X-on “supercharged” towards a new level of healthcare cloud telephony growth

UK cloud telephony specialist X-on to expand its Surgery Connect primary care market with growth funding from Southern Communications Group – SCG; parent group to draw on X-on’s tremendous success within healthcare sector.

UK cloud telephony specialist X-on today announced its acquisition by business-to-business communications provider Southern Communications Group (SCG), driving a significant new phase in X-on’s ambitious growth plans within the digital healthcare sector.

Under the agreement, X-on becomes a subsidiary of £110m parent group SCG, with access to funding to accelerate expansion from its core primary care base to providing X-on branded cloud communications to wider care networks. These include the integrated care systems (ICSs) being developed in England.

The acquisition by SCG will enable X-on to capitalise on soaring demand for its award-winning flagship Surgery Connect cloud telephony product for GP practices and develop innovative products and services incorporating newer technology areas such as artificial intelligence.

In purchasing X-on, SCG will extend its existing foothold in the primary care communications market to wider potential care markets. “Our commitment to evolving our platform with GPs and practice managers, as key stakeholders in the development process, is the key ingredient here,” said X-on’s co-founder and Marketing Director Paul Heeren.

Paul Bensley, who will continue as X-on Chief Executive under the acquisition, said: “This is a very exciting time for our company and our acquisition by SCG is the right decision at the right time to ensure we have the crucial funding to help us realise our true trajectory within the growing digital healthcare market.

“We’re very much looking forward to collaborating with our new parent to further strengthen our position as a key player in the market whilst maintaining our enviable reputation for exemplary customer service. We see huge opportunity from this agreement.”

Paul Bradford, Chief Executive of SCG, said: “X-on has an incredible presence in the primary care cloud telephony market, making it one of the strongest competitors in this space.

“Our acquisition supercharges X-on towards a new level of growth as the demand for cloud telephony in the primary care and wider healthcare markets continues to escalate. We see X-on as an unstoppable force in the future and its expansion will reach far beyond those markets.”

Currently, an estimated 11 million patients are now served by 1400 practices in England and Wales using X-on’s Surgery Connect, representing around 17.5 per cent of the GP practice telephony market.

In recent months, X-on has experienced substantial increase in primary care customers as GP practices, many of whom have ageing legacy phone systems, have sought to upgrade to sophisticated cloud telephony systems, with a tripling of new customer orders in the most recent reporting period.

This has been driven by the challenges of the Covid pandemic, emphasising the need for practices to have digital technology in place to support functions such as patient callback, patient triaging, online and video consultations, and remote working by clinicians and other health staff.

X-on was founded more than 20 years ago by Paul Bensley and Paul Heeren and launched from a barn in Suffolk. Initially it focused on selling IT support services and ringtones but then diversified into phone systems for the healthcare market.

Headquartered in Woodbridge, Suffolk, it now has a £10 million turnover and employs more than 70 staff.