How Logixal has made the transition from managed print service provider to IT managed services provide
Daniel Hoile, Founder and CEO of fast growing MSP Logixal, is fond of superlatives. His speech is peppered with words like ‘fantastic’, ‘brilliant’, ‘incredible’, often preceded by ‘absolutely’.
Is he always so exuberant or is it because when Technology Reseller calls he has just signed off the accounts for another record year?
With so much energy, it’s easy to see why Xerox offered him a dealership – only 10 minutes into his pitch – following his return to the UK from Australia where he had gone into semi-retirement after selling his stake in Chase Morran.
Having secured that vital relationship, Logixal opened for business on March 5, 2012, selling Xerox print devices and supporting them with its own service engineers. It did a little bit of IT and telephony, but at this stage 99% of its business came from print devices.
Logixal quickly established itself as a successful document solutions provider, consistently growing by between 5% and 12% a year. In 2017, it moved into new premises with four times as much space and a showroom. It became a Gold- level Xerox dealer. It was named Xerox Document Technology Partner of the Year and Xerox Finance Document Technology Partner of the Year. It achieved Gold accreditation from Investors in People.
“By 2019, we were flying,” says Hoile. “We were doing brilliantly throughout the whole of the UK. We were providing services to our clients in Europe, and we had a couple of global contracts. Then Covid hit and I made some massive, massive changes.”
Sliding doors
Hoile, who turned 50 in November, describes this as a ‘sliding doors moment’, when Logixal took a radically different path to the one it was on, committing itself to becoming a bone fide MSP with expertise in IT services, unified communications, enterprise content management and managed print, rather than a printer supplier that dabbled in other services.
In fact, Logixal was already moving in this direction. The pandemic just accelerated the process and gave Hoile impetus to invest in the systems, branding, staff and supplier relationships needed to compete in the MSP space.
This transition coincided with a period of renewal for Hoile, who had been experiencing excruciating back pain caused by a tumour on his spine. This was finally removed in March 2020, followed by two hip replacements, in August 2020 and February 2021.
Instead of taking a step back and selling the business, which he had considered doing when the prognosis of his condition was unclear, Hoile emerged from these crises with more determination than ever.
“I immediately invested a huge amount of money in transforming Logixal into an MSP. I put the wheels in motion to apply for ISO 9001, 14001, 27001 and 20000, which we’ve now got. I took on
an additional three or four IT specialists. I invested in Datto RMM and Autotask. We started dealing with wholesale network provider Virtual1 and took on the 3CX hosted phone system. In January 2021, we achieved Platinum Investors in People accreditation and then in June 2021 we launched our new branding, logo and website, highlighting our capabilities in the four key pillars of IT managed services, unified communications, managed print and document management.”
More choice
Since then, Logixal has continued to expand its product and services portfolio to give customers more choice across those four pillars.
“From a print perspective, we’ve now got relationships with Xerox, for their office machines, apps and Docushare document management system, and, since 2022, with Konica Minolta, which provides good, reliable kit and exceptional production machines. In December 2022, I took on Sharp for their AV and their touchscreen portfolio, which allows us to go into care homes and schools, and this January we added Ricoh because they also have DocuWare, which gives us another document management system.
“Strategically, I believe we’ve got the best product range in the market. We’re no longer just picking up contracts for print and PaperCut, but for four, five or six other software solutions. We’ve got relationships with Redstor and Acronis for data backup and recovery. We’re offering managed cybersecurity and cyber training through the Huntress platform. We’re selling Microsoft licences (including Teams and Copilot), leased lines, mobiles and mobile device management. We’ve got seven or eight different products that we can cross- sell into clients.”
This capability has powered rapid organic revenue growth, from £3.2 million in 2021 to £5 million in 2023, with an EBITDA of just under £500,000. This year, Hoile is aiming to grow another 40% to £7 million.
Starting over
“What we’ve done in the space of two years is incredible,” he says. “It’s been one of the most enjoyable, fun experiences I’ve ever had.”
At times it was also stressful, particularly in the early days of the transformation.
“With the new solutions, the rebrand, the new website, it did feel like starting a new business. Anyone who’s set up a business will know exactly what it’s like at the beginning – it’s exciting, it’s new, it’s fresh and you’ve got that vigour and that energy. But if you have to do it all over again, and it felt like I had to do it all over again, you really have to dig deep. People were working from home, you couldn’t reach new customers, equipment was very difficult to get hold of. It’s only in the last six months that I’ve felt we are back to pre-Covid conditions.”
Hoile attributes much of Logixal’s success in this period to the partners that helped ease its transformation, notably Kaseya/Datto for its Autotask PSA, Duo authentication, cybersecurity training portal and software and services and, more recently, ECI for its service platform.
In-house expertise
Another factor was the decision to build extensive IT capabilities and expertise in-house, rather than relying on services provided by the likes of Xerox, Ricoh and Konica Minolta that over the last decade have all developed an IT services offering.
“Both Xerox and Ricoh approached me about using their IT services, but by then I was doing it in-house and I believe our IT service is far superior to what they offer,” Hoile says.
Because of its self-reliance, Logixal can choose best-of-breed solutions – soon to include robotic process automation services that Xerox is bringing over from America and which Hoile hopes to add to his in-house capabilities. It has also enabled it to develop a differentiated offering, particularly around service and support.
“Everyone has a service offering, and customers are exploiting this by driving down prices. Our autonomy has allowed us to avoid getting into a race to zero by introducing a choice of four service levels – supreme, ultra, ultimate and next level. If a customer is motivated by price, they can choose supreme, the equivalent of gold from anyone else. If their priority is quality of service, they can move up one or more levels. We are now able to have completely different conversations with our customers.”
The right people
Hoile adds that having, and retaining, the right people has been instrumental to the company’s success and is testament to the investment it has made in staff development since gaining Investors in People accreditation as early as 2014.
“Over the years, we’ve managed to hold on to an awful lot of our staff. One of our engineers we’ve had for 10 years. The rest we’ve had for seven. Nigel (Pashley), our Chief Finance Officer, has been with us for nine and a half years. Two of our key core telesales people have been with us for
10 and 12 years. The average employee retention within the business is at least four or five years.”
One person Hoile is delighted to have had with him over the last four years is Managing Director Mandeep Kandola. When Covid hit, he was ready to resign but Hoile shared his plans with him and persuaded him to stay, since when Kandola, like many of his colleagues, has developed extensive knowledge in IT and business transformation.
“The Mandeep of 2020 and the Mandeep of 2024 are worlds apart. The Mandeep of then would look at himself today and be amazed at what he has done, the skills he’s learnt and what he is capable of,” says Hoile.
The chances are Kandola will be developing many more skills in the future as Logixal embarks on the next stage of its transformation including an ambitious buy and build strategy.
“My ambition is to take the business to £100 million in the next five years,” says Hoile. “And I can’t see any reason why we won’t do that if we’ve got the right team, the right corporate finance people, if we do the right business, with the right EBITDA, and acquire the right companies. I haven’t done an acquisition yet, but I’d love to go on that journey. That’s my aspiration.”
In the meantime, Hoile continues to rejoice in his decision to transform Logixal from an MPS provider into an IT MSP. His only regret? That he didn’t do it sooner.
“One can always look back at things one might have done better or differently. In Logixal’s case, I only wish we had turned it into an MSP before COVID hit because then we would have been two or three years ahead of the game.”
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