuga Heights, near Ithaca.
Blake says the firm’s plan is to eventually move out of the Hanshaw Road location to the Brightworks building. He says Guttridge still owns the building and ICS is leasing it from him.
Blake declines to disclose the firm’s annual revenue, but notes that about 12 percent of its annual sales are generated from its clients in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
