Fawcett reveals plans for NextiraOne growth
Newly appointed sales director claims the firm is open to acquisitions
NextiraOne’s recently appointed sales director has revealed the pan-European network services firm will use a mixture of an organic and acquisitive strategy to beat overall market growth again in 2007.
Having worked at IT services giants such as IBM Global Services and Telindus, Perry Fawcett will now head up NextiraOne’s commercial strategy. Fawcett told CRN that the firm is open to acquisitions under new backer ABN AMRO Capital France (CRN, 20 June).
Fawcett also claimed that NextiraOne’s 2006 growth rate topped the industry average. Boosted by its late-2005 acquisition of GFI Informatique’s UK arm and its recruitment of 100 staff, its UK sales hit £54m.
Fawcett said: “We will keep an interested eye on the market. There are a lot of revenue opportunities out there.”
Fawcett, who was previously vice-president of sales at Star Technology Group – a division of security vendor MessageLabs – declined to elaborate on what area NextiraOne would next invest in, but hinted that the firm is keen to bolster its consulting and managed services proposition.
“The market is driving more to unified communications,” he said. “To support this growth, we need to invest in services, particularly in consulting and managed services.
“Managed services will be an increasing proportion of our sales. More and more companies want services provided as a cost of revenue rather than as a large project.”
Bob Tarzey, services director at analyst Quocirca, said: “Suppliers who want to provide good value to customers need to ensure that they have an increasingly diverse range of IP-based offerings. If NextiraOne does this, it’ll have a good year.”