Manufacturing & Supply Chain

DataSolutions, the specialist IT distributor, has announced that it has had its best ever year, growing group revenues by 34% to €40 million for year-end 31st March 2018. The company has doubled its business in the past three years and is on-track to grow to €80 million by 2021.

DataSolutions expanded its operations to the UK at the beginning of 2016, investing over €5 million in the expansion, taking on new employees and strengthening its partnerships in the market. The UK market now accounts for 30% of DataSolutions business and the company expects this to grow to 50% in the next three years.

The company is developing an expansion fund to continue the growth in both the Irish and UK markets. Part of this expansion fund will be ear-marked for acquisitions as DataSolutions seeks to acquire complementary businesses in the UK and Ireland.

Michael O’Hara (pictured), group managing director of DataSolutions, said: “2017 was DataSolutions’ best year yet and it’s extremely positive to see our business continue to grow as we  work towards our goal of doubling revenues to €80 million in the next three years. After almost three decades of growth in Ireland, it’s been a novel, exciting but also a challenging experience growing from a start-up position in the UK to build our brand there. Establishing a foothold in the UK opens huge possibilities for us and doing so in advance of Brexit is something that we feel is a smart step in future-proofing the business from whatever the final outcome may be.”

Key to DataSolutions’ ongoing success is its continued commitment to investing in disruptive, high-growth sectors. The company recently announced a €105,000 investment to help partners in Ireland and the UK to drive sales leads for cloud and Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI).

The distributor is also benefitting from a number of industry trends. Firstly, as cyber-attacks on businesses and other organisations continue to increase in frequency and sophistication, organisations are increasing their investment in information security to protect their assets. According to the research* commissioned by DataSolutions, more than three quarters (76%) expect to increase their cybersecurity spend in 2018. In addition, as more organisations look to digitally transform their processes they are increasingly moving their IT to the cloud, which requires significant investment in redesigned architecture.

Michael O’Hara continued: “We have ambitious growth targets for the Irish and UK markets. To achieve these goals, we are developing an expansion fund that will allow us to selectively seek acquisitions of complementary businesses in both markets.

“Undoubtedly, our team has been at the heart of our success; they are our most valuable asset and we couldn’t have achieved this goal without them. We set ambitious targets and our team keeps delivering. Both our Irish and UK partners expect the same high level of service and professionalism we have always delivered. They also expect strong marketing support and this has helped to set us apart from our competitors in the market as marketing has always been one of our core strengths.”

DataSolutions has continued to lead in the area of cyber security. Irish organisations are more and more concerned about growing threats and are actively seeking out sophisticated ways of defending their data from cybercriminals. DataSolutions is focused on providing innovative new technologies to secure companies’ assets and IT infrastructures and capitalise on the opportunity for growth that this offers.

For businesses wanting to learn more about the latest cyber security trends, DataSolutions will host its sixth annual Secure Computing Forum in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Thursday, 20^th September 2018. As one of Ireland’s largest cybersecurity events more than 400 IT and business professionals are expected to attend. This year’s forum will focus on putting cybersecurity at the heart of business strategy and look at the ongoing threat posed by ransomware. For more information visit https://www.securecomputingforum.ie.