Atlas Cloud has acquired Challow Design Network Services to establish a new kind of legal sector specialist MSP group that will increase the company’s geographical footprint and its legal services sector offering.
The IT managed services and cyber security services business also aims to increase its capacity to service larger clients using the services of Challow, an IT provider specialising in legal sector compliance.
Atlas will gain 16 staff, 21 customers and a London office, and The Challow brand will become “Challow, powered by Atlas Cloud”.
The combined company will use Atlas Cloud’s operational engine to widen the availability of Challow’s all-in-one solution for the legal sector, while also merging Atlas Cloud’s cyber security division to incorporate Cyber Essentials accreditations and services like penetration testing.
Atlas Clloud will absorb Challow’s customer base including firms like 7 Bedford Row and Warners Solicitors to become a provider to the legal sector, and its longstanding security-first mantra will continue to be adopted across the combined group.
Pete Watson, CEO of Atlas Cloud (pictured) commented: “Welcoming the Challow team to Atlas Cloud is an ideal match.
“Challow have spent years perfecting a unique solution, choosing to refine with their current customer base over pursuing growth. Atlas Cloud has in recent years placed a huge emphasis on developing an operational blueprint that delivers a great service in a scalable way. It’s given us greater capacity, allowed us to tighten SLAs and our customer feedback scores are now consistently world-class.
Andy Fryer, Challow Director added: “Now is the right time to combine Challow’s compliance capabilities with Atlas Cloud’s security capabilities and take it to a wider market.”
Sole Challow director Fryer has taken shares in the combined business and remains as Operations Director.
The acquisition comes two years into a five-year strategy for Atlas Cloud. The business will continue to invest in both Newcastle and London locations, with the north becoming a hub for service and cyber security operations and the south focusing on technology operations.
The next key element of the overall strategy is to ramp up its innovations team, designed to help law firms unlock the potential of Generative AI and make savings on chargeable hours.