Westcon claims European rejig won't dilute its focus
Comstor, Westcon Convergence and Westcon Security brought under one management structure as part of regional reorganisation
Larger resellers are set to have one key account manager for Comstor, Westcon Convergence and Westcon Security under an organisational shake up at parent Westcon Group.
The distributor is reclassifying the three business units as "solution practices" and bringing them under one head in four newly created European regions: UK & Ireland, Northern Europe, Central Europe and Southern Europe.
As part of the rejig, which comes five months after the arrival of new chief executive Dolph Westerbos, the Westcon Convergence solution practice has also been rebranded as Westcon UC&C.
The combined UK & Ireland business will now be bossed by former Comstor UK & Ireland head Tony Nevill.
Although the reorganisation will have no impact on the "vast majority" of roles, larger reseller customers could now be served by a small number of key account managers representing all three brands, Nevill told CRN.
"We are moving from a siloed approach to a more simplified approach for our customers," he explained.
"Increasingly, our larger customers have been asking us to do this as they didn't want to have a conversation with a Comstor salesperson about their Cisco business in the morning, only to have someone from Westcon drop by and talk to them about Avaya or Check Point in the afternoon."
The reorganisation is also about cutting waste and duplication between the three businesses in functions such as marketing, explained Jeremy Butt, who is now heading up Westcon Group's entire EMEA operation.
"But this will in no way dilute the specialisation each of the three solution practices has," Butt added. "Staff will stay focused on the same set of vendors they always have."
Although Comstor EMEA boss Andreas Dohman has left the business to go back to university, Butt stressed the reorganisation had not led to any job cuts.
Onlookers may argue Westcon Group has only managed to grow successful franchises with both Cisco and Avaya because it has kept Chinese walls between its Comstor and Westcon brands.
However, Butt and Nevill (pictured) said the move was driven partly by the heightened need among vendors to link arms with firms they may regard as rivals as they seek to build out best-of-breed cloud or datacentre solutions. They cited Cisco and F5 Networks' recent alliance as an example.
"The walls will still be there," Butt added. "We have spoken to Cisco and other key vendors and they get why we are doing this. We are absolutely going to maintain those separate brands and are not consolidating or closing any offices [in the UK, Comstor operates out of Cirencester, Westcon Convergence (now UC&C) out of Crawley and Westcon Security out of Slough]."
In fact, in the UK, Westcon Group will now have four offices rather than three following its acquisition last month of professional services firm Intact from parent Datatec, Nevill stressed.
"The integration of Intact into the organisation is a real opportunity for us to add significant value to both the vendors and partner community," he said.
"It has about 40 [UK] people that are services individuals we can now bring to bear under our Westcon and Comstor brands."