GreenPages' New Name, Blue Mantis, Matches MSP's Evolution

GreenPages has a new name: Blue Mantis. This represents the latest phase of the firm’s 30-year evolution from a local company sourcing components through a catalog to a managed service provider offering a full suite of advanced services to clients in a broad swath of the country.

Blue Mantis’ Josh Dinneen

“Back then it was a play off the Yellow Pages, which is not really the image we want to project to the market today as we help customers digitally transform their businesses,” said Josh Dinneen, who became president of GreenPages in March.

The name change coincides with a new brand identity; a more modern, user-friendly website; and the tagline “Let’s Meet the Future.” The phrase represents Blue Mantis’ growth over the years from a component sourcing company to a VAR, an integrator, and then an MSP and CSP offering cybersecurity, GitOps and FinOps, networking, carrier services, modern workspace solutions and data center modernization.

Some of that growth has been organic but much of it has taken place over the last two years following the company’s recapitalization by Abry Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm.  The moves, which Dinneen refers to as “well-funded,” include the hiring of several top-level executives, including former AMD exec Terry Richardson as CRO, and the recent purchase of two MSPs: Arcas Risk Management in Boston and Zanaris, a Toronto-based automation and cloud services company.

“It’s helped us guide our customers through those big, pivotal changes in the industry,” Dinneen said of the overall strategy. “It was not that we were a mom-and-pop shop, but we needed to transform to a growth company.”

2 Years of Big Transitions

Those big in-house changes included transitioning to Salesforce.com, ServiceNow, NetSuite, and UIPath for automation. Blue Mantis, which recently moved into a new office in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is one of Microsoft’s largest CSP customers in the tier of similar companies, spending more than $35 million annually on Microsoft’s cloud related services, Dinneen said. The company has a 60/40 split in service spending between AWS and Azure.

Blue Mantis logo

Blue Mantis hardware sales represent about 40% of its revenue mix, down from more than 80% five years ago. Hardware sales, despite pressure today, have continued to grow, but are outpaced by professional services. Recurring revenue represents about 60% of sales, weighted toward MRR. Revenue has grown by double digits in each of the last six quarters, Dinneen said.

“That’s really a key to our business strategy,” he said, referring to providing cloud services and generating recurring revenue. “We’re driving the right behaviors.”

That drive, business acumen and technology know-how landed GreenPages on this year’s Channel Futures MSP 501 ranking at No. 338.

‘Blue Mantis’ Chosen for Meaning

The company believed the name Blue Mantis represented its profile and business culture. A mantis is typically known for its majesty, grace and purpose-driven movement. In lore, the insect is a sign of good luck, a symbol of contemplation and an emblem of strength, courage and persistence.

“The mantis has been around for millions of years. It’s been able to evolve and adapt and stay relevant,” said Dinneen, who joined GreenPages after it bought his Massachusetts-based company, Norwell Technology Group, in 2018. “For our customers, we want to be calm and help guide them down the right path. It’s about having insight into the future and being a bit of a prophet of sorts. We’re looking at emerging technology and helping synthesize that to the market for our customers by saying, these are the relevant technologies as part of a long-term strategy.”

Part of Blue Mantis’ own long-term strategy includes acquiring more MSPs with a focus on cybersecurity and ops, as well as broadening its AI offerings. The company also has offices in Tampa and India, and employees in 39 states. They serve a concentration of verticals in health care, finance and manufacturing, as well as sports and entertainment, travel and leisure, and other industries, mainly spread throughout the eastern U.S. Expect that customer base to grow as the company continues to spread its wings.

“The blue mantis is one of the rarest of all mantises,” Dinneen said. “We consider ourselves in pretty rare air, given our size, capabilities and wherewithal to support very large customers in the enterprise, down through the higher end of the SMB and across many verticals. The U.S. is really the target market for us.”