Education IT Reporter

Avaap, an advisory services and IT management consulting firm, announced its acquisition of Navigator Management Partners, a management and technology consulting firm specializing in ERP systems, business intelligence (BI) and change management.

The acquisition expands Avaap’s capabilities from an Infor-only consulting organization to a best-in-class cross-platform technology advisory and management consulting firm for organizations in healthcare, retail, higher education, nonprofit, government, manufacturing and other commercial industries.

Navigator is based in Columbus, OH.  Since its founding nearly two decades ago Navigator has realized success in client realization of return on investment and business benefit when implementing large IT projects, process improvements, or organizational change management support.

Avaap has more than 200 customers in 35 countries. Among the major market drivers, including ongoing pressure to improve efficiency and cut costs, increased merger and acquisition activity, and lack of skilled IT professionals, especially with BI and change management capabilities, Avaap is able to provide highly specialized industry expertise across the major enterprise applications to help customers optimize IT ecosystems, cut costs, and improve workflows.

Avaap’s mission of building deep industry expertise is further strengthened with this acquisition, the firm said.

“The acquisition of Navigator is a landmark step in Avaap’s strategic development,” said Dhiraj Shah, president and CEO, Avaap. “Digital transformation, migration to the cloud, and other industry disruptors are increasing the need for customers to seek an experienced partner that understands their business, not just the technology. Our focus is to have the leading market share in the industries we serve by providing superior end-to-end capabilities.

“This acquisition, along with the continued support from our capital partner NMS Capital, and the new partnerships we inherit, allow us to support our growth goals and extend that commitment to our largest assets; our customers and employee citizens.”

Navigator CEO David Schoettmer added, “We are two growing and profitable companies, both passionate about our shared vision and values. Joining together puts us in a stronger position to build for the future faster and better than before, combining a massive breadth of experienced resources across multiple ERP platforms, as well as BI and change management expertise.

The acquisition will allow our existing and new customers to have access to some of the best people and technologies available to address their critical missions and our employees will benefit from greatly expanded growth opportunities as part of the new company. We see strong opportunities for growth and the combined organization will enable us to have the team and resources to do so.”