ICOR buy helps Acquisition Solutions expand into management services
CEO Anne Reed explains reasons, goals for acquisition

By David Hubler

January 12, 2010

Acquisition Solutions Inc.’s purchase of ICOR Partners LLC will broaden ASI’s footprint in the civilian government market, adding much in demand management consulting capabilities, Anne Reed, ASI's president and chief executive officer, said today.

“We are more and more supporting clients who are in the program space with their acquisition needs, and we believe that ICOR management solutions will bring a broader capability to that,” she told Washington Technology.

“At the same time, the ICOR management solutions folks are seeing clients who need support with their acquisitions in order for their programs to be effective. So we see a very synergistic opportunity there,” Reed added.
ICOR’s 40 employees have expertise in enterprise architecture and governance, business transformation, performance and portfolio management. “Together we’ll be north of 200” employees, she said.
Among other areas, the combined entity will pursue health care opportunities because of ICOR’s expertise in that field, Reed said.

“There is some real opportunity for us in that space,” she added, citing the Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services departments among possible clients.
ASI will integrate ICOR into a new business unit that will specialize in management solutions. Company founder Wayne Simmons will stay on as president of the new ICOR Management Solutions business unit, Reed said.
“Wayne has a number of years’ experience in consulting, and a lot of that with a bit of an IT flavor, a lot of it with management consulting,” she said.

ASI has been actively looking for the right partnership since about 2008, when the company brought in Excellere Partners http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2008/04/03/ma-roundup.aspx , a private equity firm in Denver. “That was part of our strategy, a buy-build strategy,” she said. “They are the primary shareholder in the enterprise.”

“We’ve been talking with a variety of different companies and we wanted to get the right one,” Reed said. “We felt like [ICOR] was a really good fit for us.”