Business software specialist Access Technology Group has continued its drive to sell direct to customers with the acquisition of another of its resellers.

Access, which is based at Stratford St Mary, on the Suffolk-Essex border between Ipswich and Colchester, has now made five reseller acquisitions since undergoing a management buyout, backed by Lyceum Capital, in March 2011.

The latest deal involves the applications division of Atlas Business Systems, based at Nantwich, in Cheshire, and will see 12 Atlas staff join the Access team.

Chris Bayne, chief executive at Access, said: “Our strategy is to sell direct to our customers. By acquiring Atlas’ applications division we will now support, service and supply another 170 Access Dimensions customers.

“This will also bring more opportunity into the business in terms of the expertise of the staff who join us, and the opportunity for our new customers to benefit from our portfolio of integrated business solutions, including finance, HR, business intelligence, CRM, warehousing and supply chain, alongside our cloud platform, Access aCloud.

“With our focus on having a direct relationship with our customers it is the perfect time to buy one of the largest remaining Access resellers. We’re bringing a team of people into our business who have a great deal of experience of our products, so we know the business and its customers will benefit from the acquisition.”

John Butler, managing director of Atlas, said: “We’ve been working with Access for 20 years, and I think it’s a brilliant company with brilliant products.

“Access is now broader as a business than when we started as one of its resellers, and is perfectly placed to continue the service and support for Atlas’s customers. It was the right time for Atlas and Access.”

Access has been acquiring its reseller base consistently over the past few years, including:

Previous reseller acquisitions by Access have included Accounting Technology Ltd, Elite Business Systems Ltd,

the Access customer base of Hoge 100 and DHC Ltd.

Mr Bayne added: “Customers like to know that they are dealing direct with the author of the product, they can questions us, visit our development centres and get involved in the product roadmap.”