Solvera acquires Winnipeg computer company

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/01/2020 (2184 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SOLVERA Solutions, a leading Western Canadian IT consulting firm, has acquired the Winnipeg company Apptius Computer Solutions.

All 11 Apptius staffers will be joining Solvera’s Winnipeg office which was at about 35 people before the acquisition.

Hal Ryckman, an IT consulting industry veteran and Solvera’s Winnipeg partner, said the deal is not likely the last Solvera will be doing.

‘We think the industry is poised for a period of consolidation and we intend to be buyers’– Hal Ryckman

“We think the industry is poised for a period of consolidation and we intend to be buyers,” Ryckman said. “We have a very significant strategy for growth and expansion both organic, natural growth in our client base and also through an active M & A (merger and acquisitions) program.”

Solvera was formed in 2005 in Regina and Ryckman joined the firm and opened its Winnipeg office in 2011. He is now heading up the company’s M & A strategy.

Jim Ostertag and Reg Robinson, Solvera’s co-CEOs, said in a prepared statement, “Apptius is very well regarded in the marketplace and the addition of (their) highly skilled team strengthens Solvera’s ability to meet client needs in Winnipeg and across western Canada.”

Ryckman said Apptius has a very strong development team that has done substantial work with public sector clients here, for instance.

Solvera does not specifically target any vertical market. Its client base is mostly larger Tier I companies and public sector organizations like crown corporations and health care organizations.

Apptius has been around for about 18 years. It specialized in doing custom software development on the the Microsoft platform as well, it became one of Winnipeg’s top providers of outsourcing computer technology personnel on a contract basis.

John Thistlethwaite, the chief financial officer and senior consultant at Apptius, said, “… we will now have the added advantage of Solvera’s broader field of knowledge and resources. We look forward to this new chapter in our careers and the new and exciting opportunities ahead.”

With offices in Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Calgary and Victoria, Solvera has about 250 employees across Western Canada offering a range of services like application development and support, IT strategy, business transformation, cloud migration and a whole range of IT consulting services.

Ryckman said there is no shortage of demand for the services of a company like Solvera even while the large IT platform companies like Google, Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP and others purport to do everything for everybody.

“Many companies uses products or services from more than one (of those large platform software companies) and our clients need to know how they all fit, how to put it all together and what is the best fit for each company,” Ryckman said. “That is what we do on the strategic side. We help companies figure it all out.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca