Technology Reseller v40

01732 759725 24 INTERVIEW Engage early and accelerate Nuvias has sharpened its focus on emerging technologies with the acquisition of Cloud Distribution, a specialist distributor of cloud-first cyber security, networking and SaaS solutions. James Goulding finds out more from Nuvias Group CEO Simon England For a company that was created through a buy and build strategy, Nuvias has been relatively quiet on the acquisition front of late – certainly compared to larger rivals in the distribution sector. Could the value-add distributor’s acquisition of Cloud Distribution in May indicate that the company is now entering a new, more acquisitive phase? Listening to Nuvias Group CEO Simon England, it seems pretty clear that it does – albeit within the confines of a clear strategy and at a pace that won’t imperil the value that Nuvias brings to its business relationships. “Nuvias was originally put together [by Rigby Private Equity] from four acquisitions between 2015 and 2017 – Wick Hill, Zycko, Siphon Networks and DCB in Benelux. In 2018, big investments were made to support the infrastructure of these businesses – a major investment in IT, a major investment in building out a central Past, present and future Simon England’s thoughts on the last 18 months and what the future holds Flexibility & improvisation “At the start of the pandemic, there was some nervousness, but we managed to get through it very, very well. We didn’t fire anybody to try to reduce our costs; we kept incidental spending down; and, of course, travel and marketing was reduced. We stopped all international travel back in March (2020), since when I have been in my home office. “We immediately took the decision to stop speculating and to work on the basis that this is going to be with us until the end of the year and that there was going to be a second and maybe a third wave. From the beginning we told people not to delay anything. Don’t say ‘There is a lockdown now, let’s have a meeting when we come out of lockdown’ or ‘I will come and visit you after lockdown’. Don’t do any of that; find a way to do it virtually. “And the teams were great. They really saved the day by improvising, finding ways to do things, despite childcare, despite conditions at home. I heard of people who took a notebook computer home and balanced it on an ironing board so they could adjust the height to make it ergonomically correct. People would improvise. I saw chats where people would say ‘Hey, I’ve got to go and pick up the little one, please can you finish this order for me?’ and someone would reply ‘Yes, I’ll get onto that later’. The way people flexed to make things happen was just fantastic. “And we had everybody from the word go starting the day in a video call with their team, so they stayed connected.” Strong demand “Economically, it really worked well for us, which is hard to say because other industries have been hit hard. “Demand for cybersecurity has been strong, with people wanting to take care of security in this working from anywhere model, and we saw strong growth in all four quarters. The need for networking has also been strong, especially for anybody who has had to build out the network to support internet traffic – because internet traffic has really ballooned. The networking visibility side boomed, too, because people needed tools to monitor network traffic. “Then, on the collaboration platform side, the number one standout winner, despite others being stronger prior to the lockdown, has been Zoom. So, the Simon England