Safe Harbor Statement

This transcript of an earnings call contains certain statements that are, or may be deemed to be, “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or “Exchange Act,” and are made in reliance upon the protections provided by such acts for forward-looking statements. Such statements are not based on historical fact, but are based upon numerous assumptions about future conditions that may not occur. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of forward-looking words such as “may,” “should,” “intend,” “estimate,” “will,” “potential,” “could,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” and similar expressions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements made by us or on our behalf. Forward-looking statements are made based upon information that is currently available or management’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects upon us, speak only as of the date hereof, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or correct any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that subsequently occur, or of which we hereafter become aware. Actual events, transactions and results may materially differ from the anticipated events, transactions or results described in such statements. Our ability to consummate such transactions and achieve such events or results is subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the matters set forth below:

• we offer a comprehensive set of solutions— integrating information technology (IT) product sales, third-party software assurance and maintenance, advanced professional and managed services, proprietary software, and financing, and may encounter some of the challenges, risks, difficulties and uncertainties frequently faced by companies offering a similar set of solutions, such as:
  • managing a diverse product set of solutions in highly competitive markets with a small number of key vendors;
  • increasing the total number of customers utilizing bundled solutions by up-selling within our customer base and gaining new customers;
  • adapting to meet changes in markets and competitive developments
  • maintaining and increasing advanced professional services by retaining highly skilled personnel and vendor certifications;
  • increasing the total number of customers who utilize our managed services and professional services and continuing to enhance our managed services offerings to remain competitive in the marketplace;
  • maintain our proprietary software and update our technology infrastructure to remain competitive in the marketplace; and
  • Reliance on third parties to perform some of our service obligations.
• our dependence on key personnel, and our ability to hire and retain sufficient qualified personnel;
• our ability to implement comprehensive plans for the integration of sales forces, cost containment, asset rationalization, systems integration and other key strategies;
• a possible decrease in the capital spending budgets of our customers or a decrease in purchases from us;
• our ability to successfully defend any challenges to the validity of our patents, and, when appropriate, license required technology;
• the creditworthiness of our customers and our ability to reserve adequately for credit losses;
• the possibility of goodwill impairment charges in the future;
• uncertainty and volatility in the global economy and financial markets, fluctuations in foreign currency rates and downward pressure on prices;
• changes in the IT industry and/or rapid changes in product offerings, including the proliferation of the cloud, infrastructure as a service and software as a service, and our dependency on continued innovations in hardware, software and services offerings by our vendors and our ability to partner with them;
• future growth rates in our core businesses;
• failure to comply with public sector contracts or applicable laws;
• our ability to secure our and our customers’ electronic and other confidential information, and remain secure during a cyber-security attack;
• our ability to raise capital, maintain or increase as needed our line of credit or floor planning facilities, or obtain non-recourse financing for our transactions or the effect of those changes on our common stock or its holders;
• our ability to realize our investment in leased equipment;
• our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses;
• reduction of vendor incentives provided to us;
• significant adverse changes in, reductions in, or losses of relationships with larger customers or vendors; and
• significant changes in accounting standards including changes to the financial reporting of leases which could impact the demand for our leasing services, or misclassification of products and services we sell resulting in the misapplication of revenue recognition policies.

We cannot be certain that our business strategy will be successful or that we will successfully address these and other challenges, risks and uncertainties. For a further list and description of various risks, relevant factors and uncertainties that could cause future results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements, see the Item 1A, “Risk Factors” and Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections in the Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2016, as well as other reports that we file with the SEC.

This document may also contain non-GAAP financial information. Management uses this information in its internal analysis of results and believes that this information may be informative to investors in gauging the quality of our financial performance, identifying trends in our results and providing meaningful period-to-period comparisons. For a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures presented in this document, see our earnings press release issued May 25, 2016

May 25, 2016 – FY16Q4

Prepared Remarks

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the ePlus earnings results conference call.  As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to Kley Parkhurst, SVP.  You may begin.

Kley Parkhurst, SVP

Thank you, Latoya.

And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. With me are Phil Norton, Chairman, President and CEO of ePlus; Mark Marron, Chief Operating Officer; Elaine Marion, Chief Financial Officer; and Erica Stoecker, General Counsel.

We want to take a moment to remind you that the statements we make this afternoon that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements and are based on management's current plans, estimates and projections. Actual and anticipated future results may vary materially due to certain risks and uncertainties detailed in the Exchange release we issued this afternoon, and our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2015 and our 10-K for the quarter and year ending March 31, 2016, when filed. The Company undertakes no responsibility to update any of these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events.

In addition, during the call we may make reference to non-GAAP financial measures, and we have posted a GAAP financial reconciliation on the shareholder information section of our website at www.ePlus.com.

I would now like to turn the call over to Phil Norton. Phil?

Phillip G. Norton, Chairman, CEO, & President

Thank you, Kley.

And thank you, everyone, for joining our fourth-quarter earnings call this afternoon. We are pleased with ePlus's performance for the full-year 2016, and are particularly pleased with our execution.

Many of our financial metrics, including revenue growth, gross margin, net income, non-GAAP EPS, were solid, and underscore our view that our go-to-market strategy continues to achieve our objectives. We believe we are capturing market share through organic growth, as evidenced by our full-year net sales, which increased 5.3%, and adjusted gross billings of products and services growth of 8.5%.

We made further strides in expanding our transformative technology solutions set, and posted solid performance with our existing client base, while also continuing to bring on new logos. We are satisfied with the investments we have made in our service-led model, our advanced security solutions, and steady but disciplined M&A strategy.

In addition, we remain very pleased with the customer activity we are seeing in high-margin annuity-based solutions and third-party maintenance contracts. We believe we remain on the right path. Our full-year gross profit, adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP EPS all grew well ahead of our net sales, demonstrating the increased value we are bringing to customers.

Our results for the fourth quarter were particularly strong. For the quarter, net sales increased 12%, while adjusted gross billings of products and services increased 171.4%. Gross profit rose 14%. Adjusted EBITDA increased 11.8% and non-GAAP EPS grew 15%.

The overall IP landscape remains very dynamic and our customers are taking multiple strategies to address their ongoing technology needs. We continue to see disruptive new technology gaining traction in the market, such as cloud, security and hyper-converged infrastructures. We believe we are addressing the opportunities generated by these transformative technologies and are well-positioned to capitalize on those trends in the market.

With that, I will turn the call over to Mark.

Mark Marron, Chief Operating Officer & President of ePlus Technology, inc.

Thank you, Phil.

As Phil outlined, FY16 was a year of solid achievement for ePlus. Our results for the year showed solid revenue growth, margin expansion and growth through both acquisition and organic expansion.

We've worked to build our services capability, expanded our expertise in security, and grown our footprint both nationally and in the UK. All of these efforts contributed to a successful FY16.

We have been investing in capabilities in professional and managed services for several years. And as our scale grows we are able to win larger, more sophisticated contracts. These clients then look to ePlus for incremental support and staffing as well as enhanced maintenance services.

One notable success in recent months was a contract we won with a multi-billion-dollar media company to manage a new data center. We won a multi-year contract for data center services, and in the weeks following we added several additional team members from our staffing services team. This kind of success helped to drive year-over-year growth of 31.9% in services gross profit for the fiscal year compared with 14.8% in FY15.

As the services business scales, top-line growth rates will naturally slow. Still, we are confident the services business will make further contributions to the business in FY17 and beyond.

As we look at the industry trends for FY17, we see a mixed environment that could lead to slower growth and longer sales cycles industry-wide. Clients are continuing to assess their options in storage and cloud computing, which can extend sales cycles, lead to solutions that could carry fewer opportunities for add-on services, as well. In addition, the market has shown an overall slowdown in IT spending, with Gartner estimating growth of 1.3% this calendar year as compared to 2.9% in 2015.

Despite these headwinds, we are confident we can modestly outgrow the overall IT market. Our business model brings together multiple parts of the industry, including established and emerging vendors, as well as a nation-wide client base of more than 3,000 clients, most of whom are enterprise scale and mid-market companies. We leverage this industry insight through our business transformation team, which is responsible for creating new products and solutions we take to market.

To give one example, our business transformation team helped create the ePlus FlashStack converged infrastructure solution. This is an all-flash flexible converged infrastructure solution. It combines the latest in computer, networking and virtualization software in a single integrated architecture. This provides high availability for business-critical applications and it lowers overall IT costs, so it is compelling for enterprise and mid-market customers.

In conclusion, results from FY16 highlighted many of our strengths. We do see headwinds in FY17 with an expected slowdown in IT spending growth and some extended sales cycles in certain IT sectors. Even so, we have the scale, expertise and financial flex ability to continue our track record of growing modestly ahead of the overall IT market.

I will now turn the call over to Elaine for a closer look at our financials.

Elaine Marion, Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Mark.

As Phil and Mark outlined, our results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2016 show we are moving ahead of industry growth rates and scaling the business while growing margins. Fourth-quarter results were particularly strong, with double-digit growth across key metrics.

In the fourth quarter FY16, consolidated revenue grew by 12% to $299.4 million, boosted in part by certain orders that were in transit at the close of the third quarter. Gross profit grew 14% to $66.9 million, yielding a consolidated gross margin of 22.4% from 22% in the year-ago quarter. This margin expansion reflects a changing mix in our technology business, which I will discuss a little later in the call.

Adjusted EBITDA rose 11.8% to $18.2 million as higher operating expenses offset some of the increase in gross profit. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $1.36, up 11.5% from $1.22 a year ago.

This quarter we are introducing non-GAAP diluted earnings per share to give the market a clearer understanding of our operating performance. The non-GAAP figure excludes acquisition-related amortization expenses and other income. On this basis, fourth-quarter non-GAAP diluted earnings per share were up 15% to $1.46.

Turning now to the quarterly results from our technology segment, which accounted for 97% of total net sales, adjusted gross billings of product and services increased 17.4% to $399.1 million, reflecting a strong growth in demand for our IT solutions. Net sales rose 12.9% to $292.2 million. Adjusted gross billings are sales of product and services adjusted to exclude the costs incurred in the sale of the applicable third-party software assurance, maintenance and services.

Gross margin on products and services was 20.6%, a 60-basis point increase from the fourth quarter of FY15. This increase was driven by a greater proportion of sales to third-party maintenance services and software, recognized on a net basis in the quarter, and also a greater contribution of gross profit from professional and managed services.

Technology operating expenses were up 18.3% from a year earlier. The single largest factor in this growth was a $5.8 million increase in salaries and benefits. Headcount in the technology segment increased in FY16 to 1,020 from 936 at the end of FY15, with over 50% of this increase stemming from the IGX acquisition in December 2015.

In addition, we incurred incremental variable compensation costs tied to higher gross profits. G&A expenses and depreciation and amortization were also higher, again partly as a result of acquisition-related expenses. As a result of these higher operating expenses, fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA rose 7.7% to $5.2 million.

Turning to the financing segment, we saw year-on-year growth in operating income as a result of lower costs in the quarter. Financing revenues were $7.2 million, down from $8.4 million as a result of lower portfolio earnings.

Direct lease costs fell more than 50% to $1.1 million as we had lower depreciation expenses from operating leases. Operating expenses were also lower at $3.1 million, down from $3.5 million. This was due to lower interest expenses, as we had lower debt and lower interest rates.

We also lowered our provision for credit losses in the quarter because our portfolio balance was lower and the credit rating mix improved. As a result, we had net G&A expenses of zero for the quarter. With this reduced cost base, adjusted EBITDA for the financing segment was $3 million, a 37.9% increase.

Turning briefly to the full-year results, we can see the same trend we have discussed -- solid revenue growth with expanding margins. As Phil and Mark have outlined, we feel that the full-year results provide a clearer picture of our financial profile, as our results can vary quarter to quarter. Net sales for the full year rose 5.3% to $1.2 billion, led by a 5.5% increase in technology segment revenue.

In terms of end markets for the technology segment, the most notable change was the growth of sales to customers in the technology industry, which reached 23% of net sales from 19% in the prior year. The financial services category also grew, rising to 12% of the total. Other segments were stable, apart from telecom, media and entertainment, which represented 14% of total net sales compared to 18% a year ago. Adjusted gross billings of products and services grew 8.5% to $1.56 billion.

Consolidated gross margin for FY16 was 21.8%, a 40-basis point increase. Gross margin on products and services expanded 50 basis points to 19.9% from 19.4% in FY15. Our gross margin on the sales of products and services have benefited from a shift in product mix over the last two years as we continue to focus on sales of third-party maintenance and services.

Adjusted EBITDA grew 8.3% to $81.3 million. Earnings per diluted share were $6.09, down from $6.19 in FY15 when we booked $7.6 million in non-operating income. Non-GAAP EPS rose 10% to $6.33 from $5.75 a year earlier.

Our largest operating expense is salaries and benefits. For FY16 salaries and benefits were 12.4% of net sales. Over the last three years, salaries and benefits range from 11.6% to 12.4% of net sales, and the increase in FY16 was due to the IGX acquisition that was executed late in the year.

G&A expenses for FY16 represented approximately 1.9% of net sales, in line with the last three years. Professional fees for FY16 were 0.5% of net sales, which is consistent with FY15 at 0.6%, but lower than 0.9% in FY14 when we incurred costs related to a patent infringement case that has now concluded. We started presenting depreciation and amortization separately from G&A expenses, which increased $5.5 million due to the acquisition of IGX, as well as a full year of amortization from the acquisition of Evolve in FY15.

We ended the year with cash and cash equivalents of $94.8 million, up substantially from $76.2 million at the end of FY15. This reflects the robust cash generation from our business, even as we scale the business. We bought back 116,302 shares in the course of FY16, part of our ongoing commitment to shareholder value. Our solid balance sheet gives us flexibility to continue growth, both organically and through acquisition, and to drive shareholder value through opportunistic buybacks.

In conclusion, we successfully executed our strategy in FY16, with positive trends in operations and financial results. And we ended the year in a strong position financially and strategically.

I will now turn the call back to Phil for closing comments.

Phillip G. Norton

Thank you, Mark and Elaine.

In closing, I would like to reiterate that ePlus remains committed to our long-term strategy of investment in the business to help ensure that we can continue to save market share. We are well-positioned to grow faster than the market.

The acquisition of IGX in the third quarter increased share buybacks in the fourth quarter, and steady investment tempo and customer-facing headcount to further drive organic growth all underscore our long-term strategy to increase shareholder value. We maintained a solid balance sheet, which allows us to make strategic acquisitions, invest to grow the business, and further enhance shareholder value.

We would like to thank our employees, customers, and shareholders for their support and confidence, which enables us to grow, invest and be a better company. We believe our culture of excellence and focus on providing the best customer experience truly differentiates us from the competition. ePlus is where technology means more.

I would now like to open the call for questions. Thank you.

     Operator

The first question is from Anil Doradla, William Blair. Your line is open

      Anil Doradla - William Blair & Co. - Analyst

Hey, guys; congrats on the results. I had a couple of questions.

 

Mark, you talked about extended sales -- clients taking a little longer for their purchases -- and alluded to some macro overhang in terms of the demand environment.  Can you build up a little bit more on that?  What are you seeing more particularly?

 

Is it in any particular geography, end markets?  And, more importantly, how do you think this plays out? And I had a couple of follow-ups.

Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO

Okay, not a problem, Anil. A couple different things -- if you look at it by vertical, our five top verticals are still the same top verticals. So, our SLED, technology, finance and healthcare all had pretty good quarters and years. We saw a little slowdown in the telecom, media and service provider space, but nothing significant.

When I talked about some of the deals, what we are seeing is -- in some of the deals, in terms of the size and what we are dealing with from a solution standpoint, are taking a little bit longer. The main thing I was trying to highlight there is that we are still very cautious about the overall growth, only because a lot of the major OEMs that we play with have posted flat to modest growth.

The IT industry analysts are projecting small growth. But we still believe in our strategy, and we're going to continue to invest in resources and offerings that our customers are looking for.

Anil Doradla - William Blair & Co. - Analyst

Mark, you talked about the telecom, media and entertainment. Is this tied to large service providers or is it across the board on that front?

Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO and President, ePlus Technology

It is actually across the board, Anil.

Anil Doradla - William Blair & Co. - Analyst

Okay, very good.

And then, you talk about outgrowing, obviously, the overall market. What are you looking at in your projections -- the overall market for 2017? Do you have some idea how you are looking at it?

 Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO and President, ePlus Technology

One, as you know, Anil, we don't give forward-looking guidance, in terms of growth. If you look at Gartner, I had mentioned in my piece, in terms of what the Gartner growth was for the year, that they are estimating 1.3%.

The reason we feel that we will continue to modestly outgrow the IT market is a couple different things. We've got diversification across different verticals. We've got diverse solutions. We've got teams that are looking at, not only solutions that our customers need now, but emerging technologies. We've got teams that are building relationships with those OEMs, both existing, as well as these emerging technology vendors. So we are going to provide solutions that our customers are looking for, both in today's market and in the future market.

The other thing is, we still believe in our strategy around cloud and security and infrastructure management, all overlaid with services. So, we are going to continue to invest in both resources and offerings to build out our capabilities and our footprint, both nationally and potentially beyond.

Anil Doradla - William Blair & Co. - Analyst

Very good.

And you alluded to security here. Cisco, on its results, talked about an okay quarter. But if there was a highlight, clearly security was a highlight that they brought out.

Obviously, you guys are plugged in; Cisco is a big customer. How are you looking at security in general? Can you give some color as to how much your security products grew during the quarter?

And assuming that Gartner's estimates are what the industry is, flattish, how should we be looking at the security product line for you guys? Would that outgrow the overall Company grow by twice or thrice -- any color would be great.

Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO and President, ePlus Technology

Not a problem, Anil. Security, if you think about it -- I think we mentioned it in one of the releases -- security for us is approximately 16% of our gross sales of product and services. It is one of our major focus areas.

If you think about security at a very broad brush, security is really a Boardroom topic. It is something that is top of mind for, not only the Board, but any public company, or any company for that matter. If you look at some of the public companies that have had some issues, they have damaged their reputation, and it cost a lot of money to fix the problems that those security breaches caused.

A couple different facts that will give you a feel that security is not only here today but for the future is -- I think it was Symantec said that there was 19.2 million new malware variants just in February of 2016. So, when I hear that kind of stuff is -- what we try to pitch to our sales team is -- what is working today may not work tomorrow. So, security is top of mind, not only internally within our Company, but it's top of mind with all of our customers.

We have a very focused security sales management team that is responsible for driving both the vision and the solutions that we are selling. And we have everything from assessments and vCISO strategies that we roll out to our customers that they are looking for from ePlus.

Anil Doradla - William Blair & Co. - Analyst

Great. And final question -- Elaine, I think there was $7 million of push-out. That is what you talked about, I think, on the last quarter. Did it actually turn out to be $7 million or was it larger than that?

Elaine Marion - ePlus inc. - CFO

The incremental change in our shipments and transit last quarter was $7 million, and those were all recognized in this quarter, in the Q4.

Anil Doradla - William Blair & Co. - Analyst

Okay. So, it wasn't larger; it was pretty much that level?

 Elaine Marion - ePlus inc. - CFO

No, it was as I reported in Q3.

 Anil Doradla - William Blair & Co. - Analyst

Okay, very good. Thank you very much, guys.

OPERATOR

The next question is from Matt Sheerin of Stifel.

 Matt Sheerin - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst

Thanks. Good afternoon, everyone -- just a few questions for me.

Just to get back, Mark, to your comments regarding a more cautious outlook, you guys are obviously growing and your strategy is working. Are you seeing anything near term? You're six weeks or more -- actually, almost two months -- into the June quarter. Have you seen anything near term that makes you more cautious in terms of your outlook, or that's been your tone for a while now?

Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO and President, ePlus Technology

Yes, Matt, nothing from a, what I'd say, customer spend. So, we're not hearing anything from customers in terms of slowdown or budgets being pulled back at this point.

The reason for being cautious is just some of the stuff that we are seeing and hearing in the market. Without naming names, if you look at some of the major OEMs that are out there, that are posting their results, they are modest to flat to down. You've got Gartner that's lowered their estimates for IT spending for the year.

But, once again, we believe pretty strongly in our strategy. We are not tied to any particular vertical; we are not tied to any vendor or any particular solution. With what we believe our consultative-led approach, we will be able to sit with clients, understand what they are looking to accomplish from a business outcome, and attach the appropriate, either product, service and/or solution.

Matt Sheerin - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst

And because you are taking that approach, offering hardware, services, solutions, et cetera, are you seeing the deal size bigger, penetration within your customers bigger and, therefore, it could be fairly lumpier going forward as a result?

Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO

That is tough to predict, Matt. If you look at our quarters this year, they were fairly lumpy. So, I think it is safe to say that that would probably carry forward.

When I look at it, if you look at our overall year in terms of numbers and percentages, it is probably the best way to look at our Business. To look at it at one quarter, we have a tendency, whether based on seasonality or a major vendor's end of fiscal year, that the numbers may jump up a little bit. But if you look at it on an annual basis, I think you will have a better feel for what we think we are doing as we go forward.

Matt Sheerin - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst

Okay. And could you tell us the percentage of revenue from maintenance sales and services?

Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO and President, ePlus Technology

Matt, we don't break that out. But what I can tell you is maintenance is -- I don't want to call it the golden cash cow, but that is where you are providing the first line support to your customers. So that is where you have the ability to build customer stickiness and loyalty.

We have built a team that does nothing but focus on renewals and first-level support. And we are actually looking to expand that with some of our managed services and enhanced maintenance service offerings. So, it is a key focus, but it is not something we break out.

Elaine Marion - ePlus inc. - CFO

Matt, you may have been asking about the total reclassification from gross to net, and that factor for the quarter was 27% of gross billings, as compared to the same quarter last year, which was 24%. And on an annual basis, the reclassification was 25% of gross billings versus the previous year -- FY15 was 23%.

Matt Sheerin - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst

But that includes software, as well, right?

Elaine Marion - ePlus inc. - CFO

It is software, maintenance and third-party services -- anything that requires reclassification

Matt Sheerin - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst

Okay, yes. I was just getting at the maintenance and software because that sounds like that is the key driver of your margin expansion.

Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO and President, ePlus Technology

No, Matt, I would not say that. If you think of some of the things we've talked on previous calls, we continue to invest in services, both headcount offerings and our capabilities. So, it is not just the maintenance -- the net to gross, if you will. It is building out our service capabilities, which traditionally are bigger margins than product margins.

Matt Sheerin - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst

Exactly, that was including services. That is what I was trying to get at, and figuring out the growth in services. Maybe a better metric to look at for you guys is the personnel or the headcount related to your services business as a way to measure the growth there, or whatever way you can provide to us so we can have a little bit better visibility going forward.

Elaine Marion - ePlus inc. - CFO

Right. You can do that. You can look, obviously, at the way our headcount structure is set up. But also Mark, I think, in his comments said that the services gross profit did grow just over 30% on a year-over-year basis versus, I think it was 14.8% last year.

Matt Sheerin - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst

That is helpful. Yes. That is very helpful.

And then, could you tell us what the contribution from IGX in the quarter was -- the acquisition.

Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO and President, ePlus Technology

Matt, we don't break out IGX specifically, but when we acquired IGX in the early December time frame of 2015, on a trailing 12 months they were net sales of $51 million at that point.

Now, one quick thing to note there: As we've talked about in previous calls, part of our strategy is to expand our national footprint. And now, with this case, with IGX, what it gave us, besides giving us some really good people and accounts, we picked up some security expertise that fits with one of our core focus areas, and also picked up a UK presence that potentially, over time, we can invest in and get them up to speed like we are in the US, and leverage accounts from the US to the UK, and the UK back to the US, if you will. But that is something that will take time and investment for that to happen.

Matt Sheerin - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst

Okay. And could you tell me what percentage of revenue came from Cisco, either for the quarter or the year?

Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO and President, ePlus Technology

It is always around 48%, Matt. I don't have the exact. We are trying to find it real quick, but we're normally in that 48%, 49%, give or take. We are just looking to get you the exact percentage.

Matt Sheerin - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst

Okay. And the other 10% suppliers.

And just lastly -- and I appreciate you taking all these questions -- just concerning the growth in the technology end market -- because I know, Mark, you have made some key acquisitions on the West Coast in the last couple of years. Is that part of the reason why you are seeing good cross-selling opportunities? Or is that just a market that is making an accelerated move to cloud and next-generation technologies?

Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO

Matt, what I would tell you -- yes, I would think that -- has it contributed to our growth? Yes. I would still consider that organic.

As we have talked about on other calls, in our acquisition strategy it's can we expand our footprint regionally or nationally, and now potentially internationally? Can we pick up a technical expertise or enhance what we maybe have. And then it's accounts and people.

So, in that case, the ones that you are talking about on the West Coast, we believe -- has it contributed? Sure, because you have cross-sell opportunities. We cross-train and try to upsell both our existing reps -- the existing ePlus tech reps -- on what we picked up from the acquired company, and then vice versa.

Matt Sheerin - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst

Okay. That's it for me. Thanks a lot.

Mark Marron - ePlus inc. - COO

All right, Matt. Take care, we'll see you soon.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions in queue at this time. I will turn the call back over to Phil Norton for closing remarks.

Phil Norton - ePlus inc. – Chairman, President & CEO

Thank you for your time and interest today. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. You may all disconnect. Good day.