Q: What did Ensono announce today?

A: On March 14, 2018 Ensono announced our agreement to purchase Wipro’s Hosted Data Center Services (DCS) Business.  We also announced a partnership is being formed with Wipro where they will have a minority stake in Ensono with a seat on our board.  The regulatory approvals have been completed and on June 27, 2018 we closed on the acquisition of the DCS Business in U.S., Europe and Singapore. The acquisition of the India assets is planned to be completed later in the year – tentatively, in the month of September.  This is the third strategic acquisition for Ensono since our brand launch in January 2016.

Q: Who is Wipro Limited?

A: Wipro Limited (https://www.wipro.com) is a global information technology, consulting and business process service company headquartered in Bangalore, India. They have annual revenues of $8.5 Billion, over 160,000 employees and serve 1,300 clients across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. 

The company has been recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship. Their value proposition is to help clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful through cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies. 

Q: What exactly is being acquired in this agreement?

A: Ensono has acquired the Data Center Services (DCS) business unit, which is an independently run organization within Global Infrastructure Services of Wipro. This group was acquired by Wipro in 2007 and was previously known as Infocrossing

Wipro has five primary lines of service, including:

1. Application Services
2. Global Infrastructure Services
3. Product Engineering Services
4. Analytics
5. Business Processing Services 

Q: Why did Ensono acquire Wipro’s hosted data center services business?

A:  The acquisition is taking Ensono one step closer to its 2020 vision of being the recognized leader in true hybrid IT from public cloud to mainframe by expanding in size, scale and geographic reach.  The key benefits of this acquisition are:

• Nearly doubles our revenue taking us to $550M.
• Enhances our data center presence with expansion into Germany.
• Provides coast-to-coast connectivity in the U.S. and expands our European hosting capabilities.
• Diversifies and grows our client base to over 200 clients – our largest mainframe client will be over 25,000 managed MIPS.
• Increases our U.S. and overseas staff support for mainframe operations. 

Q: Why did Wipro sell?

A: Wipro remains committed to meeting their customers’ hosted data center services requirements even as they accelerate their investments in the digital space. The strategic partnership with Ensono will help them serve their customers and reap the benefits of economies of scale.  

Q:  How will the acquisition of Wipro’s hosted data center services business change Ensono’s service offering?

A: Ensono has grown significantly in a short time, but our strategy remains the same: to enable our clients’ business transformations and position them stronger for the future. This acquisition significantly increases our size, scale and geographic presence.  We’re expanding our data center footprint in the U.S. and Europe, and establishing operations in India.  The acquisition further enables our ability to deliver on this strategy by scaling up to serve our clients even better.  

Q: How will it change Wipro’s service offering?

A: It will not change the services that Wipro offers to the data center market.  Wipro will continue to deliver managed data services and will support hosted data center services through its partnership with Ensono.    

Q: Will there be any ongoing partnership with Wipro?

A: Ensono and Wipro also have signed a long-term partnership agreement to jointly address hybrid IT requirements of Wipro’s new and existing enterprise customers. As a part of the agreement, Wipro will have a minority stake in Ensono and join its board of directors.  

Q: Does this change Ensono’s global support model?

A: There are no current plans to change resources that support our clients. Establishing operations in India does not change our global support model.  We will continue to rely on our associates in North America and Europe to perform the work functions they do today.  

Q: What measures are being put in place to maintain service levels for existing clients?

A: We have created a dedicated integration team so clients will experience business as usual with the efforts of bringing DCS on board.

Q: What are the plans for existing DCS team members?

A: DCS will form a new Client Engagement unit of Ensono, providing the portfolio of DCS and Ensono services to current and future clients, much as they do today. DCS associates under the sales, partner relationship and client services functions will continue to report to Raj Bagga, Managing Director, Global Wipro Channel.  Raj will report to Marc Capri, President of Ensono.  

In the next few weeks, we will be announcing some changes to functionally align roles between the two companies, and in the coming months, we will review both organizations to ensure that we are serving our clients in the most efficient manner.   

We understand that combining two organizations always creates uncertainty. While we don’t have all the answers today, we are fully committed to working through a structured and rapid process to communicate any changes and our go-to-market approach. 

Q: How will this impact Ensono associates?

A:  The current Ensono organizational structure and executive leadership team will remain in place.  

Q: What is the integration plan?

A: DCS is assuming the Ensono brand with references to the Wipro brand as needed in order to remain transparent and clear about the ongoing partnership being established as part of the agreement.  Ensono and Wipro have already started working together to ensure a smooth integration process after close.  We both remain dedicated to serving our clients and have designated an integration team to manage the integration details.

Q: How will this acquisition benefit Ensono clients?

A: The acquisition is increasing Ensono’s size, scalability and associate base to nearly 2,000, which will enable us to innovate faster and help clients harness the power of hybrid IT to transform their business. Our clients will have more options available as our distribution of data centers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany expand. 

Q: How will this acquisition benefit clients that will become part of the Ensono client base?

A: Clients will have access to new capabilities that can help them transform to stay ahead of their competitors.  They’ll benefit from:

• An integrated ITSM that is highly automated and independent of platform or location. 
• Ensono’s high service standards and best practices will be applied to each client.
• A more intimate client engagement model with a team solely focused on them and their data center challenges.

Q: How will this acquisition benefit partners?

A: Expansion of Ensono’s global presence, diversification of our client base, and even larger infrastructure capabilities better position Ensono as the recognized leader in true hybrid IT from public cloud to mainframe.  We believe this creates exciting potential for both new and expanded partnerships.

Q: How will this acquisition benefit vendors?

A: We value the relationships we’ve developed with our vendors. We believe these relationships will only benefit from our investments in the company—resulting in more mutual business. Existing vendors will receive additional information from Ensono’s global procurement and real estate team.

Q: As a client in North America, how does this impact my service?

A:  The service we provide our clients remains our focus so it’s business as usual with no change to Ensono teams or existing agreements.  We will create a dedicated integration team to handle the integration efforts.  Our combined resources and capabilities will result in an organization better equipped to help enterprise clients manage their business-critical IT environments.

Q: As a client in Europe, how does this impact my service?

A: The service we provide our clients remains our focus so it’s business as usual with no change to Ensono teams or existing agreements.  In fact, we will create a dedicated integration team to handle the integration efforts.  There are service delivery centers in Europe that will become part of Ensono, giving clients additional locations for data center options.  Our combined resources and capabilities will result in an organization better equipped to help enterprise clients manage their business-critical IT environments.

Q: Are there any new and significant clients being added to the Ensono portfolio?

A: Although we cannot disclose specific client information we are growing our client base to over 200 clients and further strengthening our presence in various industries, including: Technology, Retail Consumer, Manufacturing, Professional Services, Government, Utilities and Financial Services.

Q: Who should I contact if I have additional questions?

A: Please contact your sales or account executive, or visit www.ensono.com/wipro if you have questions about how the acquisition announcement impacts you. Partners, advisors and analysts may contact us at [email protected].