Last year Edmonton-based solution provider Acrodex, formerly Comp Canada Atlas, placed 13th in CDN’s annual Top 100 solution provider rankings. The company wants to carry its momentum into becoming a nationwide player in Canada.
According to David Walsh, the new director of marketing at Acrodex, the company has put a focus on expanding nationally. It currently supports customers on a national level with satellite offices. “The growth is national,” Walsh said.
The firm has locations in its home base of Edmonton, along with offices in Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto.
It has more than 450 employees and just hired Walsh to handle marketing.
Walsh added that Acrodex is looking to get into the Vancouver market, and while there are no plans at this point there is interest in having a presence from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The company is scoping for acquisitions to enter bigger markets such as Montreal and Halifax.
“We are managing growth,” he said. “We went to $130 million plus (in revenue) from $110 million. We are shooting for the top 10 (in the CDN Top 100 Solution Provider list).The company has spent a year in Toronto mainly looking for gaps in the market instead of battling for requests for proposals, Walsh said.
“We are going to put resources into traditional marketing pieces such as brand, Web, collateral, and marketing and corporate development, while enlisting the right market analytics, which is a combination of experience and gut feel for net new business development,” Walsh said.
Acrodex’s go-to-market strategy is client and solutions focused. It has five integrated business units: application services, software licensing, managed services, professional services and hardware provisioning.
Acrodex is also going to take a cautious approach to new vendors.“Any new vendor partnership will be based on technical platforms. We do not need to find another networking partner with Cisco (in the fold) right now. Costs go up when you want to ramp up with a new vendor. Those costs can be spent on going after a new market such as Ontario,” Walsh said.
The company sees the enterprise market as saturated here, so is focusing its efforts on the mid-market and up. Customers with 100 employees or more are ideal targets, Walsh said.Acrodex also provides manages services with Ottawa’s N-Able Technologies as a partner.
Walsh’s initial marketing plan is to have a cycle of development with activities that support awareness, knowledge, liking (favourable brand impression of company) , preference, commitment and contract.
The initial sales plan is to have a line where staff identify, recruit, qualify, plan, support and incent.
“I believe marketing and sales are married for life. They have to be in successful organization. That’s the theory. And, theories are the multiple roads you can take. The activity is how you drive on them,” Walsh said.
Comment: cdnedit@itbusiness.ca