Owners of software reseller SHI acquire ITAM tool eTelligent

Owners of software reseller SHI acquire ITAM tool eTelligent

Thai Lee, CEO of SHI, with Michael Dell in 2012

ITAM service and SaaS tool provider eTelligent has been acquired by StrataScale, sister company to SHI International Corp.

Both StrataScale and SHI are led by Thai Lee, who took the helm of SHI in 1989 and grew it into the $5BN IT products and services juggernaut it is today.

eTelligent offers a SaaS platform for management of software and hardware assets and will underpin SHI’s current ‘Polaris’ ITAM services business. A function previously provided by License Dashboard.

Both eTelligent and SHI feature in our soon to be published competitive comparison of SAM Managed Service providers. When published the research will be available here.

Both companies scored well in the review so I look forward to watching the fusion of both offerings;

• eTelligent have a good platform based on sound ITAM logic
• SHI have licensing expertise, depth of resources and enormous reach

The combined service makes for a compelling proposition.

I believe this acquisition also marks a significant milestone in the ITAM industry.

With perhaps the odd exception of HP and Dell (discussed here), software licensing resellers have not typically acquired ITAM tools. This level of investment and commitment from SHI shows how seriously the ITAM space is being taken. It also offers SHI a degree of competitive edge in the fiercely competitive licensing world (We’ve got our own tech to support you… unlike our competitors who just resell someone else’s). More on SHI here.

Image Source: BusinessWire