Armanino Buys Rose Business Solutions

Accounting and consulting firm Armanino has purchased Rose Business Solutions, effectively combining the Microsoft Dynamics consulting and reselling businesses.

While financial details of the purchase were not disclosed, the deal allows Armanino to take on 10 (or half) of Rose’s staff, as well as approximately 250 Dynamics customers. Rose Business Solutions has represented Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM as a consultant and reseller for over two decades.

The consultants joining Armanino will remain at Rose’s San Diego office, while the remaining staff, as well as chief executive Linda Rose, will continue at RoseASP -- a Dynamics hosting business started in 2000 by Rose. Armanino has also signed a strategic partnership agreement with RoseASP to provide hosting services to its clients, particularly around its Dynamics AX business.

Armanino is a partner for Microsoft Dynamics GP, AX and CRM as well as Intacct and Adaptive Planning.

The deal came about over the past year, with Tom Mescall, who heads up Armanino’s consulting practice, speaking more seriously about a merger with Rose in August during a Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle meeting. He noted the two were “complimentary” in their business cultures and spent the next several months discussing timing and how the transition would work.

“The biggest hurdle with any potential merger is a cultural alignment and the way [Rose] built the business are the same principals we subscribe to,” said Mescall. “Rose was also seeing customer demand for accounting services that they didn’t offer and we do as a full-service accounting firm. We know Rose Business Solutions customers will benefit greatly from all the new services that Armanino offers, including accounting, tax, budgeting, forecasting and business intelligence tools.”

Rose had seen her hosting business flourish over the past few years and noted since 2010, cloud business has grown by 40-50 percent per year and admittedly more of her attention was on RoseASP.

Rose had offers over the years for the consulting business, but felt the timing and the buyer were right for this sale.

“Armanino has used us for cloud services for last couple of years, especially on the GP side, and now we will be able to provide more cloud services for the AX side as well so Armanino can take advantage,” said Rose. “One thing that was really important to me was that I didn’t want to just be a hosting service, with our brands we are still a very strong sales and marketing partner. This deal also helps eliminate any perceived conflict of interest as well.”

Armanino was 7th on the 2013 Accounting Today VAR 100 list, reporting $46 million in revenue while Rose Business Solutions ranked 100 on the same list, reporting $4 million.

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