Dive Brief:
- Technology advisory firm Amplix acquired OneConnect on Wednesday, adding the fellow TA’s business development capabilities in a push to outpace industry growth with AI-based sales tools, according to Amplix executives.
- Florida-based OneConnect also expanded Amplix’s presence across the state by purchasing Miami-based RAS3 Communications and Consulting on June 10.
- The OneConnect takeover marks Amplix’s third acquisition in one month, and its 15th deal since the TA accepted funding from Gemspring Capital, a private equity group, in late 2022. “We try to make very strategic, high-quality acquisitions, and that's why we've been a little bit slower than some of our competitors,” Amplix COO Dylan Pure told Channel Dive.
Dive Insight:
Over its four-year history, Amplix has made fewer acquisitions than other national TA platforms. Amplix’s executives credit their outside-the-box M&A strategy.
Amplix has notably acquired non-agents, including consultancy firm 24By7Security and managed mobility provider The Hastings Group. Although the agency business and monthly commissions remain central to Amplix’s model, Pure said adjacent acquisitions have deepened client relationships.
In the old consolidation playbook, platforms solely purchased TA businesses, amassing a base of residual vendor commissions to gain leverage with vendors and attract investor attention. If a TA possessed services or a reseller practice, the acquirer would carve it out of the deal, preferring to stay focused on the core agency business.
For Amplix, additional business models give the company new touchpoints to prove its value to customers.
“Our number one goal is to get closer to the customer, surround the client, and typically acquire into services capabilities,” Pure said.
Amplix’s July 1 acquisition of Core Communications expanded its services offering, Amplix Care — a monthly-billed service that includes project management, vendor management and escalation and network assessments. Amplix launched the product during its original merger of its three founding agencies and has since tripled its staff. The addition of Core Communications also provides 24/7 support Amplix didn’t have before.
“There's been a lot of maturity around what the offering is and our ability to track data and take support calls to understand the lay of the land of our clients' network,” Pure said.
Amplix now employs 275 full-time workers.The TA plans to continue acquiring and integrating partner firms, while expanding internal AI tools and sales resources.
OneConnect is a pure-play TA. Its acquisition could give Amplix a sales boost. In the last year, 22-year-old OneConnect has accelerated new client bookings thanks to AI tools, according to Pure.
“We've actually spoken to many trusted advisors that are using some AI tooling capacity, and I think people will start to get there more and more,” Pure said. “I think these guys are ahead.”
To drive growth, many TAs have focused on expanding wallet share with existing customers while relying on referrals for new logo acquisition. The largest TA platforms are using their funding to build sophisticated go-to-market engines, and AI tools are a promising mechanism to scale their efforts.
“It's really hard to be the signal through the noise,” Amplix CMO Shawn Cordner said. “But it's always been true that if you just hit somebody at the right moment with the right message, you do have the opportunity. If you can see that somebody has got a fire on their desk and you cold call them with the fire extinguisher, they're going to take that call. AI just lets you hit more people with a better message.”
