Acquisitions Augment KeyMark Growth

Xamcor recently caught up with Jim Wanner, the founder and CEO of KeyMark, a South Carolina-based document imaging focused VAR that recently made two acquisitions. In February, KeyMark announced the acquisition of New Jersey-based Document Conversion Associates (DCA). It followed up two weeks later with the announcement it had acquired IMR, a Camp Hill, PA-based VAR and service bureau. Wanner explained that growth through acquisition wasn’t necessarily something that was on KeyMark’s roadmap, but that the opportunities were too good to pass up.

Wanner: Both companies came to us. They already had offers from other people, but asked if we’d consider acquiring their companies. We decided it would be good strategy for us to move ahead 

According to Wanner, KeyMark’s aggressive organic growth strategy meant that it had the infrastructure in place to successfully absorb both organizations 

Wanner: When the recession hit in 2008, it really changed the market landscape. Some people came out of the downturn and were stuck at a certain revenue amount. They basically decided they wanted to run lifestyle businesses. We made the decision that we wanted to continue to grow and expand. So, we put in GAAP accounting practices with regular financial audits. We integrated all our sales and marketing information in Salesforce.com. We built an infrastructure to enable us to grow at a rapid pace.”

Bob Chamberlain, IMR’s co-founder and owner is retiring. Wes Knowles, the former president of DCA, is now serving as KeyMark’s regional sales director for the Northeast.

Wanner: We are not letting our acquisitions run as standalone organizations. Both companies bring us happy customer bases and we have been able to retain some great employees. KeyMark now has more than 130 employees.

KeyMark  is primarily a Hyland OnBase and Kofax reseller. IMR was also a Hyland reseller as well as offering DocuWare to target more mid-range accounts. DCA was a Kofax and EMC ApplicationXtender reseller.

Wanner: We have a national footprint, but DCA will give us some more coverage in the New York City and Northeast regions. IMR [which had a satellite office in Pittsburgh] will give us more depth in the mid-Atlantic area and Pennsylvania. We also pick-up a couple new vertical focuses with DCA—pharmaceuticals and transportation. Historically, we’ve focused on healthcare, financial services, government, and shared services.