Tribal Group Buys Sky Software
Announcement posted by Sky Software 07 Mar 2014
The acquisition will see Sky Software retaining its presence in Geelong, Victoria while it expands its global operations through leveraging Tribal’s international footprint. Established in Geelong in 2011, Sky Software employs over 40 staff and most recently established a Global Support Centre in Geelong to support the company’s international expansion in Southeast Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East.
As a combined entity, Tribal and Sky Software will have over 500 customers in 60 countries and 1,400 staff in 17 offices across five continents. Working together, Tribal Group will strengthen its investment in software and service developments to increase its speed to market and to offer global customers greater in-market support, representation and domain expertise.
Keith Evans, Chief Executive of Tribal Group said, “We are delighted to be welcoming Sky Software into Tribal as this will strengthen our market presence in the higher and vocational education markets. This acquisition will allow Tribal to increase its presence and domain expertise in Asia Pacific through our combined customer base.”
“Our strategic priority is to provide our customers with evidence-based systems and solutions that will support the ongoing improvement of their educational outcomes. Sky Software’s products fit well with Tribal’s product strategy as a cloud-based smaller education provider solution.”
Clive Mayhew, outgoing Chairman of Sky Software said, “Our combined entity is a great outcome for Sky Software’s shareholders, staff and customers. As our company expanded, it became clear that we needed to be part of a larger organisation to accelerate our growth. The Tribal Group is a publicly listed UK company that aligns with our global aspirations to be a market leader. This will allow Sky Software to retain Geelong as our global head office, Research and Development Centre and Global Support Centre as we continue to expand in Australia."
Nick Stanley, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Sky Software said, “Sky Software has proven that Geelong is emerging as Australia’s Silicon Valley. We have the right skills, infrastructure and people for an IT software company to compete and expand globally. We continue to remain committed to Geelong and our global expansion, with Tribal, will allow us to continue creating and maintaining jobs in Victoria over the coming years.”
The acquisition will benefit Tribal and Sky Software customers as both companies will be able to leverage their combined geographical footprint and staff numbers to serve customers in Asia Pacific and the United Kingdom with greater efficiency. This includes maintaining customer service centres in Geelong, Victoria and across theUnited Kingdom to support customers across time zones. Tribal and Sky Software customers will benefit from the retention of data centres in Australia, Singapore and the United Kingdom to support cloud-based student management software deployments and to meet data compliance requirements. Sky Software was advised by Right Click Capital.
Sky Software’s clients include the British Council as a global customer in partnership with Prolinx, its reseller partner in the United Kingdom. The company has also entered the Singapore market in partnership with Inchone, a reseller partner, after being awarded a tender from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) to deploy Sky Software’s Blue Sky student management system.
Leaning on Sky Software’s experience and presence in Asia Pacific, Tribal will further extend its presence and success in this region through acquired customers such as the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities (DEC), RMIT University, Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT), Waiariki Institute of Technology, University of Canterbury, University of Sydney, University of Queensland and Otago University.
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Note to editor:
High resolution images of Sky Software and Tribal Group spokespeople and logos are available here.
For further information, please contact:
Luisa Regattieri / Gabriel Wong
Phone: +61 2 8016 2200
Email: luisa@espressocomms.com.au / gabriel@espressocomms.com.au
About Sky Software
Sky Software is a privately held and wholly owned Australian software company leading the way in cloud-based student management systems and additional configurable software solutions mostly deployed within the education and training sector. Over 50 leading education brands use Sky Software technology solutions to improve workplace productivity and communication.
Blue Sky is a nimble, cloud-based student management system aimed at educational providers with 100 – 2,000 Unique Annual Enrolments (UAE). Blue Sky is currently available in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries across South East Asia.
For further information, visit www.skysoftware.com and www.bluesky.skysoftware.com.
About Tribal
Tribal is a leading provider of systems and solutions to the UK and international education, training and learning markets. Working as one, Tribal focuses on helping its customers to deliver excellence. Their extensive expertise and collaborative style have made them a trusted partner to their customers. Tribal has 1,300 staff and customers across five continents.