There’s going to be a revolution in the way people procure software, said Kingsmill in an interview with Computer Business Review. It will result in a change from the conventional purchase and licensing model to a ‘pay for what you need’ approach.
We are keen to take a relatively mature business model and migrate it to provide a broader application offering to our customers, he said. At present, the majority of Netstore’s revenue comes from its IT managed services operation, which provides hosting and management services around web and business applications, as well as desktops and collaborative applications.
Kingsmill, who was managing director for UK and Ireland at SAP before joining Netstore, said the company would be focusing on niche areas in the public sector, transportation, and financial services markets. We’re looking for those pieces of work that big companies want provided on a local basis, he said. Examples include functions around payments and policy management, where interaction with customers at a local level is important.
Kingsmill is taking over as Netstore CEO from Paul Barry-Walsh, who will remain with the company as executive chairman. Barry-Walsh had been in temporary charge of Netstore since the resignation of former CEO Neil Lloyd last October. According to Kingsmill, Barry-Walsh will be involved with the more strategic side of the company’s business, while Kingsmill himself will be in charge of the day-to-day operations.
Barry-Walsh will also be heavily involved with Netstore’s acquisition strategy. The company has been aggressive in this area over the last few years, completing five deals between April 2003 and October 2005. More recently, Netstore had a bid for larger rival ICM Computer Group rejected at the end of last year.
We are still hungry for the right kind of companies, said Kingsmill. The broader plan is to make smaller, more complementary acquisitions when they come up but, if a larger opportunity arises, we will take advantage of it. We remain predatory.
