Morse splits business into three new divisions

Move puts paid to recent rumours about alleged aim of selling its infrastructure business

Morse has divided its business into three units and scorned industry rumours that it is selling its infrastructure business to a major rival.

Morse has striven to shrug off its corporate VAR image and complete a transition to a technology services company, along with rivals SCC and Computacenter, (CRN, 9 May). Last month Morse admitted it had made over 100 people redundant as part of the restructure.

Peter Critchley, strategy director at Morse, told CRN that the firm had been a “business in transition for many years”, but that it has reached its final destination. Morse’s three new units consist of Management Consultancy, Business Consultancy and Technology Integration. The management business will concentrate on process and information management, the business unit is based around the firm’s acquisition of Diagonal, and the technology unit will focus on infrastructure services and IT.

Critchley dismissed rumours that the firm was planning to sell its infrastructure business. “We are not getting out of the product business – it is a component part of our service offering,” he said.

“We are a different business to two years ago. We have had a lot of pain in transition, but we have worked hard to get the segmentation right. A lot of firms still have that pain to come.”

Les Billing, managing director of system builder Microtronica, agreed. “As business levels drop, firms have to trim their structure accordingly. There is validity in what Morse is saying – those that are in control of their business will cut their cloth accordingly. I don’t see any signs it is going to be anything but a tough year ahead,” he said.

Andy Cordial, director at storage specialist Origin Storage, said: “We have done all our restructuring and are in a solid position. As an industry we have suffered recently. There are always going to be companies that struggle, but it is important to try and specialise in a niche area because that’s where the ma rgin is.”