Idox acquires Artesys to grow McLaren EDMS operation

Idox Group, the parent company of engineering document control and construction collaboration and CAFM business McLaren Software, has today announced the £2m (€2.4m) acquisition of French engineering document management (EDMS) specialists Artesys International.

Artesys logoFounded in 2000, based in Rennes, Artesys provides engineering document control solutions and applications supporting the efficient and safe operation of processing plants, mainly in the oil and gas sectors in France and across Africa. It is expected to report revenues of €2.9m and operating profit of €0.4m in the year ended 31 March 2013. Idox CEO Richard Kellett-Clarke says:

“This expansion places our engineering information management division in a stronger position to support the energy & utilities and process manufacturing industries in France and the growing Oil & Gas and Mining industries in Africa.  The acquisition of Artesys will allow us to leverage our recent development work to internationalise our existing McLaren software products and further our strategic objectives of reaching new geographies.”

Strategic fit

McLaren-logoMcLaren Software has an existing office in Paris, a residue of its 2011 CTSpace SaaS collaboration acquisition (post), but this latest acquisition is more about its Enterprise EDMS business which helps EPC contractors, plant owner-operators and other customers deploy on-premise solutions to support major engineering projects. Artesys’s Opidis is used by over 8,000 engineering operations and maintenance professionals to locate validated plant documents and data. The McLaren Enterprise business has existing customers in Europe, the Middle East, US, south-east Asia and Australia, so the Artesys deal adds to its EDMS footprint by reaching into Africa.

Nonetheless, the fit is also complementary insofar as it adds further lifecycle management capabilities to McLaren’s product portfolio; it acquired CAFM business FMx in October 2012 (post), whose customers include engineering giants such as BP, ABB and Balfour Beatty Engineering Services. The process plant sector is also more sophisticated in its use of 3D modelling tools, so the acquisition will boost the wider McLaren division’s building information modelling (BIM) credentials – something highlighted when I met with McLaren’s team last December.  And, given the steady flow of Idox acquisitions over the past couple of years, who’s to say that it won’t make further strategic additions to the McLaren group?

Permanent link to this article: https://extranetevolution.com/2013/04/idox-acquires-artesys-to-grow-mclaren-edms-operation/

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  1. […] portal and rejigged its marketing team last year. It also acquired a French business, Artesys, in 2013, but its SaaS offering seemingly only forms a small portion of a largely on-premise engineering […]

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