Safe Systems announced today the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire the network services division of Total Data Services, a recognized leader in providing technology solutions for mission critical computing environments within the financial industry.
This move solidifies Safe Systems' strategic efforts toward becoming a national leader of IT and compliance services exclusively for financial institutions. This move will also strengthen Safe Systems' technical expertise and services and broaden their customer base while increasing opportunities for growth, channel expertise, and brand leadership.
Safe Systems' interest in pursuing this acquisition was derived from the strategic decision to increase market share and national visibility across the United States. According to the FDIC and NCUA, there are currently 9,459 community banks and 7,806 credit unions nationally. With the current economic downturn, banking surveys and researchers have recently concluded that higher-performing financial institutions are shifting their business focus to expense management and cost control, looking to automate the delivery of services and free up their skilled employees toward activities that support revenue generation. To keep costs down, financial institutions are now looking for new ways to outsource or co-manage their mundane and repetitive tasks to increase revenues and enhance productivity. Safe Systems understands this underserved market trend and has made this acquisition to better deliver their value proposition of providing co-managed and fully outsourced IT services to financial institutions across the nation.
Stan Mooney, CEO of Total Data Services, commented, "We have had a strategic partnership with Safe Systems for many years. Their attention to quality and emphasis on customer service in the financial industry closely mirrors that of our own. We are excited about the opportunity of combining our years of expertise, superior service delivery, and our leading technology solutions to exceed the expectations of all our current and future financial institution clients."
"This acquisition will leverage the economies of scale and strengths of both companies to provide more scalable, flexible, and cost effective solutions to our clients," said Darren Bridges, Safe Systems' President. "Furthermore, this acquisition will enhance the capabilities of our managed services, enabling Safe Systems to provide outstanding levels of customer support and to give our clients the utmost confidence in our ability to keep their own businesses connected and highly available."
Once finalized, the acquisition will merge the following divisions of Total Data Services into Safe Systems, Inc.; Network Infrastructure Design and Implementation, Internet Connectivity Solutions, Disaster Recovery Solutions, Desktop Support, Security Assessment Services, and Network Cabling divisions. Total Data Services' hardware and software products division will continue to serve the financial market and its customers.