Cogeco Cable has been quiet (pardon the pun) since it purchased Toronto-based managed service provider Quiettouch in late June, but now it’s making its motivations clear – the company has purchased the venerable IT solution provider to offer its enterprise and midmarket customers a more complete set of managed services.

The cable company has announced that Quiettouch will become part of the company’s Cogeco Data Services (CDS) division, adding additional services to its existing network, data centre and voice offerings.

“Quiettouch has had a strong record of providing quality service in the systems integration and IT management market since 1993, and we felt there was a very good match in marrying that to the network and data centre components,” said Tony Ciciretto, president of CDS. “It’s a very good fit.”

Cogeco has been expanding its services offerings recently – adding co-location, storage and backup services to its core networking services offerings. Ciciretto said the Quiettouch purchase will not only strengthen those services, but will allow CDS to expand into new areas, including IT management, firewall and virtualization, as well as closing the loop on its overall theme of providing outsourcing services. Quiettouch has presence in the Toronto region as well as Vancouver, which should allow Cogeco to expand its presence on the West coast, Ciciretto said.

“We have focused our attention and our networks on the GTA, but as we bring in more co-location services and managed services, we can expand into new markets – we have customers beyond the borders of Canada and we’re moving into international markets,” he said.

He also noted that both companies have a background in similar vertical markets, with municipal government and financial services being particular targets, and that both companies primarily target the medium and large enterprise space.

With the acquisition complete, the company is embarked on a 100-day integration plan. Over time, Ciciretto said the Quiettouch brand would be retired in favour of the Cogeco Data Services identity. “We have a succinct and clear integration plan, now it’s just execution,” he said.

So with the integration plan in place and the business plan getting strong reviews, should other managed service providers be expecting a phone call? Ciciretto said the company wouldn’t rule out future acquisitions, and “is always looking for other opportunities” but that it’s very happy with the suite of services it has between legacy CDS offerings and those from Quiettouch.

“We believe this acquisition provides us with a very nice suite of services that encompasses data networking services right to fully managed outsourcing services,” Ciciretto said. “We feel the offerings we have are appropriate at this point it time.”