Today we’re pleased to launch NWN Carousel’ corporate blog, “Carousel Connect.” And, I can’t think of a better way to do so than to share the incredibly exciting news of Carousel’s intent to acquire, Atrion, Inc., a highly-regarded, award-winning IT services firm with a national customer base headquartered just down the road in Warwick. This is a huge opportunity for everyone at both organizations, as Atrion will be a substantial and valuable addition to our growing company.

Since our founding in 1992, Carousel has continuously evolved. We’ve developed a blue print for “smart growth”; an approach fueled by both consistent organic expansion and strategic acquisitions (today’s is our ninth overall). This evolution has been driven largely in response to customers’ needs and the changing dynamics of the many technology markets in which we’ve carved out a leadership position.

We’re acquiring Atrion at a fascinating time for our industry; we’ve been fortunate to have earned a seat at the table to both witness and help drive the growing synergy between business and IT. IT leaders everywhere are increasingly responsible for supporting their organizations’ strategic objectives. They’re now expected to take a more holistic perspective and think long-term. Therefore, they require their technology providers to be visionary, strategic advisors by anticipating their needs and delivering the right solutions to their specific business problems, while keeping them ahead of the IT innovation curve.

That is the very essence of today’s announcement.

• Carousel+Atrion delivers this valuable foresight and expertise to our customers.
• Carousel+Atrion creates a wave of opportunity for our employees, our local communities, our customers, and our partners.
• Carousel+Atrion = an entirely new level of vision, expertise, talent and scale.

From a technology standpoint, Atrion brings proven expertise in so many areas: security, productivity and collaboration, unified communications, networking, applications and integrations and data center solutions among them. From a business standpoint, perhaps its greatest asset – and a real differentiator over the past 30 years – has been its critical customer-centric mindset. Atrion’s unwavering commitment to delivering the ultimate customer experience is one of the company’s primary tenets and one which we have long admired.

Although Carousel and Atrion have enjoyed a healthy competition in the marketplace for many years, we’ve also shared a mutual respect, as well as a common vision for ensuring employee, customer and partner success. By adding Atrion to our team, we increase both agility and scale and we look forward to many more years of continued growth and success in creating value for customers by delivering desired business outcomes.

Today, as we reach a major company milestone, I receive great satisfaction in welcoming 250 talented, driven professionals to the growing Carousel family. Upon completion of the acquisition, our combined team will number more than 1,300 professionals working in 25 offices, serving as strategic advisors to more than 6,000 clients nationally and globally.

I can’t wait to go to market with the Atrion team. And, I can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds for all of us.