Will Anderson

The acquisition includes Resolver’s product line, operations, and customer base of over 400 companies Klass Capital’s December 2014 acquisition of PPM, the industry’s leading authority on enterprise incident management software, was followed recently by their acquisition of Resolver Inc., a global leader in risk-based corporate performance, compliance, and assurance software. The acquisition includes Resolver’s GRC product line, their company operations, and an established customer base of more than 400 companies around the world. Will Anderson, CEO, stated, “The combination of Resolver and PPM will give us a truly unique, enterprise risk management solution that merges governance, risk, and compliance with end-to-end incident management.” Daniel Klass, Klass Capital’s Managing Partner added "Resolver is an essential component of Klass and PPM's vision to build a scalable SaaS platform for the risk and compliance market. We are excited to partner with the Resolver team, which brings to the table deep industry expertise and experience." Resolver’s Steve Taylor, who will be stepping into a new role as the VP of Business Development across both the PPM and Resolver, stated “Client demand has shown us the importance of integrating deep incident management capabilities with our existing risk management, compliance and audit solutions. With Resolver and PPM working together, we’ll continue to offer our clients industry leading GRC solutions with unmatched breadth and depth.” Elaine O’Sullivan, PPM’s President, echoed this sentiment, “More and more, our clients are asking how they can leverage Perspective for enterprise risk management across legal, finance, internal audit, and of course, security. Governance, risk, and compliance naturally become part of the conversation. We look forward to working with Resolver as we introduce their GRC suite to our clients, initially as a separate solution but, over time, as a unified platform.” PPM and Resolver will continue to operate out of Edmonton and Toronto, focused on their respective customer bases and current roadmaps. Over time, the two companies will be merged under a common vision, bringing together the leadership and operations of both organisations.

Klass Software’s acquisition of incident management software company PPM 2000 is the first step in an evolution to build a broad, unified software solution to manage multiple aspects of the security function. In buying PPM, Klass sought to obtain “a very good platform business and grow it with the existing team,” says Will Anderson, CEO of Klass Software (and now CEO of PPM). He sees expansion and enhancement of PPM as a “long-term project,” maybe 10 years. Klass Software is the acquisition group of Klass Capital, an enterprise software growth equity fund headquartered in Toronto. The acquired company will continue to operate as PPM, and the head office will remain in Edmonton, Alberta. Anderson says software related to the security market “looks a little unconsolidated to us.” Over time, he foresees pulling various software elements – PSIM, incident management, analytics, compliance – together into a single platform built around PPM’s existing software product. They will achieve the goal either by enhancing PPM, by acquiring related companies, and/or through partnerships. Anderson said the new PPM will likely do one or two acquisitions a year to build out and augment PPM’s capabilities. The company has $10 to $12 million “in our pockets” to invest, and could access another $50 million as needed over time. They are looking to invest $10 million or so each year in acquisitions. In terms of enhancements to PPM, Anderson says the core incident management capabilities are mature, and new features will likely be related to real-time operations, more sophisticated investigative tools, and analytics. The tools exist in the market, but “smaller clients need us to pull them together and put them in a box.” The main idea is to take information and insight available from various systems and make it “actionable,” he says. “We want to really talk about solving problems,” he says. “We are an open organisation. We have to be able to interface when it makes sense. It’s a very fluid industry, and we are here to help solve the customer’s problem.”  “We’re excited about a future focused on expanding PPM’s incident management portfolio with complementary technology and services,” says Elaine O’Sullivan, who will continue as president of PPM under the new ownership. “The value of a software company is knowledge of the market,” Anderson says. “You have to have people who really get the problem, and PPM has the best people in terms of going to market. Their technology is among the best in the space, and their customer list is impeccable – one in every five Fortune 100 companies use it. It’s a great fit all around – great company, great people, great technology. What was lacking was capital, which we have. We can add value by making them better, improving execution of software management.”

The company will continue to operate as PPM and their head office will remain in Edmonton, Canada PPM 2000, the industry’s leading authority on incident management, has been acquired by Klass Software (“Klass”), the acquisition group of Klass Capital, a leading enterprise software, growth equity fund headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.    Effective immediately, Will Anderson, the CEO of Klass Software, is now the CEO of PPM. Elaine O’Sullivan and Brian McIlravey will continue with the company as President and Executive Vice-President, respectively.    “PPM‘s innovative incident management solutions are one of the cornerstones driving today’s new security models built on real-time analysis and incident prevention,” said Anderson. “With the strategic and financial backing of Klass, PPM will further improve on the successful growth that the company has experienced since its founding in the rapidly evolving professional security market.”   “As the founders of PPM pass the torch to the company’s new owners, it’s about strengthening PPM as a technology company,” said O’Sullivan. “We look forward to accelerating innovation, pursuing new markets, and delivering more incident management options to our clients. Added McIlravey, “Klass is a great fit for PPM, and the right company to take us to the next level. We’re excited about a future focused on expanding PPM’s incident management portfolio with complimentary technology and services.”   The company will continue to operate as PPM, and their head office will remain in Edmonton, Canada. Secure Strategy Group (SSG) served as the exclusive advisor to PPM (SSG provides Broker Dealer Services through Pickwick Capital Partners, LLC Member FINRA SIPC).