Telecoms giant BT has decoupled its indirect channel arm from its Local Business unit just 18 months after it controversially merged the two to form a joint ‘Partner Management’ business (CRN, 18 August 2005).
BT has moved its indirect activities, renamed BT Indirect Partner Sales, into its Service Provider Group. Partners insist the U-turn will allow the carrier to recapture channel focus.
Lee Williams, director of the network services division at distributor Rocom, said there had been “no clear channel message” from BT in the past 18 months. “This [move] demonstrates BT’s commitment,” he said.
Mark Evans, director at BT VAR ME Consulting, said: “We will have our own management team to focus on the channel and service providers.”
The reorganisation follows the departure of BT Partner Management director Mark Cornell to BT’s Phonebooks division.
A BT representative said: “Mark’s decision to move provided an opportunity to review the structure of the Partner Management organisation.
“While there are a number of synergies between the indirect channel and Local Businesses, there are stronger operational similarities between the Service Provider Group’s approach to customers and BT’s channel-partner relationships.”
John Carter, managing director of BT distributor DMSL, said: “Now we have management that will understand the channel.”
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