Ricoh has added to the long list of services companies it has acquired recently with the capture of Avantage in the Netherlands.
Avantage is an IT services company that supports customers with workplace automation, IT infrastructure and cloud services to improve productivity.
“The acquisition [for an undisclosed sum] will further strengthen our existing digital workplace and IT services competencies,” said Ricoh, “This includes IT consultancy, implementation consultancy, Microsoft knowledge and experience, help-desk services, remote management services and sales consultancy.”
Avantage customers will benefit from Ricoh’s global visibility, continuous support, financial capacity and IT infrastructure, added the printing and document management specialist.
It will operate as a Ricoh subsidiary responsible for its own operations and results. The company will become part of the Ricoh Office Services business. Alberto Mariani, senior vice president for office services at Ricoh Europe, said: “This acquisition is part of a global strategy to further enhance Ricoh’s digital services, related competencies and the provision of even greater customer support.”
Eric Carree, CEO of Avantage, said: “By joining with Ricoh we meet our ambition to strengthen our organisation. Ricoh is a strong international player and offers us room to grow further.”
Previous digital services acquisitions in Europe by Ricoh include: the Ridgian companies for analytics, Aventia for user experience and e-commerce, Techno Trends for unified communications and video conferencing, NPO Sistemi for cloud solutions, LAKE Solutions for data storage, the IPM and TotalStor firms for digital transformation, Mauden for data centre technology and Orbid for critical IT infrastructures and managed services.
