Smart technology solutions provider Jasco has announced its acquisition of a 51% share in SA-based IT services provider Reflex Solutions.

Mark van Vuuren, Chief Operating Officer at the Jasco Group says, "Our acquisition of Reflex will enhance the Jasco Enterprise offering within the blue-chip corporate market, enabling us to offer IT WAN (wide area network) and LAN (local area network), desktop and server managed services, hosted IT Infrastructure, cloud unified communications, and unified communication solutions.

Reflex Solutions, established in Johannesburg in 2000, is a specialist in IT managed services, hosted IT infrastructure, cloud services, and Fibre-to-the-X (FTTX) solutions.

According to the statement, Reflex has grown over the years to include operations in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Durban. "Its solid track record of double-digit revenue growth since 2013, along with consistent operating margins above 10% and a solid customer base of blue-chip clients, made it an ideal strategic acquisition for Jasco."

Van Vuuren says Jasco will now also gain access to what it describes as the lucrative growth market of FTTX solutions. "Reflex's customer base further expands our existing customer base within the retail, logistics, education, telecommunications and financial services sectors. The acquisition fulfils Jasco's strategic intent of moving up the value chain towards a higher-margin professional service and annuity- based offering."

In May this year, Jasco introduced its carrier solutions offering into the East African market, rolling out from their office in Kenya which opened in April 2015. The company said the expansion ties in with its East Arica's Tier 1 and Tier 2 broadband strategy, which aims to provide broadband services and fibre capacity to the region.

Martin Ferreira, Executive Head of Jasco Carrier Solutions said, "Africa is becoming more fibre oriented and much of East Africa is behind in terms of fibre deployments, despite the fact that several undersea fibre cable operators terminate into countries such as Kenya."

Through this acquisition, Jasco says its enterprise will gain additional managed services capability in the IT WAN/LAN market, as well as the addition of Unified Communication-as-a-Service (UCaaS) to the group's existing and new enterprise customers, complementing Jasco's existing offerings.

"The acquisition also allows for further expansion of Jasco's Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering through Reflex's Virtual Machine (VM) server environment and gives Jasco access to the FTTH growth market. In addition, Reflex operates its own Network Operation Centre (NOC) / Service Operations Centre (SOC), which will enable Jasco to offer proactive monitoring services to its existing customer base."

Van Vuuren adds, "This mutually beneficial acquisition allows Reflex further opportunity to cross-sell to the Jasco customer base and Jasco to cross-sell the rest of the products and solutions portfolio to the Reflex customer base. It also gives Jasco access to an experienced and capable management team within the information technologies solutions market."

Greg Wilson, MD at Reflex Solutions says, "Jasco has added weight to our fast-growing business, giving us access to additional funding, a largely untapped enterprise client base, and strong BEE credentials. We intend to focus on our ability to provide strong connectivity solutions and the services that converge onto this infrastructure giving access to new business models and opportunities within the Jasco client base.