ConnectWise has acquired Service Leadership, the data-driven technology solution providers (TSPs) consulting firm.
With this acquisition, ConnectWise will pair its TSP software and services platform, the IT Nation community and business maturity and leadership coaching program with Service Leadership's value creation, financial performance and operational maturity benchmarking and best practices.
Service Leadership CEO Paul Dippell and his team will join the ConnectWise strategy organisation, reporting to Chris Timms, executive vice president of growth.
Dippell will continue to lead Service Leadership.
ConnectWise states the next frontier for TSPs is leveraging data to drive up their value and value to their customers and position themselves for their best exit, whether that is in the near future or 20 years.
The Service Leadership Index (S-L Index) is the largest scale, longest running and most accurate benchmark of TSP financial performance, operational maturity and value creation on a global basis, ConnectWise states.
According to ConnectWise, in today's modern landscape, business owners and decision makers that are succeeding in this difficult environment are doing so because they have advanced their operational maturity to build resilient, differentiated businesses.
With the acquisition of Service Leadership, ConnectWise intends to deliver a clear, data-driven path to higher performance, designed and tested by industry leading experts.
The S-L Index is the industry's gold-standard confidential TSP benchmarking service, and the SLIQ Operational Maturity Level tool enables TSP executives to play to their strengths, discover and drive areas of improvement and validate progress on their path to accelerated value creation, the company states.
Timms says, "We prioritised this acquisition as the TSP industry is experiencing significant disruption.
"At ConnectWise, we're big believers in the value of data analysis and this disruption is showing that understanding data is critical because it allows TSPs to make business and strategic decisions based upon empirical data and not speculation.
"Paul and his team have been massively successful in helping TSPs thrive. Their work has been truly impactful for entrepreneurs and were thrilled to welcome Paul, Brian O'Connell and the entire Service Leadership team to ConnectWise to drive success for all our partners."
Service Leadership founder and CEO Paul Dippell says, "We have been very fortunate to have great clients and to build the premier, data-driven TSP consulting firm with the leading TSP financial benchmark and business maturity platform worldwide.
"When we made the decision to seek a strategic acquisition, we were pleased to speak with almost a dozen key industry players. We came to recognise that ConnectWise was the right choice.
"They have the best vision for leveraging the S-L Index and SLIQ platforms together with the partner operational data they have, to produce opt-in analytics that will give their partners clear advantages in the marketplace.
"Like us, driving partner success is part of ConnectWise's core DNA. ConnectWise is the best place for our people and our clients both individual members and the peer group and coaching leaders we serve."
ConnectWise also commented on the company's committment to data integrity and security.
The data collected and analysed by Service Leadership is a key part of its value for partners, ConnectWise states.
Protecting that data and using it only as intended is of critical importance, and as such the company intends to continue the high standards of ethics set by the Service Leadership team.
The company states that the work to integrate Service Leadership insights into the ConnectWise platform will begin immediately, offering both new and enhanced Business Insights tools and functionality.
Existing and new members, and leading TSP industry peer group providers and coaches, will continue to utilise Service Leaderships current industry-leading offerings as they evolve.