After years of operating as separate entities under common ownership, a pair of fast-growing Ottawa tech firms have officially joined forces in a bid to present a unified front to customers.
Decisive Technologies, which makes custom IT solutions for data centres and other clients, and cloud and cybersecurity services provider BriteSky Technologies announced this week they merged effective Aug. 31 and will now operate under the name Decisive Group.
Decisive CEO Mitchell Carkner said the move is largely aimed at streamlining the firms’ sales and marketing process.
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Sales staff typically worked for both companies, he noted, but customers would often end up dealing with multiple reps from both firms depending on what services they wanted. Clients will now have a single point of contact to discuss IT, cloud and cybersecurity services.
“It got to a point where, ‘OK, we need to simplify this from a branding perspective,’” said Carkner, who previously led both firms. “Really, it’s just about simplifying that message to the customer.”
The two companies have a combined 72 employees, up 25 since the start of the pandemic as the widespread shift to remote work and a surge in online shopping has put more pressure on customers’ wireless networks.
Carkner said the merger will likely generate a few cost savings in areas such as billing. But as the battle for skilled tech talent intensifies, he said the move could have a much more valuable side benefit when it comes to enticing the best and brightest workers to join Decisive’s team.
“We think by doing this amalgamation, our organization will make a little bit more sense to people we’re trying to recruit,” he said. “At the board level, down to the employee level, talking to customers, everyone was in agreement that this is something we should be doing.”
Founded in 2001, Decisive Technologies has twice made OBJ’s list of Ottawa’s fastest-growing companies. BriteSky, meanwhile, was incorporated in 2013 and just missed making the 2019 edition of the city’s top-growing firms, finishing mere percentage points behind its sister company in 11th place.
