Dublin-based IT managed services firm Evros has bought cloud services company Inspired Software and Services for an undisclosed sum as it targets further growth. Inspired SS mainly offers Microsoft Azure technologies, Office 365 and Sharepoint services to clients, doing about €2 million in services a year.

"We have a Microsoft practice ourselves and have quite substantial private and managed services environment," said Evros managing director Brian Larkin. "We were looking to bolt on Microsoft Azure and public cloud on to that solution and also the Sharepoint consultancy wing. That's really what drove the acquisition."

Evros financed the cash deal from its own reserves. The deal is the result of six months of talks between the two firms. Inspired will continue to operate as a brand, but Mr Larkin said it was expected to double in size in the next 12 to 18 months. The 20 consultants at Inspired have already moved into Evros’s Cherrywood premises.

“We’ve been growing in the cloud and Sharepoint space since 2008,” said Keith MacHale, cloud services director with Inspired. “This really allows us to move up in terms of the customers we’re working with, and secondly the support and managed service offering that they have, to be able to bolt that on to the consultancy practice that we have, it will be beneficial not only to us but to our customers as well.”

The growth in Inspired will complement that of its new owner. Evros has been growing steadily in recent years, adding about 15 staff a month, and now employs 325 people. The company expects that to rise to 500 by the end of next year.

Driving the growth was partly the company’s solutions and partly market growth. Mr Larkin said the company was expanding by 20-25 per cent, outstripping the market average.