It's nice when things line up: when the puzzle piece fits, when the lid seals the jar…when two complementary organizations team up to level up!
On August 1st, Collabrance was acquired by The 20, marking the start of a new era and the next chapter in our company's growth journey. View the full press release here.
The purpose of this blog post is to make sure our service provider network is in the know. Why did Collabrance join forces with The 20? And, going forward, what does this mean for you, our valued customers?
Same name. Same tools. Even better service.
We're keeping our name, our brand, our Cedar Rapids, Iowa headquarters, and our integration-rich tool stack.
We've worked hard to make "Collabrance" synonymous with "service excellence," and holding onto the Collabrance brand is our way of letting you know: We're not jumping ship.
What we are doing is hitching our wagon to a very powerful engine called The 20…
Meet The 20
The 20 is an organization that does a lot of what Collabrance does as a master managed services provider. They've been helping MSPs and other IT providers conquer 'the business side' of IT services for over a decade now.
With a 24/7 U.S.-based help desk, a suite of scalable solutions and processes, and collective expertise like you won't find anywhere else in the IT channel, The 20 promises to be a growth-minded provider's "easy button" – and the hundreds of successful MSPs in their group are a powerful proof of concept. More simply, The 20's approach to growing and scaling an IT company gets results.
Meet Tim
Behind The 20's success is the company's founder and CEO, Tim Conkle. After growing his own large and profitable MSP business, Tim founded The 20 to help other IT business owners do the same – but without the decade of trial-and-error Tim went through before finding the right formula.
The Collabrance leadership team instantly hit it off with Tim, who is the definition of a people person. Tim's love of people shines through in everything he does, and the culture he has built at The 20 is a cornerstone of the company's success. Partnering with The 20 made great business sense for Collabrance, but what really sealed the deal were The 20's culture, values, and people.
In a recent interview, Tim touched on this as well. "If I've learned anything in my career, it's that getting smart and driven people together in the same room is a recipe for magic."
We're looking forward to making magic with The 20 and putting our heads together to help the solution providers we serve achieve more growth and better work-life balance.
Why now?
This is a great question. After all, Collabrance has been growing – and helping customers do the same. Why make this move now?
Simply put, it’s because we're not satisfied – and we suspect you aren't either. Many of the customers we serve are office technology dealers with relatively young managed IT services divisions. These organizations are hungry for growth. They have the talent, a solid foundation of business processes, and most importantly, an unwavering commitment to service excellence – to making their customers' lives and jobs easier and more productive.
The missing piece? Sales and marketing prowess combined with deep industry knowledge.
This is where The 20 comes in. A longtime leader in the MSP space, The 20's rich understanding of the IT channel is second to none. We are incredibly excited about the growth their expertise and experience will unlock for our network of service providers. The next level is calling, and with The 20's support, we're more than ready to answer that call.
What's in it for YOU?
In short, A LOT. Ownership by The 20 gives our network of service providers more resources to drive growth and profitability. Here are some of the value-adds coming your way:
- Sales training resources
- 24x7 service desk coverage
- Improved service delivery, including Mac support
- Billing and pricing simplicity
- Broader community and national footprint of dealers and partners
- Backed by a company solely focused on the IT channel
These additional resources and support promise to help your business achieve the growth that's yours for the taking.
Relationships – the heart of the matter
The 20 is based on a rock-solid foundation of synergies and complementary processes. To ditch the jargon, it just makes good business sense.
But deals that look good on paper can fail if there isn't a human element – real relationships built on trust and mutual respect. We take our customer relationships seriously at Collabrance, because at the end of the day, they're the only currency that really matters.
As we spent time with The 20's leadership – observing how they treat each other and how they talk about their team – this experience gave us full confidence that we'd found a company that cares just as much as we do. This partnership is priceless – and, mark our words, it will be the difference-maker going forward.
Here's to a new era of continuous improvement, service excellence, and unprecedented growth! Thank you for being here.
