BCM One Gets Major Investment, Adds SIP Provider

BCM One is moving deeper into the voice market as it gets a huge investment.

The managed IT service provider said Thursday it has partnered with private equity firm Thompson Street Capital Partners, which will introduce several portfolio and personnel changes to the New York City-based company. Thompson Street at the same time has acquired SIPTrunk/SIP.US (aka SIP) with the intention of making it “part of the BCM One entity.”

Financial terms of the deals weren’t disclosed.

Brian Kornmann, Thompson Street managing director, said that acquiring SIP and bringing it into the BCM One fold is part of a move to tackle the “next-generation” voice services market.

“This move positions BCM One as a leading technology platform company that can deliver best-in-class services to enterprises across the U.S., and will serve as a basis for further acquisitions in the space,” Kornmann said.

BCM One’s John Cunningham

BCM One’s portfolio already included managed solutions for connectivity, workplace and managed cloud. The company, which has more than 6,000 customers, combined CLEC, cloud optimization and master-agency businesses in 2014. Coming together with the SIP trunking company strengthens BCM One’s voice and managed-services play, but BCM One co-founder John Cunningham also cited SIP’s automation capabilities as a benefit.

“Those folks enable us to provide a fully automated solution so that clients and partners can, in an automated fashion, migrate from legacy services over to the fast-growing SIP market,” he told Channel Partners.

Cunningham, who still has equity in the company, said BCM One chose Thompson Street after a careful search. Thompson Street has a reputation for undertaking founder-owned businesses in the midmarket. The firm recapitalized data center colocation provider TierPoint in 2014.

At the end of the day, the goal was to get BCM One “to the next level” of growth.

“BCM One will continue to invest in growth through acquisitions such as SIP.US and SIP Trunk. We will also invest in automation, system and process improvements so we can continue to be a leader in delivering world-class experiences with all our solutions,” Cunningham said. “What won’t change are the people, culture and customized approach we have always taken in delivering our solutions.”

BCM One’s Geoff Bloss

He and co-founder Frank Ahearn will step down from their positions as co-CEOs and work as board members.

In the meantime, Geoff Bloss, former BCM One chief operating officer, assumes the role of CEO. Mark Amick, who was COO at SIPTrunk, keeps his title.

Cunningham said he wants the BCM One-SIP partnership to grow partners’ businesses by helping them take hold of more customer technology spend. Bloss said BCM One channel partners will benefit from a “significant investment” in processes, systems and programs.

“Our channel partners can look forward to an overall enhanced channel program, specifically with more automated tools and a vertically focused strategy to help them penetrate sales opportunities more efficiently,” he said. “We’ve been able to build a team so that right now, today, we were able to execute on our plan in order to give the reins up to very capable people who are going to take BCM One to that next level.”