Morse has insisted its customers will notice no changes after it revealed plans to restructure the business into five different units.

As revealed by CRN Online, the integrator said in a pre-close trading statement that it would be reorganising the business into five units due to the difficult economic conditions.

In his first statement as chief executive of Morse, Kevin Loosemore, who replaced Kevin Alcock last week, said: “Over the past few months, in a deteriorating business climate, we have undertaken a review of the company’s operations. The Board has concluded that the group needs to be simplified to allow the individual business units to concentrate on core competencies.”

The five business units are: Investment Management Consulting; Business Applications; Infrastructure Services and Technology, UK; Infrastructure Services and Technology, Spain; and Infrastructure Services and Technology, Ireland.

Speaking to CRN, Peter Critchley, marketing director at Morse, said: “This is nothing major for Morse. It is more a case of simplifying the organisation, rather than making a huge amount of change to the business. We are not expecting a big impact with these changes and our customers will not be affected.”

Critchley said there would be no change to the staffing structure, and scotched rumours of redundancies.

Ian French, managing director of consultancy Siceo, agreed that times were tougher for channel players, but said there was no shortage of work for the right firms.

“I think there is plenty of business out there,” he said. “Although margins are affected and credit is tight ­ a lot of firms have embarked on new business models and have put in some serious investment. The reality is it is going to be a difficult time for people who do not have the right balance sheets and structures in place already.”