One of Canada’s biggest Sage Software solution providers is growing again, as Calgary’s Britec Computer Systems Group has expanded into Southwest Ontario with a merger with London, Ont.-based MBCSolutions.

The deal is between two privately held companies, so terms of the deal were not disclosed. Roger Katarey will remain president of Britec, while MBC president John McDonald will join the company as Britec’s district manager for the London area.

Katarey said that mergers and acquisitions are an expected fact of life in the solution provider community today.

“The channel is consolidating,” he said matter-of-factly.

He adds that a big part of the reason for why is that with size and scale comes increasing prestige with and support from top vendor partners. “Smaller partners aren’t getting a lot of attention now from any of the major vendors.”

Katarey said the company focuses on acquiring like-minded organizations with similar focus and culture to Britec, and MBC is no exception. Both companies are longtime Sage partners and are focused on business software. Both also have growing custom programming practices, with MBC adding an additional programmer to Britec’s existing team of three developers.

“By coming together, we can offer a more robust, more powerful solution to our customers,” Katarey said.

In all, Britec focuses on Sage’s Accpac and BusinessVision ERP software packages and ERP from Microsoft’s Dynamics NAV, as well as offering CRM solutions and general IT support, along with the development practice.

The subject of growth by acquisition is a familiar one for Britec – over the last years, it has made 11 purchases. Those purchases have taken it from seven people to 55.

Its first purchase were in its home territory of Alberta, and it first looked outside that province’s borders just shy of three years ago, with a move into Toronto. With the merger, London joins Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna, Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto as operational districts for the company.

Expanding into London with MBC will allow the company to continue to develop the practice it built around manufacturing in its Toronto and British Columbia operations.

With 11 acquisitions in the last eight years, Katarey said Britec is good at finding the right matches and getting integrations done in a timely fashion. Still, every merger is a bit different, and every merger is a bit of a challenge.

“We’ve got a checklist that we go through,” he said. “There’s always chaos though.”

But Katarey takes a philosophical view of those challenges. “Chaos is a part of growth,” he said with a laugh.