ONE of the region’s fastest growing business managed services specialists is targeting a string of new acquisitions – as it celebrates five years of growth.

Connectus Business Solutions is also planning to create new job roles to help support its ambitious expansion plans.

It comes as the company celebrates landing its 500th customer – a major landmark its CEO puts down to consistency of a compelling and obsessive approach to customer service.

Roy Shelton, the CEO of Connectus, which has offices in Doncaster and Salford, said: “Hitting the 500th customer mark is a fantastic achievement for the team. The key has been ensuring our 500th customer is treated in exactly the same way as the first one was. Consistency and quality of service drives us forward.”

Commenting on the last five years, Mr Shelton continued: “In 2019 we acquired an underperforming connectivity and VOIP Doncaster-based company that had been trading for 14 years. We set off with a brave and bold plan to modernise the company.

“Our aim was to develop a range of modern managed services and attract and service a minimum of 500 customers with a talented, well-trained customer centric engineering team. We wanted to build a reputation of mitigation cost, complexity, and risk for our clients.”

Five years later, as well as hitting the 500th customer mark, Connectus has developed an industry renowned managed services model based on a proven ethos to connect, protect and collaborate.

It has experienced double-digit growth for the past consecutive three years. It has acquired five new companies in the last four years and one client base, opened a new office in Salford, and created 19 new full time roles across project planning, engineering and client services.

Mr Shelton added: “We remain privately-owned with 100% of our shares held within our team. I’m also really proud that we have introduced a whole range of benefits for our team, including days off for birthdays, bring your dog to work scheme, free parking, training and development, and bonuses for recruiting a friend and staff awards.”

As part of their plans for organic and inorganic growth Mr Shelton said he was focused on continuing to develop a team that provides services which can “innovate and be disruptive in the marketplace”.

Whilst focussing on South Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and the wider M62 Corridor, Connectus is continuing to look even wider for collaborations.

Mr Shelton added: “Our aims are to continue adding value to our current customers and ensure that we provide them with world class service, support and client intimacy.

“We also have further planned acquisitions of other IT managed services companies which have a very similar range of products focussed on the Microsoft stack.

“Our focus remains on ensuring our customers have access to a great range of hosting, telephony, and cyber security managed services which are cost effective, robust and secure.”