With a new services industry practice, HSO targets broader Dynamics 365 opportunities

HSO announced its acquisition of SAGlobal's Americas unit last week, a deal that includes a team of consultants and a portfolio of industry-focused solutions built on Microsoft Dynamics 365. The company has established HSO ProServ as the new brand for the vertical IP and expertise gained through the deal.

HSO has grown its US presence significantly thanks to both ProServ and the August 2020 acquisition of New York-based AKA Enterprise Solutions. The deals have vaulted the company into a prominent position in the North American Microsoft business apps channel. The firm now has approximately 300 US-based resources and revenue of $100 million, officials say.

HSO serves mid-size to large businesses globally, and company CEO Peter J. ter Maaten told MSDW in an interview that the larger US presence advances several of the firm's strategic goals.

With large US customers, even though we are a big company and people know HSO with lots of people and millions in revenue, we were relatively small. As a European company, we were at the table most of time [in other regions].

The US has a big impact because there is no one bigger in terms of size. We look at industries in terms of taking a … market-leading role and making sure we claim it in other countries in which we operate.

[In the US] we were not always viewed as credible for a customer doing billions in revenue. The [larger size of the US team] helps us not just serve more clients but get on display for larger clients that we have no problem serving out of Europe and Asia, but not equally strong in the US. It really adds to that perspective as well.

Whit McIsaac, who joins HSO from SAGlobal to lead HSO ProServ, told MSDW that his team US-based organization has seen a growing number of large deals originating outside the US. For example, the team's biggest sales in 2020 for their legal industry solution were based in Frankfurt, London, and Auckland, all deployed as part of global Dynamics 365 rollouts.

"We need the depth and experience of HSO to capitalize on that global momentum," McIsaac said.

Microsoft's interest in the professional services space is growing, ter Maaten believes. And he foresees industry-focused business increasing in HSO's revenue mix in the next three years. He explained: