New ePlus CEO: We're Growing Because We're Investing In The Right Technologies

Just one day after taking over as CEO at ePlus Technology, Mark Marron told financial analysts the solution provider has placed technology bets in areas such as security and hyper-converged infrastructure to position itself for future growth.

Marron, who was elevated to the corner office after 11 years as chief operating officer, addressed financial analysts Tuesday after Herndon, Va.-based ePlus reported double-digit percentage growth in revenue and net income for its fiscal 2017 first quarter, which ended June 30.

The new CEO said ePlus is investing in the right technologies – namely security, hyper-converged infrastructure and cloud solutions – to meet customer needs.

[RELATED: ePlus CEO Phil Norton Steps Down After 23 Years, To Be Replaced By COO Mark Marron]

ePlus – No. 34 on CRN's 2016 Solution Provider 500 list – also boosted its gross margin on sales of both products and services from 20 percent to 20.8 percent.

"Our long-term strategy is to continue to [grow margins] by increasing our services and the solutions that we sell that are more margin-rich," he said. "We are being brought in by vendors and customers [for] bigger deals where we'll start with smaller margins, and then, over time, we'll look to bring the blended margins up higher by including services and multi-vendor … complex solutions that those customers are looking for."

Marron believes ePlus is well positioned to keep growing:

"We do believe we're in the right spaces that are hot in the market as it relates to security and all the different types of converged and hyper-converged solutions that our customers are looking at," he said.

Staff additions have helped ePlus bring in new clients or expand business with existing clients, Marron said, citing the formation of a team focused on account renewals, which has worked with both vendors and customers and helped increase renewal rates.

There may be more customer-facing hires to help win more business, Marron added.

ePlus shattered both top- and bottom-line expectations. Its revenue rose 10.6 percent, from $269.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2016 to $298.5 million. Net income, meanwhile, soared 21.1 percent, to $10.7 million, or $1.50 per share, up from $8.8 million, or $1.21 per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Marron said ePlus picked up more business in several verticals during the quarter, notably education, technology, health care and finance.

"We believe we've invested in the right areas," Marron said. "We put the resources in place to be able to provide those solutions and services to our customers, and we're focused on some of the different verticals where we think there might potentially be upside."