Nortel announces staff rejig to drive growth

A management shift at Nortel heralds the vendor's intentions for further growth

Vendor Nortel has reshuffled its UK management after bringing its Direct Touch team and its channel business under the leadership of one man.

Tony Bailey has been promoted from his previous role, running Nortel’s channel business, and replaces Moreno Ciboldi as pan-EMEA enterprise sales leader.

Bailey will now be responsible for the vendor’s distributors, system integrators, SME and customer contact solution teams.
Mario DiMascio retains responsibility for Nortel’s UK direct sales unit, but will have the added responsibility of looking after the company’s channel partners in his new role as vice president of direct touch and channels for the UK and Ireland.
“Connecting direct touch and the channel is about having a holistic view of the UK enterprise market.

“Our intent is to grow the business and I personally believe we are on the cusp of unleashing the true potential of Nortel,” he said. DiMascio told CRN his grounding as a direct sales manager has given him a focus on the requirements of end users.
He also indicated that he hoped the merger could help augment partners’ levels of knowledge in the unified communications (UC) market.

“For me, it starts and stops with the end user,” he said. “There is confusion around UC; some people think it is joined-up email. Resellers have not grasped that UC can help customers increase productivity.”

Bailey revealed that the vendor would move away from traditional hardware revenues. “There is definitely a trend towards more software and services,” he said. “Customers want to embed applications and that requires an element of services.”
He also claimed that the rejig would allow Nortel a more focused approach to differing markets. “We will put together more targeted vertical solutions, around finance, healthcare, government and retail. “We can jointly drive business and we are in a strong position for working with our channel partners.”

Darren Boyce, managing director of Nortel VAR Applinet, hailed the reshuffle as a boon for Nortel’s resellers.
“I think this is a positive move; the way things are going in the market with consolidation, it is an ideal time for Nortel to look at having somebody with overall responsibility. The main benefit I would hope to see is that we will have a common message towards end users,” he said.