Ward, who left St Ives in March 2009, subsequently formed Inspired Thinking Group (ITG), a BPO company set up through the merger of three Birmingham-based marketing businesses.
ITG's latest acquisition was backed by Isis Equity Partners, which provided the £3.2m funding for the TMS deal and has taken a 22.5% equity stake in ITG in return.
Commenting on the deal, Ward said: "ITG is a dynamic, ambitious business that is pushing back the boundaries of traditional marketing.
"To do this, we need an agile business culture and Isis has supported this superbly. Together, we will grow ITG into a market leader."
ITG head of communications Paul Kearney added that the acquisition of TMS centred around its proprietary online marketing campaign management system, Media Centre.
"TMS owned the intellectual property rights for Media Centre, which is a web-based marketing technology platform," Kearney said.
"Media Centre is the heartbeat of ITG – it gives us the ability to manage print much more efficiently, but also to manage all marketing collateral.
"That's regardless of whether you're talking about video screens in a supermarket, an event, brand compliance, or whatever – and, obviously, print is a big part of that, but it's not the sole focus."
Kearney added that ITG's approach to the print management aspect of the business would set it apart from the "historical model".
"It's not about beating up printers on prices," he said. "One of the principles of ITG is to keep print sustainable, which means making sure that printers get a fair price for what they do."
ITG currently has a turnover of approximately £23m and, according to Kearney, aims to hit annual sales of £50m within the next 18 months, primarily through organic growth.
Users of ITG's Media Centre include Marks and Spencer (M&S) and Royal Mail's iRed document management division.
Ray Huntzinger, managing director of iRed, said that Media Centre "delivered exceptional efficiencies within a very short period of time".
Jane Hayman, head of marketing design and production at M&S added that the software had given it "greater visibility and control to reduce costs and get to market quicker".
