Acora Accelerates SME Service Capability

Acora announces acquisition of Norwich-based Computer Service Centre Ltd

Acora is delighted to announce its acquisition of Norfolk-based managed services provider Computer Service Centre Ltd. The transaction, Acora’s seventh in five years, gives the group a powerful new regional presence and significantly enhances its services and capabilities for SME customers.

“It was clear from our initial conversations with Computer Service Centre that it would be a perfect fit for Acora. Like us, founders Christopher Cooper and Jeremy Clarke have spent 25 years building a best-in-class services business, with a strong emphasis on developing their people and delighting their clients. We’re very excited to be bringing them and their whole team into the Acora family, and pursuing our shared ambition to invest in and scale up their operations both regionally and nationwide in the years ahead.”

David Rabson, Chief Executive Officer, Acora

Acora is the UK’s number-one managed service provider: also ranked in the top five globally, it serves mid-market customers (500-5,000 users) across the world in a wide range of industries and sectors. Since its foundation 25 years ago, Computer Service Centre has focused firmly on the SME sector, with its customers mainly in the 50-250 users bracket. Its customer base is nationwide, but predominantly in East Anglia and the South East.

For Computer Service Centre’s customers, Acora’s scale, skills and capabilities provide assurance that their IT services will continue to meet their needs as their businesses evolve and grow. Acora, meanwhile, benefits from Computer Service Centre’s proven, highly structured practices and processes, which it plans to leverage across the group. The merger also provides fantastic opportunities to develop new, marketing-leading managed services, security and software development propositions specifically for SME customers.

The two businesses will continue operating under their respective brands in the short term, with all services brought under the Acora brand in future.

Computer Service Centre’s team of over 60 IT specialists will be joining Acora, taking total group staff numbers to well over 500. Founders Christopher Cooper and Jeremy Clarke will continue to manage and develop SME activities as part of Acora’s senior leadership team.

“After talking to Computer Service Centre for many months, we knew we’d found people who truly share our focus on quality and customer service. The team in Norfolk have built a best-in-class managed service offering; but like many businesses had reached the point where they needed the scale, resources and expertise of a larger partner to move to the next level. Together, we can extend their exemplary SME-focused service to customers nationwide. This is brilliant news for both our respective organisations, and our customers.”

David Rabson, Chief Executive Officer, Acora

“From the moment we were introduced to Acora, we knew we had found the perfect cultural fit. But this was only the start: once we got into the detail, we saw the full extent of the possibilities this relationship opened up for our customers and team members alike. We’ve always been clear that we’re totally focused on SMEs. We have no plans to change our operating model: this merger allows us to build on it, extend it across Acora’s existing SME customer base and give our larger customers access to enterprise solutions and services.”

Christopher Cooper, Computer Service Centre Co-Founder

“As Computer Service Centre has grown over the last 25 years, we’ve anticipated change and evolved, creating a comprehensive range of services for our customers locally and across the UK. Joining Acora is part of that evolution, and allows us to offer an even wider range of services and skills to our customers.”

Jeremy Clarke, Computer Service Centre Co-Founder

Acora is a UK-based IT managed services and technology partner. We provide comprehensive infrastructure and desktop support services, business software and cloud solutions to over 300 clients in the financial, legal, insurance, professional services and other sectors.

Computer Service Centre specialises in providing high-quality Managed Services to SME customers across a wide range of sectors. Based in Norwich, it has around 100 key customers in the south-east of England and East Anglia, and across the UK.