Torgrim Takle (Crayon)
Crayon has inked an agreement to transfer Winc’s software licensing business in Australia as part of widespread expansion plans across Asia Pacific.
The agreement will enable Winc's software and cloud customers to leverage Crayon’s expertise in cloud economics, licensing and cost-optimisation services while also the ensuring continuity of transactional software and cloud businesses.
Winc staff will also be brought across under the deal, including national sales manager for software solutions Yakov Pazhentsev. Operating as a Microsoft license solution provider (LSP), Winc also has partnerships with Adobe, VMware and Symantec.
According to Crayon CEO, Torgrim Takle, the Winc team is highly competent with a proven track record that fits with the provider's go-to-market model, alongside the footprint already established in the Australian market during the past 18 months.
“I am looking forward to being able to offer customers the unique Crayon experience where we go beyond transactional operations and provide value-added services that help our customers get the most out of their IT solutions while saving costs,” Takle said.
Meanwhile, Crayon Southeast Asia vice president Florent Bellahsene added that the acquisition continued the provider's acceleration to provide a suite of technology solutions for Australian customers.
"We are excited to welcome the Winc software team, customers and partners to Crayon," he said.
As previously reported by sister publication ARN, Winc underwent a major restructure over the past several months, resulting in a number of redundancies, which impacted its technology and managed print services business units, along with consolidating its warehouse operations in an effort to ‘transform’ its business.
In March, Platinum Equity, the private equity firm that owns both Winc and OfficeMax New Zealand, further revealed it had been "aggressively revamping" its operations model across both markets, according to principal, Renee Koontz.
“In Australia, for instance, we have transformed our customer focus by restructuring around five major industry types. This enables us to deliver deep industry expertise and understanding to our customers in the government, education, care, industrial and professional services sectors,” Koontz said at the time.
The restructuring efforts came as the group appointed Peter Kelly as its new CEO across both Winc Australia and OfficeMax New Zealand. Kelly replaced Darren Fullerton who left in October last year.
