Affiniti appoints Renucci

VAR signs former head of Damovo to spearhead growth

Affiniti is pulling clear of the chasing pack behind BT in the UK communications integration arena, according to the VAR’s newly-appointed managing director.

Paul Renucci, who made his return to the channel on Monday after leaving Damovo in August (CRN, 14 August), told CRN: “Affiniti is starting to become a clear number two behind BT.

“It’s got scale, with revenues approaching £400m, and has all the elements any integrator would want, with skills to deliver from the base network infrastructure all the way up to applications.”

But Tom Kelly, UK managing director of Cisco VAR Logicalis, said: “Paul has come from a Nortel background and into Damovo, and been out of the channel for six months. It will be interesting to see Cisco’s reaction.”

Another of the UK’s super-VARs, 2e2, also made a top-level appointment last week.

In a move that reflects its recent growth and acquisition of Oracle specialist Compel (CRN, 12 March), 2e2 has recruited Fujitsu Siemens’s former executive vice president Neil Allpress as its first UK managing director.

Nick Grossman, business development director at 2e2, said: “The time had come when we needed a big industry character able to grow and maintain the right culture in our business as it grows. Neil has been responsible for a €1.3bn organisation.”

Grossman dismissed suggestions Affiniti was stealing a march on other second-tier UK integrators such as Azzurri, Logicalis and 2e2 itself - which is on course to post revenues of £250m in 2007.

“Affiniti has made a couple of acquisitions that have given it more critical mass, but I wouldn’t say it is leagues ahead,” he said.

“It faces a big danger in saying it’s pulling away and becoming a dominant force in the market, as it would then be very difficult to keep its agile edge and personal touch.