CC unveils plans to realign services
Corporate VAR admits it still has work to do at branding its services
Computacenter is aggressively realigning its services business to boost growth in its services brand.
As speculation in the City grows over the proposed management buyout by the firm’s co-founders Peter Ogden and Philip Hulme, the corporate reseller giant admitted it had not done a good job in terms of branding its own range of services.
“We are now making the distinction of putting more focus onto various markets and pushing our services brand out to our existing and potential customers,” Tony Cooper, head of services marketing at Computacenter Services, told CRN. “Product selling is about price and availability, but customers now have more complex projects that require tailored services. We are aligning around our regional units and specific account management, and although we don’t have vertical alignments yet this will be a natural progression from where we are now.”
Cooper said the firm’s mid-market and product units, CC Direct and CCD would be largely unaffected by the move, except for a closer internal integration with the services business.
Steven Rigby, general manager of rival SCC, said having both regional and vertical aligned services was the most efficient way to divide the market. “We operate vertically in terms of public sector and financial markets, but for the remainder of the country it is much more cost effective to have teams aligned regionally, so that services can be delivered locally.”
Alastair Edwards, senior analyst at Canalys, said it makes sense to run a dual strategy. “Aligning vertically is in line with what a lot of vendors are doing. They are also interested in where their partners’ vertical expertise is.”