Ignition Technology sets sights on increasing business

Ignition Technology has established a strong position in the endpoint, identity and emerging security tools markets and has outlined an ambition to significantly grow the business in the next few years.

The plan to double the business to €500m in the next three years involves several elements, including increasing services, along with support for SME and MSP customers and channel bases.

Peter Ledger, CEO of Ignition Technology, is part of a leadership team that has driven the channel player over the past 11 years to get to the stage where the Exclusive Group-owned business is able to plan more vendor signings and geographic expansion.

“We’ve got a clear mandate from Exclusive’s new owners that Ignition is very important and will be kept separate. That’s great for the Ignition business and good – to be clear – internally as well,” he said, adding that the firm had finished the year with 30% growth and was keen to replicate that going forward. The idea is to keep growing at the same rate and outgrowing the market. “The areas that we need to exploit and do better is services, where we really have got a big investment.”

There are also plans to increase the support for the SME market and mirror the approach the firm has taken towards the enterprise customer base. Managed service players will see increased support this year from Ignition, while the approach on the vendor front will be to increase geographical reach and to strike more agreements.

Ignition made an acquisition around 18 months ago, picking up Mediterranean player Ingecom, and Ledger indicated that M&A activity would continue to be an option to drive growth. That business has expanded revenues and is rebranding as Ignition, and there is a desire to repeat those positive experiences elsewhere.

“We’ve got a lot of momentum, but there’s other regions where we’ll be looking to fast track that growth by buying some companies,” said Ledger. “We’ve grown that business quite aggressively across the rest of Europe and the Middle East over the past three to four years. We’re looking forward to the next phase.”

The firm’s focus on identifying and bringing innovative vendors to market continues and has been preserved by Exclusive in the past four years since the firm was acquired.

“A lot of the proviso behind the acquisition was not to just consume us and dilute us into the business,” said Ledger.

The security market has always been a good hunting ground for the channel, with signs that it continues to be so for the likes of Ignition. “We’ve started the year really strongly,” added Ledger. “We’ve got a very positive outlook for this year, so I’m no worried at the moment.”

He believes there continue to be growth opportunities for its vendor roster and that the firm’s decision to focus on endpoint and identity as the bedrocks of the business was a wise one that continues to deliver results. The ability to keep largely the same team in place and to maintain a culture from its foundation in 2015 until now has also benefitted the business.

“We’ve now got a group management team at Ignition that are helping with the build out and the scale out of the business. They’re all the same mentality, same people, same morals and values...and that is important, and the same people that will give our vendors the same experience as well.”