BT reseller arm finalises executive A-team

Chief executive John Thornhill unveils new-look board that will build the business over the next five years

BT's enlarged IT services business has unveiled a new-look management team and sales structure.

The 1,200-strong arm, which is set to be rebranded next spring, was formed through the merger of Engage IT, Business Direct and Dabs in September.

John Thornhill – the former Dabs and Business Direct boss who was handed the reins of the business three months ago – said he has created a board "capable of building the business over the next three to five years".

Former Nortel excutive Mike Hynes has joined in the role of chief operating officer while Lisa Webster, who previously worked at BT Global Services, has been named as chief financial officer.

Steve Rafferty, who joined Engage IT from SCC in the summer, will be enterprise sales director, with Daryl Platt filling the equivalent role in the mid-market space. Engage IT's former human resources director David Biggs retains the same post in the enlarged firm, while Thornhill said he is also looking to recruit a permanent business development head to support big projects.

"In making these new appointments we have clearly gone for a blend of people who are new and those who have been with the organisation for a while," Thornhill told ChannelWeb.

As well as reshaping its vendor focus, the enlarged organisation has overhauled its go-to-market strategy so its sales teams map on to those of BT.

This has seen the creation of a mid-market sales team that is based largely on Business Direct's Bolton operations, in addition to the enterprise-focused team at Engage IT.

Engage IT's specialist support teams will now work with both of these teams.

Thornhill admitted there had been some cutbacks to the specialist teams but stressed BT is adding heads to the mid-market salesforce, which has just moved to larger premises near the Reebok Stadium. This means overall headcount has remained "broadly the same".

Thornhill said the changes would allow BT's traditional telecoms sales staff to seamlessly pull various IT services capabilities into the sale.

"Previously, you had the disparate units of Business Direct, Engage IT, iNet and BT Conferencing operating in their own space with their own customers," he said.

"At the front end [of BT] you had direct sales teams operating in their traditional telco sectors without the ability to draw on the capable IT services professionals or sales people. And the delivery mechanisms were not integrated at the back end to offer all customers the elements of an IT solution."