Peapod go on acquisition trail – KIM gets cuffed

Peapod LegalOffice Limited has announced the acquisition of KIM Software Solutions Limited, a leading provider of business systems solutions for police and local authorities. As a result of this agreement, Peapod will benefit from KIM’s highly flexible approach to product development, as well as the company’s proven track record of providing custom-made solutions that deliver real business benefits to its clients. KIM has earned a strong reputation over the years for designing, building, enhancing and supporting bespoke software applications that include internet and intranet database driven systems. The KIM management team of Peter May, Bruce Kempton and Ted Higgs are confident the agreement with Peapod will help to deliver highly valuable development synergies for everyone involved, as well as a number of important business opportunities. The combined annual revenue of the new group will be circa £3 million, with an expected increase of 15% EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) in its first full year of business operation.“KIM is well known in the industry for its ability to create bespoke software solutions and also customise existing products to meet its clients’ specific needs,” says Ian Wimbush, the chief exec of Peapod LegalOffice. “Peapod’s acquisition of KIM will therefore provide a clear opportunity to use our joint development expertise to produce innovative products for organisations working within local government, the legal sector, criminal justice and many other markets. The challenges taking place within all these sectors, combined with an overriding need to be more effective and competitive, puts Peapod/KIM in a very strong position to deliver effective products that exceed users’ expectations, whether as bespoke or packaged solutions.”As a result of the acquisition, organisations in both the public and private sector will benefit from the specific expertise that Peapod/KIM can offer with regard to cloud-based and electronic filing technologies. In particular, KIM’s software developers will join the IT experts at Peapod to help develop, support and customise Peapod’s MyCase popular online communications suite, which is the first product to use the Microsoft Azure cloud environment for secure data hosting and management.