Luke Clark, CEO of Canon Business Services
Harbour IT and Converga have combined under the Canon Business Services unit of Canon Oceania by bringing the Australian and the New Zealand operation, as well as Canon's Philippines operation, closer both internally and externally.
Canon's investment will result in the combination of technical and cloud capabilities of Harbour IT with Converga’s business efficiency solutions for customers.
The news comes several years after Canon acquired both businesses which will continue to function under its existing brands -- Converga and Harbour IT -- and under Luke Clark who's been CEO of both businesses since for a year.
In September 2014, Canon acquired a 51 per cent stake in Harbour IT, which was extended to 100 per cent ownership in July 2017. Roughly one year later, in November 2015, Canon announced the acquisition of Converga.
Dave Yoshida, managing director at Canon Oceania, said bringing Harbour IT and Converga into one business “was a natural evolution for Canon”, offering to leverage the expertise of the two businesses to reduce organisational burden and provide an end-to-end experience for customers.
“At this intersection, it enables us to see opportunities our competitors cannot, and deliver operational improvements for customers faster and more effectively,” Yoshida said. “Combining these services also means we have a broader capability and a more seamless experience to offer, with a single contact managing all services.”
With offices across Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines, Canon Business Services will offer under Harbour IT Azure Stack as a service will also operate in partnership with HPE and Equinix to allow for the implementation of cloud solutions for businesses that are unable to do so themselves.
Stephen Bovis, managing director for South Pacific at HPE said that he was excited to see Harbour IT join HPE’s service provider community to deliver Azure Stack as a service based on the HPE ProLiant for Azure Stack.
“As companies embrace digital transformation, they are demanding a consistent cloud experience for all their apps and workloads across the combination of technologies and routes to market they choose to deliver them,” Bovis said. “Harbour IT’s focus on operation excellence and innovation make them a great partner and we look forward to a long and prosperous relation for us and our joint customers.”
Meanwhile, Converga has launched a RPA as a service solution to allow businesses to automate key back-office procedures through software robots and allow for individuals to spend time on other task, Clark explained.
Clark added the business has been in conversations with a number of clients in a variety of industries such as financial, manufacturing, education and legal services.
“We intimately know their business and they trust us to provide even greater value – it’s our key to success,” Clark said.
