Former Vistorm bigwigs reunite to revamp Intrinsic

Merseyside VAR pushing into hybrid IT and consulting under new management team that includes quintet of former Vistorm executives

Five former Vistorm executives have reassembled at Intrinsic to front the Merseyside VAR's push to reinvent itself as a "hybrid IT" specialist.

Since taking the reins last September, ex-Vistorm chief executive Darren Antill has brought in three of his old lieutenants to help revamp the business, whose background is in telecoms and networking.

Former Vistorm CTO Steve Browell was already at the private equity-backed VAR having joined in the same role towards the end of 2012.

Antill said 2014 will see Intrinsic position itself as a "single pane of glass" to manage its customers' off- and on-premise computing needs as they weigh up which services to move to the cloud and when.

"We want to be the leading UK hybrid IT managed service provider," Antill declared.

Browell and Antill worked together at Vistorm before the security integrator was sold to EDS in 2008 (which itself sold up to HP a year later) and Intrinsic has recently hooked in three more former Vistorm figures to bolster its transformation. These are Jennie Cronin, who joined last month as chief people officer, Simon Langton, who is heading up R&D, and Mark Lawrence, who starts as managed services boss next Monday.

"We've got new management, have had an internal review to assess what our customers want, and now we've lined up all our ducks," Antill said.

Intrinsic intends to expand its professional services headcount from 30 to 40 over the next nine months. It will focus on providing guidance to end users facing indecision and confusion over their cloud strategy, Browell added.

"We did some work in the latter part of last year meeting customers and asking them what was on their agenda," Browell explained. "They said 'cloud', but when we asked them what they were doing, they weren't sure. They weren't sure when to do it or what to do, and whether if they did do it, it would work with what they already have. That indecision made us realise that, instead of us trying to force a decision to go one way or the other, actually the real skill is in helping them make that informed decision.

"We are building out a capability to help people make a good decision."

Antill (pictured below) said Cronin was enlisted to help build out the management team and scale the business, as well as to ensure Intrinsic's managers are skilled in the right disciplines.

"You can't expect people to take on more responsibilities and transform the business without training and investment," he said.

Intrinsic's former chief executive, Adam Jarvis, left the business last month following a handover period, Antill confirmed.

"We are looking for a new sales director," he said. "Adam decided he wanted to do other things and has been very loyal helping with the transition from one CEO to another."

Intrinsic draws half of its sales from local government, blue light services, healthcare and other clients in the public sector, which Antill said is embracing cloud.

"We're very encouraged by the government pushing the fact it wants to deal with mid-market companies like us and that there are new frameworks coming out to spend on cloud-based solutions," he said. "That's underpinning what we're doing, particularly in the public sector."

The Haydock-based VAR, which counts Cisco, Avaya, Microsoft, NetApp and Citrix as its key vendors, is also expanding its headcount in London and Scotland.

Antill indicated that private-equity backer RJD Partners will support acquisitions should the right targets present themselves.

Intrinsic turned over £36.4m in 2012 and although Antill said the 2013 figures were not yet finalised, he claimed managed services sales rose by 25 per cent last year.