Springboard Media sold its IT arm to MTS Pro Services in a ‘merger’-like move

Springboard Media founder Everett Katzen and MTS Pro Services President Michael Volchok spent years talking about how complementary the two companies and their services were.

Center City-based Springboard’s IT arm has been providing professional information technology services for more than two decades, and MTS was doing similar work in its founding city of New York. Both companies got their start in the 1990s, and offer professional IT services to Mac and Windows clients throughout the world.

“We’d kind of talked around it, and then recently, someone finally said it out loud: ‘Maybe we should think about merging,'” Elaine Evans — once Springboard IT’s director, now the chief strategy officer of MTS — told Technical.ly.

Though MTS made the purchase of Springboard IT, it feels more like a merger, Evans said. The Springboard IT team, made up of about 15 people across sales, leadership and services, are staying on board as the companies figure out future branding. No major updates are expected over the next few months for clients, she said, though you can probably expect some expanded features toward the end of the year.

“We’re positioning it like a merger in our minds, bringing two sides together,” Evans said, “not just putting our employees in MTS and calling it a day. There were voids each side filled. It just made sense to bring the B2B business together.”

By  joining forces, the companies create one of the largest Mac-focused managed service providers in the country, they reported in a statement. The move will allow them the resources to support more clients, and the team has a range of certifications including in Jamf, Windows, Mac, networking and security.

Springboard Media remains a separate entity, Evans said, focusing on its Springboard Automation brand, which sells smart home solutions and education-focused Promethean interactive whiteboard tools to schools and organizations throughout the state.

The combined team sits at about 60 people, and is a mix of fully remote and hybrid workers. The local company has office space in Rittenhouse they’ve now dubbed the “Philly branch,” while the New York team heads into a coworking space when they need to meet IRL.

“I am so proud of our whole Springboard IT team and what we have accomplished so far, and I know that this acquisition will be the start of something incredible,” Katzen said in a statement. “The MTS team is comprised of talented, kind people focused on not only a great employee experience, but also a great customer experience.”

Evans said she’s excited that the deal brings the company the resources to create really interesting “human-focused” IT services. The company will be hiring over this year, with currently open roles in computer services, retail, engineering and account managing.

“That, and bringing two teams with similar cultures together is exciting,” Evans said. “We’re looking forward to having the tech talent MTS brings to the table and really producing.”