News and Media
Certus and UtilityAP merge
August 2008
IBM business partners Certus Solutions and UtilityAP have announced they are merging their operations, creating one of New Zealand’s largest specialist IBM software and services partners, with over 50 staff located in key centres throughout the country.
Certus executive director and shareholder, Brian Allen, says the new combined company will operate under the Certus organisational structure, although the 18 UtilityAP staff will continue trading as UtilityAP while the two companies amalgamate resources and organise their regional presence.
“UtilityAP’s Auckland office will join with Certus at a single Auckland office early next year, and the combined group’s other resources will operate from Hamilton, New Plymouth, Wellington and Christchurch.”
Allen says the key driver behind the merger is the opportunity to bring together two organisations with niche product and industry expertise to form a unified practice offering a comprehensive range of IBM-based consulting and implementation services.
“UtilityAP is the only IBM-certified Maximo sales and support organisation in New Zealand. The expertise UtilityAP provides with the Maximo product makes a valuable and complementary addition to the market leading services Certus delivers across other IBM products such as FileNet, Domino and WebSphere.”
In 2007, analyst firm Gartner Inc. positioned IBM's Maximo asset management solution in the leaders quadrant in three of its reports, acknowledging its global presence and the fact that it has a large installed customer base, rich functionality and the ability to interface with a variety of ERP applications.
No staff changes will result from the merger, Allen says. Greg Woolley will continue as managing director of Certus. UtilityAP general manager Maarten van der Zeyden will continue to manage the UtilityAP team as an operating division within Certus.
Founded in 1999 to provide consulting and software implementation services to the New Zealand market, Certus is locally owned and managed and has been an IBM Premier Business Partner since 2002. Certus grew revenues 46% last year and expects to do so, in conjunction with UtilityAP, again this year.
“News of the merger is being received very positively by all interested parties,” Allen says. “UtilityAP customers welcome the opportunity to work with an organisation more than three times larger and offering a market leading service capability across all IBM software brands. Certus customers with Maximo service requirements can now deal with a single supplier across all IBM software brands.”
IBM New Zealand’s Software Group Manager, Phill Patton, says the merger is a logical and positive development.
“Certus already has great depth and breadth of IBM software service and support capability, being certified to supply and support all five of our key software brands: WebSphere, Information Management, Tivoli, Rational and Lotus. The merger of Certus and UtilityAP adds a market leading Maximo capability to the mix and will have positive outcomes for our customers,” Patton says.