Innov8 Technology

Sage software and infrastructure across the UK and Ireland

Innov8 Technology calls itself the biggest independent Sage business partner across the UK and Ireland. Its current work centres on Sage Intacct and Sage 200, and its site promises to help customers get further, faster. The company's own account of its history shows how it reached that point, moving from hospitality software to business software, mobility and infrastructure.

From touchscreen tills to Sage

The founding directors registered the company with Companies House on 23 January 1997. The first products were niche applications for touchscreen EPOS systems in hospitality, used at the time by well-known restaurant and sandwich chains. The company then aligned itself with Sage, became an accredited business partner and offered the Sage Line 50 and Line 100 products, which brought significant growth.

Mobility and handheld devices

Building on its niche products and Sage partnership, Innov8 developed mobile applications and worked with the handheld maker Intermec. It still supplies handheld solutions to the wholesale and distribution industry. In 2005 it recruited a specialist mobile application team in Cornwall, which became its research and development group.

Growth by acquisition

Between 2001 and 2009 the company bought several similar businesses to speed up its growth, including Bridge Computers and Phoenix Business Solutions, then Reflex Computers, Tobar Software in Ireland, ASAP, Alpha Business Solutions and OMS, a mobility and handheld business. Much later the group was formed by joining Innov8 with Viking Management Systems.

Infrastructure and virtualisation

In 2002, responding to customer demand, the firm introduced infrastructure services and partnered with Microsoft, HP and the desktop virtualisation specialist Citrix. In 2004 it was one of the first adopters of VMware server virtualisation, an approach that was then new and has since become standard. It later partnered with NetApp for storage, a relationship that led to a nomination as New Partner of the Year in 2012, and took on Dell converged infrastructure to offer systems that scale with a customer's business.

Sage range and status

A partnership with Sage Enterprise Management, announced in 2013, widened the range from Sage One to enterprise software including payroll and HR. In August 2018 the group became a Platinum Sage Development Partner, which it describes as one of only three Sage business partners in the UK to hold that status.

Approach

The firm says its knowledge of the application layer, especially mobility and remote working, helps it understand the effect on the underlying infrastructure and the quality of the end-user experience.