McLaren builds CAFM proposition following £5.6m FMx acquisition

McLaren Software is growing its facilities management capabilities following the acquisition (announced today), by parent company Idox Group, of FMx Ltd, developer of the computer-aided facilities management application CAFM Explorer.

McLaren has been busy expanding beyond its engineering document control roots over the past year. It acquired the SaaS-based construction collaboration business, CTSpace, in November 2011 and has been extending this SaaS experience across its portfolio, launching a “private cloud” option for its enterprise solution earlier this month (post). This latest acquisition means the business will be able to offer a post-construction capability, potentially enabling information from design and construction to be imported into the systems used for occupation, operation and maintenance.

£5.6m acquisition

Idox has bought 24-strong, Crawley, Surrey, UK-based FMx “for a cash consideration of £5.6m”. CAFM Explorer is provided to corporate, public and commercial real estate customers in over 30 countries, helping them with building management, maintenance, asset tracking and cost control via desktop, web and mobile access. FMx reported revenues of £2.7m and underlying operating profit of £0.9m in the year ended 31 March 2012.

The business will be merged and operate under the McLaren Software brand and management. As well as extending the reach of the project collaboration solution to encompass the lifecycle of a building, campus or facility, McLaren can now provide a more comprehensive solution for the estates departments of its existing asset-intensive customers in the oil and gas, energy, utilities and process manufacturing sectors, and to Idox’s information and estate solutions across its local government customers.

Richard Kellett-Clarke, the CEO of Idox Group, said:

“FMx Ltd, as one of the earliest pioneers of CAFM (computer aided facilities management), has an excellent reputation in the market place for delivering a flexible and functionally rich solution. The acquisition and merger with McLaren Software is an important step in our strategy to extend our solutions across the full operational lifecycle of public sector, commercial real estate and operational assets.”