Canon Business Services buys Australian Microsoft partner Satalyst

Australian Microsoft gold partner Satalyst has been acquired by the digital consulting and services wing of global print giant Canon – Canon Business Services – with a view to further expansion.

Canon Business Services has acquired the Perth-based Microsoft gold partner to bolster its application, security, data and AI capabilities. In operation for over 15 years, the capital injection will support Satalyst’s expansion from its primarily Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland customer base to the East Coast market.

The deal was made for an undisclosed sum and is effective from the beginning of the year. “Satalyst is an excellent strategic and technical fit that broadens our capabilities and supports our commitment to local innovation, businesses and services,” Canon Business Services CEO Luke Clark said.

Clark continued: “The business is aligned with our customer portfolio, and has enjoyed significant recent growth. We’re thrilled to have them join our family, growing our application, data and artificial intelligence capability while deepening our security offering.”

Boasting multiple gold competencies and advanced specialisations, Satalyst provides a comprehensive range of consulting and implementation services across Microsoft’s suite of cloud platforms – Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics 365. With state governments and other public and cross-industry private organisations among its clientele, the company has achieved growth of 120 percent over the past two years.

“Our business has been on a massive growth trajectory for the past few years,” said Satalyst CEO Todd Elliott. “We’re reaching the stage where we need to significantly evolve and scale our operating model to keep that trajectory. We’re delighted to join forces with Canon Business Services and look forward to playing our role in achieving future growth plans. Collectively we’re a big, new local player in the market, and that’s exciting.”

Part of the printing giant’s Oceania Group, Canon Business Services ANZ was formed in 2019 via the merger of earlier acquired subsidiaries Harbour IT and Converga. The professional services group provides digital transformation, business process automation, IT managed services and cloud solutions through its headcount of 1,700-plus spanning ANZ and the Philippines – the former of which it says is a key strategic region for Canon.

The company said that its Canon Business Services business had achieved double-digit customer growth over the last twelve months within the financial services, education and building sectors, and has been investing heavily in local sales and marketing expertise with a 40 per cent increase in hires across those departments in the past year. Its three key areas of focus are in cloud, security and automation.

“This will be an exciting year of growth for Canon Business Services,” said Dave Yoshida, Managing Director of Canon Australia. “We are uniquely positioned to support our customers in their digital transformation journeys. Bringing together Canon’s leading reputation in business printing, with the combined services of Canon Business Services and Satalyst, I see strong synergies for our customers.”