iManage Work cloud deployments increase 34%; revenue growth split equally between law firms and corporate legal departments  

London, U.K. – 14 January 2020 – In 2019,Ascertus Limited has achieved significant all round business growth including revenue, headcount, new partnerships and expansion into Europe, the company announced today. With revenue increase split equally between law firms and corporate legal departments, the key driver for the business upsurge has been a sizeable move by customers (34%) to the iManage Cloud, underpinned by the need for improved security, built-in business continuity and reduced maintenance overheads. Ascertus provides information and document lifecycle management solutions to professional services organisations and corporate legal departments across industry sectors in EMEA.

“The cloud has truly come into its own as a technology deployment platform,” Jon Wainwright, Sales Director at Ascertus Limited, explained. “In 2019 we have seen major take up of iManage Cloud by corporate legal departments of all sizes and in the law firm space, by mid-tier organisations. This clearly signals a maturity in mindset – cost isn’t the only consideration for cloud adoption, elements such as disaster recovery, in-built security and the advantages of always being on the latest version of the solution has been deemed more important. We see this trend and line of thought across Europe.”

Ascertus has not only reinforced its presence in the UK, the company has strengthened its foothold in Europe, especially in Ireland and the Nordic and Scandinavian countries. Additionally, Ascertus has made significant inroads into the pharmaceutical, finance and insurance sectors.  

2019 saw the company enter into partnerships with Xakia, a provider of matter management systems for in-house legal departments; DMC Canotec, a supplier of managed printer services and document management systems; and Smart Time, a provider of timekeeping software for lawyers. 

Wainwright added, “Our aim is to offer customers the most comprehensive set of solutions across the document and information management lifecycle and so although iManage is our key business partner, we are always looking to strengthen our relationships with our other current partners, plus enter into meaningful partnerships with suppliers of complementary solutions. This approach enables us to design and tailor solutions that are best suited to customers’ business requirements.” 

Ascertus grew its headcount by 15 percent in key roles such as professional services, support, pre-sales and training. These roles are key to ensuring a superior client service and customised and efficient solution delivery. 

In 2020, Ascertus will concentrate efforts on further improving the services and support the company provides to existing clients. For example, Ascertus customers will benefit from a new client portal, supported by Hubshare, a collaboration and secure file sharing platform.  

About Ascertus Limited

Ascertus provides information and document lifecycle management consultancy, software solutions and IT support services to law firms and corporate legal departments. Based in Central London, the company offers a full range of professional services – from consultancy, business analysis and project management; to software implementation, training, documentation and technical support – delivering bespoke email, contract and document management solutions in on-premises and privately hosted environments. The company has successfully delivered and managed some of the largest iManage Work installations at customer sites in the UK. For more information, visit: www.ascertus.com.

Broadstone, one of the UK’s leading employee benefits and pensions consulting businesses, has announced the acquisition of 3HR Benefits Consultancy. This move represents Broadstone’s third acquisition in as many months following the recently announced purchases of Liverpool-based CS Financial Solutions and Thomson Dickson Consulting located in Glasgow.

Founded in 2008, London-based 3HR Benefits Consultancy is a subsidiary of 3HR plc and provides specialist employee benefits and international private medical insurance (IPMI) support and services to more than 200 Japanese, Korean and Chinese blue chip companies in respect of their UK and European expatriate employees. The company is the leading UK benefits consulting firm specialising in the Far Eastern market and dominates the sector with a number of Fortune 500 clients.

Commenting on this latest acquisition, Broadstone Group CEO, Grant Stobart, said: “As part of our strategy to grow all areas of our business we must identify and then capitalise on emerging trends and opportunities. This is another outstanding acquisition for Broadstone and adds further scale in a buoyant sector. 3HR Benefits Consultancy is one of the UK’s leading providers of specialist IPMI and employee benefits services to Far Eastern groups operating in the UK and Europe and the respect and authority they have built up in this sector is very impressive. Acquiring this niche business with its quality client base and experienced staff will provide clients with access to Broadstone’s wider service offering.

“2019 continues to be a year of targeted but vigorous expansion for Broadstone,” concluded Stobart.

Terence Bennett, CEO at 3HR plc, said: “Over the past few months we have been actively seeking ways of further developing our benefits consultancy and expatriate medical insurance business and have now found the ideal partner in Broadstone. This deal is an important step in the evolution of our business and will ensure that we can continue to further strengthen the service we offer our clients and the personal and professional development of all of our staff.”

Xavier Woodward, from Broadstone’s private equity parent, Livingbridge, commented: “This acquisition further strengthens Broadstone’s offering and provides access to a new client base. We are delighted to welcome 3HR Benefits Consulting on board as we continue to execute on a strong M&A pipeline.”

Strategic acquisition to broaden Node4’s reach in the Software-as-a-Service vertical

Derby, UK, May 15 2019 – Node4, the UK-based hybrid cloud, data centre and communications managed services provider, has today announced it has acquired virtual private cloud provider, Secura. The fifth and largest acquisition made in Node4’s history, will see Secura become part of its already comprehensive portfolio of services, and strengthen its managed cloud hosting offering to the Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) market.

Through its secure, scalable virtual private cloud offering, Secura has built an impressive presence in the independent software vendor (ISV) market, with over 70% of its customer base operating in this vertical. The deal presents a huge opportunity for both Node4 and Secura to enhance the range of services they offer to both existing and new clients. Secura customers will benefit from Node4’s broader range of services including database and DevOps management via Node4’s N4Stack division, as well as accessing Node4’s enterprise grade infrastructure service.

The acquisition of Secura, which was recently named VMware’s VCPP Cloud Partner of the Year 2019, will provide Node4 with a market-leading cloud offering to the SaaS vertical, and add within the region of 35 highly skilled employees and over 110 customers. Node4 will also benefit from Secura’s rapidly growing Azure Public Cloud services which complements the significant investment Node4 has made in its N4Stack Azure offering. Led by its highly experienced executive team, Secura has achieved impressive organic growth rates of over 40% year on year and is forecast to hit close to £5m of revenues for their year ending June 2019. With the addition of Secura, Node4’s total annualised run-rate revenues will be close to £55m with £20m coming from cloud services.

The Secura management team will remain with the business and continue to deliver on their proven growth strategy with the support of Node4. The acquisition also comes at a time where Secura has recently increased its presence in Manchester with the opening of a new office, a key geographic region where Node4 has been looking to expand its footprint. Together they see a major opportunity for a range of customers across the North West to benefit from their exceptional range of value-added services.

“We are delighted to welcome Secura to the Node4 family and look forward to working together to offer our customers a wider range of services,” said Andrew Gilbert, Node4, CEO. “We’ve worked hard to find a business that is aligned with us both strategically and culturally and believe that Secura ticks all the right boxes for us. As we look to continue to grow Node4, it is important to work with those who can complement our offerings, and this is being achieved by adding Secura’s services to our portfolio.”

“We are tremendously excited to be acquired by Node4,” said Secura CEO, Ollie Beaton. “Node4 and Secura are a fantastic fit and we can see huge benefits for all our customers in the expanded range of solutions and expertise we can offer. Node4 has really exciting growth plans for the managed cloud hosting market and we’re delighted to be part of them.”

Node4 was advised on the transaction by Pinsent Mason LLP (Legal), PwC (Financial and Tax Due Diligence), Deloitte (Tax Structuring), whilst the Vendors were advised by KPMG.


About Node4
Established in 2004, Node4 is an innovative and trusted Managed Services Provider that offers unparalleled end-to-end IT infrastructure and services, technical expertise and innovation, all fully managed and flexibly deployed across the company’s own infrastructure fabric.

Its Services Gateway provides access to a powerful suite of technology solutions such as connectivity, cloud and data centre hosting, public cloud, data services, collaboration and security which enable the design and delivery of complex technology infrastructures for UK businesses in every sector.

Node4 owns and manages data centres located in Derby, Leeds and Northampton, as well as having dedicated space in a Slough data centre and points of presence in London and Manchester. They are all connected via our national fibre network which has interconnects to all major UK carriers. It is headquartered in Derby with other offices in London, Reading and Nottingham.

Node4 delivers intelligent, efficient and scalable hybrid IT solutions underpinned by exceptional Service-as-a-Standard for customers focussed on transforming their businesses to succeed in the digital age.

www.node4.co.uk

Creates Market Differentiation by Combining Embedded Device Security with Purpose-Built, Third-Party Certificate Issuance and Lifecycle Management

ROSELAND, N.J. – May 9, 2019 – Sectigo (formerly Comodo CA), the world’s largest commercial Certificate Authority (CA) and a leader in web security solutions, has acquired Icon Labs, a provider of cross-platform security solutions for embedded OEMs and Internet of Things (IoT) device manufacturers. Sectigo’s expanded IoT Security Platform will provide device manufacturers, systems integrators, enterprises using connected IoT, and entire interoperable ecosystems, with the industry-first ability to use purpose-built IoT issuance from a trusted third-party CA. The platform will seamlessly harden device security with embedded tools to protect the integrity of data in transit and at rest, as well as ensure the integrity of all executed code by leveraging multi-phase secure boot.

IHS Markit forecasts that the IoT market will grow from an installed base of about 15 billion devices in 2015 to more than 75 billion in 2025. As the market grows, attacks rise and securing connected devices across the ecosystem becomes more imperative. SonicWall’s 2019 Cyber Threat Report found that the number of detected attacks against IoT devices and networks escalated to 32.7 million in 2018 – a 217 percent increase.

“Icon Labs has been growing and addressing this challenge by securing the device market for more than two decades. For the first time, embedded security technology is combined with device authentication and identity management to provide customers with a complete IoT security platform that solves many of the challenges presented by the rising number of threats,” said Bill Holtz, CEO, Sectigo.

Sectigo provides highly scalable and reliable certificate issuance for connected IoT devices used in many verticals. Sectigo IoT Manager, part of the company’s expanded IoT Security Platform, provides specialized management capability for trust interoperability, so that connected IoT device vendors, service integrators, or consortiums can securely build out, scale and manage their device ecosystems. The technology leverages automation via both open source and proprietary technologies to ensure secure provisioning and lifecycle management.

Sectigo IoT Security Platform

With the acquisition of Icon Labs, Sectigo is the first trusted third-party Certificate Authority to offer end-to-end security for every connected device from the point of manufacture and throughout the entire lifecycle. Icon Labs’ security modules can be used as point products to meet specific security requirements or as an integrated foundation for developing a secure device by securing the device itself rather than relying on security at the perimeter.

Benefits of the Sectigo IoT Security Platform include:

– Secure Boot – Provides embedded software APIs that ensure software integrity from the initial “power on” to application execution and enable developers to securely code sign boot loaders, microkernals, operating systems, application code, and data. Upon system startup, Sectigo verifies the integrity of code and data before execution and before permitting installation or updates. Sectigo also stores a secure audit log for system boot processing and other services.
– Embedded Firewall – Works with Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS) and Linux to configure filtering rules and offers deep packet inspection for industrial protocols, including CAN bus.
– TPM Integration – Offers certificate storage integration in Trusted Platform Module (TPM) compliant secure elements.
– Secure Remote Updates and Alerts – Ensures security components have not been modified, offers authentication from the OEM, and issues alerts if firmware validation fails.
– On-Premise CA – Expands Sectigo cloud-based CA to also enable an on-premise CA, providing role-based user management, high-performance issuance on site, and remote device audits. This allows signed device manifests to be added during manufacturing, then remotely validated.

“By joining Sectigo, Icon Labs is contributing to a powerful advancement in connected device security. We are securing IoT devices and the convergence of traditional IT systems and Operational Technology (OT); that is, the hardware and software that detects or causes changes in physical processes through direct monitoring and/or control of physical devices,” said Alan Grau, Founder of Icon Labs.

“With the addition of Icon Labs, Sectigo ensures overall system integrity by enabling complete visibility and control over each IoT device lifecycle and providing embedded technologies to further secure the integrity of the device, its identity, and its data,” explained Jason Soroko, CTO of IoT, Sectigo. “Now the experts in protecting digital identities are also the specialists in utilizing and protecting digital identities in constrained embedded environments found in IoT devices used in every operational vertical, from automotive to healthcare, and from industrial control systems to smart cities.”

Icon Labs, which will maintain its own brand as a subsidiary of Sectigo, is the second company acquired by Sectigo as the company accelerates its growth and expands into new segments. In August 2018, Sectigo acquired CodeGuard, Inc., a global leader in website maintenance, backup, and disaster recovery. CodeGuard has since expanded internationally, achieving more than 45% YoY growth in 2018.

About Icon Labs

Icon Labs provides cross-platform security solutions for embedded OEMs and IoT device manufacturers, as well as professional services to assist customers with production, integration, customization, and development of unique solutions. Founded in 1992 and based in Iowa, Icon Labs is privately held, with more than 100 customers worldwide using the company’s intelligent, secure, networked devices. Icon Labs products have been deployed in applications including communication infrastructure equipment, transportation systems, satellite communications, and industrial control devices.

About Sectigo

Sectigo (formerly Comodo CA) provides web security products that help customers protect, monitor, recover, and manage their web presence and connected devices. As the largest commercial Certificate Authority trusted by enterprises globally for more than 20 years, and more than 100 million SSL certificates issued in over 200 countries, Sectigo has the proven performance and experience to meet the growing needs of securing today’s digital landscape. For more information, visit www.sectigo.com.

New York, 13th March 2018: Augentius, the specialist global service provider to private equity and real estate funds, has appointed Nancy Vailakis, a well-known figure in the US alternative asset management industry, as its Business Development Director for the Americas. The move follows another successful year of 19% growth and Augentius’ continued expansion in this region.

Nancy brings with her a wealth of industry knowledge acquired through various roles including Vice President of Investor Relations at Cerberus Capital Management as well as Blue Mountain Capital Management. She is also involved with many non-profit and professional organizations including High Water Women and 100 Women in Finance.

 

Nancy Vailakis, Business Development Director, Augentius commented: “It’s a pleasure to join Augentius, an established international business. I’m thrilled to be a part of a global leader with a reputation for delivering high quality client service. Augentius’ focus on technological innovation and smart, thoughtful product evolution in response to market need has served them well and I’m eager to work with such a solid team to grow the business here in the Americas.”

Hugh Stacey, Executive Director, Augentius added: “We are delighted that Nancy has joined us. I have no doubt that her 14 years’ industry experience as a business development, marketing and investor relations professional, will make her a perfect candidate to cultivate Augentius’ continued expansion in the US.”

 

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About Augentius

The Augentius Group is one of the largest specialist independent providers of administration and depositary services to Private Equity and Real Estate managers in the world. Augentius is a trusted advisor and service provider to private equity and real estate funds, and has been helping clients minimise the burden and risk of fund administration for more than 12 years. We have built our success by delivering an exemplary service based on our twin commitments to client service and attention to detail. We combine local service with global delivery, with offices in key jurisdictions that enable us to provide clients with a consistent level of service excellence and expertise, however they choose to structure their funds. Because we focus on private equity and real estate funds, we understand the very specific requirements of investors and fund managers and support clients at every stage of the fund lifecycle. We put our clients at the heart of our business, so they can put investors at the heart of theirs.

http://www.augentius.com

 

For further information please contact:

Ellie Jackson, Aspectus, on behalf of Augentius Group Limited

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 (0)20 7242 8867

Aeriandi, a leading provider of secure voice services and NICE, a global leader in cloud and on-premises enterprise software solutions, including advanced customer analytics, have announced a strategic partnership. Under the terms of the partnership, Aeriandi’s customers will have access to an easy to implement speech analytics solution that can analyse both real-time and archived calls. Hosted in Aeriandi’s secure cloud platform, NICE’s Nexidia Analytics solution complements the company’s secure voice payment and voice recording solutions.

The contact centre environment is becoming increasingly complex as organisations balance the need to deliver a first-class customer experience with ever-tightening industry guidelines, such as those regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The ability to analyse voice calls, either in real-time or using historical recordings, helps address these needs.  Analytics provides valuable insights into customer behaviour patterns, preferences, and needs – all of which can be used to help organisations optimise the customer experience.  It can also be used to ensure complete compliance as calls can be monitored to ensure call agents include all the necessary information during their conversations.

Tom Harwood, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Aeriandi, said: “Contact centres are under increasing pressure, especially when it comes to security principles like PCI DSS, MiFID, GDPR, Dodd-Frank and so on.  As the volume of customer interactions via the contact centre continues to grow, that pressure is only going to go up.  NICE’s Nexidia Analytics solution can help alleviate some of the burden by giving contact centres an added layer of insight.  The proposition for our customers is simple: if your voice recordings are stored in the cloud – why not analyse them there too?”

Miki Migdal, president of the NICE Enterprise Product Group, commented: “The NICE Nexidia Analytics solution sets a new standard for enterprise-wide omnichannel analysis, delivering unmatched value as a principal driver of customer satisfaction and business improvement.  Through this new partnership, Aeriandi’s customer-base now has access to all of these benefits.  No integration is required and no additional software or hardware is needed as it’s all accessible via Aeriandi’s secure cloud platform.”

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About NICE

NICE is the worldwide leading provider of both cloud and on-premises enterprise software solutions that empower organisations to make smarter decisions based on advanced analytics of structured and unstructured data.  NICE helps organisations of all sizes deliver better customer service, ensure compliance, combat fraud and safeguard citizens.  Over 25,000 organizations in more than 150 countries, including over 85 of the Fortune 100 companies, are using NICE solutions. www.nice.com.

About Aeriandi

Aeriandi’s comprehensive voice security solutions deliver complete protection from the start to the end of every call.  Whether PCI DSS, MiFID II, Dodd Frank, FCA or other, compliance can be complicated and expensive to attain and maintain.  This is where Aeriandi can help.

Founded in 2002, its award-winning secure voice solutions are used by large corporates with highly complex infrastructures.  Solutions include call recording, archiving, PCI phone payments, fraud detection and speech analytics.

Aeriandi is the only hosted provider to process over £1 billion in payments per year.  Delivered 100% via the cloud, means faster deployment at lower cost with less business disruption.  Its cloud infrastructure means all of Aeriandi’s solutions are fully scalable and flexible, which means it is easily adapted to the changing needs of its customers’ business.

Oxford, 3rd July 2017:  Results from a study of IT managers and decision makers and Risk & Compliance managers within UK financial services businesses, reveals there is significant confusion about the impact Brexit will have on MiFID II compliance.

First introduced by the EU in response to the 2008 financial crisis, MiFID II is a set of reforms for the financial industry designed to prevent history from repeating itself in the same way again.  The legislation is due to come into force in January 2018 and will place stringent requirements on call recording, transparency and disclosure in financial services.

With less than six months to go before the legislation comes into force, the study shows awareness about the impact of Brexit on MiFID II, one of the most significant updates to regulatory legislation in the European financial sector, is patchy, at best.

Key findings:

• 25% said that they believe that leaving the EU will mean that their organisation will be exempt from MiFID II compliance
  • 70% of this group work in large enterprises with 100,000 plus employees
•  14% stated they have no idea how Brexit impacts their requirement for compliance
• Almost a quarter of those surveyed (22%) say that, although they feel they understand MiFID II legislation, they are not sure how it applies to their organisation

Tom Harwood, CPO and Co-Founder at Aeriandi, says: “Firms must realise MiFID II is no longer a distant dot on the horizon. Its 3 January 2018 deadline is now rapidly approaching and will have far-reaching implications for any firm dealing and processing financial instruments.”

“Compliance and IT teams will need to work together and determine whether they have adequate systems in place to implement the required processes and procedures for MiFID II compliance.   Many organisations will need to procure and roll out a new set of tools or risk significant financial penalties.”

About the Study

This study was carried out by research company Opinion Matters on behalf of Aeriandi.  It was conducted amongst a sample of 250 professionals working in the UK’s Financial Sector in companies which process payment transactions over the phone and have 1000+ employees.  The sample was split equally between Managers with Risk/Compliance in their job titles and IT Decision Makers/IT Managers

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About Aeriandi

Aeriandi’s comprehensive voice security solutions deliver complete protection from the start to the end of every call. Whether PCI DSS, MiFID II, Dodd Frank, FCA or other, compliance can be complicated and expensive to attain and maintain.  This is where Aeriandi can help.

Founded in 2002, its award-winning secure voice solutions are used by large corporates with highly complex infrastructures.  Solutions include call recording, archiving, PCI phone payments, fraud detection and speech analytics.

Aeriandi is the only hosted provider to process more than £1 billion in payments per year. Delivered 100% via the cloud, means faster deployment at lower cost with less business disruption. Its cloud infrastructure means all of Aeriandi’s solutions are fully scalable and flexible, which means it is easily adapted to the changing needs of its customers’ business.

For more information on Aeriandi’s award winning solutions, please visit www.aeriandi.com.

Advanced Discovery, a global eDiscovery and risk management company, today announced that Millnet has become part of the Advanced Discovery brand. Millnet, the largest and longest-established UK-headquartered eDiscovery firm, joined the Advanced Discovery family of companies in January 2016. Since the acquisition, Millnet has led the company’s global expansion, partnering with Advanced Discovery to expand and enhance the services provided to its UK-based and international clients.

“Our growing roster of global corporate clients expects to work with a global partner, expert in multijurisdictional and multinational matters,” states Jim Burke, CEO of Advanced Discovery. “We are uniting under one brand to reflect our unified solution set and expert advisors, now available wherever our clients need us to be.”

“We are thrilled to be part of the Advanced Discovery brand,” states Julia Chain, UK managing director and executive VP, International of Advanced Discovery. “Our teams already share the same values and commitment to client success. While the Millnet brand has served us extremely well for more than 20 years, we will now have a name that has come to reflect the best in eDiscovery and risk management innovation.”

The company’s UK-based paper discovery and digital printing services will be marketed as Millnet Document Services.

For more information on Advanced Discovery, visit www.advanceddiscovery.co.uk.

British software and services company Advanced has today announced the acquisition of Hudman, developers of CentralERP®, a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The acquisition demonstrates Advanced’s commitment to a cloud-first strategy that will deliver a suite of cloud-based SaaS solutions to market, as well as deepen its reach into the SME business sector.

Hudman has an established track record with a small yet proven customer base across a number of industries. Its cloud ERP solution covers the entire business process, from accounts and payroll, to operations, stock, customers and supply chain.

Gordon Wilson, CEO at Advanced, comments: “This acquisition represents the first public step in the company’s next chapter. Our business transformation over the last 12-18 months means we are well placed to focus on accelerating our growth, and extending our delivery of solutions in the cloud representing the single biggest opportunity for us and our customers. Cloud technology is fast becoming the right choice for many organisations to drive efficiencies, manage costs, innovate and grow. It’s important we help them embrace the cloud to secure this competitive edge.”

David James, CEO at Hudman Solutions, comments: ‘This announcement represents a significant step forward in terms of the breadth and development of offering to our customers. We passionately believe the strength of our solution, and the value it offers to customers, will only increase by being part of the Advanced portfolio. Our cloud first approach complements Advanced’s strategy and its ambitious growth plans. We are excited to be joining such an innovative company and being part of the next phase of the journey.”

Jon Wrennall, CTO at Advanced, concludes: “We’re seeing an increasing number of newer businesses that either have a cloud-first strategy – in that they’ve never invested in a fully integrated on-premise infrastructure – or want to move quickly to the cloud to take advantage of all the benefits that make SaaS solutions so attractive. Integrating Hudman’s technology and skill set into our existing product roadmap will ensure we support smaller organisations to positively disrupt their business and make a difference to the services they offer to their customers.”