UK-based Transparity Solutions Limited has announced today that it has acquired Microsoft pure play development specialist Ballard Chalmers. The acquisition adds extensive additional skills to the focused Microsoft Cloud Partner in relation to development of modern applications on the Microsoft Azure platform.
Transparity currently employ over 150 staff across the UK and are focused on becoming the number one go-to partner in the UK for Microsoft Cloud Services. Backed by Beech Tree Private Equity, Transparity specialises in providing consultancy and managed services on Azure, Microsoft Security, Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform and currently hold 16 Gold accreditations and 9 Advanced Specialisations with Microsoft, alongside the highly acclaimed “Azure Expert MSP” status.
Transparity plan to grow to in excess of 300 staff in the next two years, focusing on continued organic growth and strategic acquisitions such as Ballard Chalmers to widen its reach in providing Microsoft technologies by market leading people to its customers.
Founded by Andrew Chalmers and Geoff Ballard, Ballard Chalmers are a medium-sized Microsoft consultancy providing custom software development on the Microsoft Azure platform, focused on the modernisation of legacy business applications, and developing custom integrations between multiple software platforms in the cloud. Based in the South of England with customers throughout the UK, Ballard Chalmers have been transforming businesses since 2005 and are focused on building long term-relationships with their clients.
The combined business will integrate gradually over time and will bring benefits to customers of both organisations. For Transparity clients, Ballard Chalmers provides significant expertise on the re-development and modernisation of legacy applications, providing customers the opportunity to migrate to optimised, cloud-native solutions on Microsoft Azure. This is the natural move for many Transparity clients who have already completed a “lift and shift” of their legacy datacentre to Azure and now want the cost, performance, and resilience benefits associated with re-factoring their applications for the Cloud.
For Ballard Chalmers clients, the broader range of Transparity’s capabilities on the Microsoft Cloud platform become instantly available, particularly on Microsoft Azure with its extensive infrastructure skills as an Expert MSP partner. Transparity also has its own in-house developed Cloud Management Platform for Azure which will bring significant benefits in cost management, visibility, and automation of run-rate technical activities for its clients.
David Jobbins (CEO, Transparity) said: “We are delighted to welcome the Ballard Chalmers staff to Team Transparity and the extensive experience they bring in app modernisation. Since Transparity started, our incredible team has been the key to phenomenal growth as a pure play Microsoft partner. We are looking at likeminded acquisitions such as this to strengthen the core areas of our Microsoft strategy.
“Andrew and Geoff have built an excellent Microsoft-based development business, with an employee-focused culture very similar to Transparity. Our culture differentiates us, and any acquisition we make will put people at the heart of our decision making and subsequent integration processes.”
Andrew Chalmers (MD, Ballard Chalmers) said: “Having worked in partnership with the Transparity team for some time, we knew that Transparity would be the right partner to work with in taking Ballard Chalmers forward to the next level. We have recognised for a while now that whilst we are great at what we do, customers are regularly asking us to manage their transition to Azure end-to-end and being able to join Transparity means we can offer the whole stack from platform design, best practice governance, datacentre migration, application modernisation and then provide a full 24x7 managed service on the whole solution. I am delighted that we are making this next step and for Geoff and I to be continuing the journey and we are grateful to Transparity for seeing our potential, and the strengths of our technical team.“
Adam Rudd (Beech Tree) said: “We are pleased to see Transparity make this acquisition with Ballard Chalmers. Microsoft Azure is a significant focus area for the business and having achieved Expert MSP status and now adding this extensive development capability, it is very exciting to be able to take customers on the whole journey from legacy infrastructure to cloud native applications.”
“It’s good to see that we are now starting to add strategic acquisitions as this will only help the business grow its capabilities even further, adding value to our customers.”
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Natalie Batchelor-Roles
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