BT reseller brands on awareness push
Engage IT and iNet aim to break association that BT is just a telco
The bosses of BT's mid-market IT services-reseller brands, Engage IT and iNet, have identified the widespread perception that BT is just a telco as their biggest challenge and are plotting closer collaboration.
BT operates four reseller brand, three of which - Dabs, Business Direct and Engage IT - were merged into a single business unit 15 months ago.
The fourth - Cisco Gold partner BT iNet - remains separate but focuses on the same 250 to 5,000-seat mid-market client base as HP house Engage IT.
Talking to CRN, iNet managing director Neil Pemberton (pictured) conceded that BT's lack of brand power in the mid-market IT services space remains a hurdle, despite the fact that between them iNet and Engage IT hold top-level badges with the likes of Cisco, HP, EMC, NetApp and VMware.
"We are probably a bit of a secret," Pemberton said. "Our organisation stands next to, if not above, any other [VAR] when you look at our tier-one vendor accreditations. Our biggest challenge is to ensure our customers - many of whom deal with BT - realise what fantastic skills BT has in the IT services space as that is not always an association people make."
When Engage IT, Business Direct and Dabs were merged in December 2011, Lowe's predecessor, John Thornhill, told us the plan was to create a unified brand by last summer. The three brands, plus iNet, together employ about 1,200 staff.
Engage IT boss Rich Lowe indicated this is no longer an immediate priority but said closer co-operation between Engage IT and iNet is on the cards.
This includes bundling their solutions together and, where viable, sharing back-office systems, he indicated.
"Customers come to us for largely different things, and we have to cater for that," he said. "But we are working more collaboratively in ensuring the BT channels - the account managers that are facing the customers - have real clarity on where to go and bundling the capabilities of the different units, if it satisfies the customer."
"To give customers what they want, we have to run our business efficiently. No other VAR or IT services company is without the same challenges to the extent we can leverage synergies at the back end. Where we can leverage the BT Group, we will absolutely do that in a joined-up fashion."
BT Engage recently made an investment in an HP-powered infrastructure-as-a-service platform at its Newport datacentre and Lowe said BT was poised to pump more cash into its cloud business.
"When you have the backing of an organisation such as BT, that backing is material and sets us up to accelerate the journey we are on," he said.