Integralis keen to maintain its own identity

Simon Church says Integralis will remain a pure-play security outfit as those around it see identities diluted

Integralis's newly promoted chief operating officer has headed off market chitchat that the Integralis name may not be much longer for this world.

Eighteen months after joining the company as UK managing director, Simon Church has been handed a board-level position after a barnstorming year for the UK arm.

The UK was the Prime Standard-listed firm's fastest-growing territory in 2010, with revenue rising 21.5 per cent to €81.1m (£71.4m), some 43 per cent of the group's total.

Church has also reshaped the UK business away from product resale and towards managed and consultancy services, and this is something Integralis is keen to emulate across its other operations, including France, Germany and the US.

Church told CRN: "My promotion reflects the changes that have been made in the UK and the success we have had which you can see in the 2010 results. When I joined in 2009 we were very much about fix and build and now we take a more solutions-based approach."

Japanese telco NTT seized a majority stake in Integralis in 2009 before acquiring rival integrator Didata outright last year.

With the name of Integralis's great rival, Vistorm, recently disappearing from view, speculation over the future of Integralis's identity has been rife in recent months, with some even suggesting that it could be folded into Didata.

Church said he was "very aware of the rumours" but was keen to snuff out such talk.

"NTT owns 78 per cent of Integralis but 22 per cent is on the open market, so to a certain extent this allows us to remain independent," he said. "But in saying that, NTT saw in us an organisation it could develop into something more. NTT is very keen to maintain our pure-play status and extend that into its own group companies and client companies."

Didata may be 20 times the size of Integralis, with a focus on networking rather than security, but the two firms have locked horns over the years. Both are top UK partners of Check Point and F5 Networks, for instance.

Proof of identity

Church said he could understand the speculation that the duo would join forces, but revealed the co-operation would be limited to a formal partnership.

"As an outsider looking in, I would have jumped to the same conclusion," he said.

"We are working very closely with Didata. We have had some very good ad hoc client engagements to date and the relationship is coming together very nicely. There are some very close synergies. If you add in the scale of NTT, it makes us a very formidable organisation."

In his new role, Church said it was paramount to respond to client demand by exporting its solutions-based approach abroad.

Deepening Integralis's minimal footprint in NTT's native Asia, either organically or through acquisition, is a priority.

Church also put out a plea to disill­usioned staff at rival security suppliers that have recently changed ownership.

"If you look at the demise of Secure­works into Dell, Cybertrust into Verizon or Counterpane into BT, you see that there are not many organisations that do what we do," he said.

"They are struggling to keep their identity and will therefore struggle to retain resource. Organisations that concentrate on deep aspects of security can provide staff with the environment in which to practise their security skills and be with like-minded people."

Church admitted the firm's greater emphasis on managed and professional services initially created some misunderstanding among vendors.

"Some saw it as us moving away from vendor technology but that is absolutely not our strategy," he said. "We can marry vendor technology alongside managed and professional services. Wherever possible I would like to remain vendor agnostic and we will continue to walk that tightrope."

Terry Greer King, UK managing director at Check Point, said Church's elevation to a global role has echoes of Dan Turner's promotion to chief executive of HP Information Security (formerly Vistorm).

"It looks like they have the right man at the helm," he said.

"Dan Turner's brief is also now global. It is great for Check Point that those two guys both now have propositions for global customers."

He added: "The combination of Integralis and Didata looks interesting from a Check Point perspective. We need to get better in terms of how we deal with global accounts and we have global partners that can help us with that."

Alex Raistrick, country manager at vendor Palo Alto, said: "Integralis has absolutely not changed since the acquisition, which is refreshing. It
is more of the same but better and it has become a much slicker business with Simon and Neal [Lillywhite] running it.

"Didata has a great client base and it would be nice to work with Integralis with those clients."

Chris Walsh, sales director at security distributor Exclusive Networks, welcomed the fact that Integralis would remain separate from NTT and Didata.

"NTT sells diff­erent products and solutions to Integralis and the fact that it is keeping its identity allows us to be more focused in our approach to supporting them," he said.