Phoenix brings in fresh blood

IT services firm says four new heads will buttress customer retention efforts

Phoenix has made a quartet of management appointments designed to bolster its customer retention and service delivery capabilities.

The IT services firm, which recently took a £68.1m impairment charge after uncovering accounting regularities at its acquired subsidiary Servo, has simultaneously made three external appointments and one internal one.

John Adair, a 40-year IT services industry veteran, has joined as service excellence director, while Tom McMurdo has left Alcatel Lucent to take up the post of director of hosting and server operations at the firm.

Meanwhile, Phoenix has snagged IBM services honcho Richard Lawrence to run its Distributed Services and Network Services Capability Units.

Finally, Andrew Gibson has been promoted to the post of head of solution design and pre-sales for Phoenix's Systems Integration Business Unit.

Adair's role will focus partly on customer retention, something the 2,300-strong firm isn't taking for granted.

"In such a competitive market we know that Phoenix's size, its history and its expertise alone are not guarantors of success, which is why we have always placed enormous emphasis on service delivery and the customer experience," said Peter Holland, Phoenix's group operations director.

"With Richard, Tom and John, Phoenix has brought in three highly experienced team members who will be integral to continuing our record of delivering the best possible experience for our customers and partners."