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NextiraOne is, as a brand, 18 months old in Europe. Globally, the business generates revenues of €2 billion, and is 2nd only to Siemens as an SI in Europe.
Wholly-owned by US buy-out firm Platinum Equity, NextiraOne provides genuinely independent voice, data and convergent solutions and services to business customers worldwide.
Ian Ashby is Vice-President Sales & Marketing at NextiraOne, having joined the organisation a year ago from Novar plc, a UK quoted company, where he sat on the Main Board.
Ian's 15 years' experience within the telecoms technology sector embrace CitiKey where he was CEO, Lucent (now Avaya) where he was VP Western Europe, and Cable & Wireless. Ian holds a degree and Meng in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University.
We met up with Ian to talk about two of the biggest organisations that you may not yet know: NextiraOne and their owners, Platinum Equity.
Platinum Equity is a big name in the US tech sector, but relatively unknown in Europe. Tell us about them.
Platinum Equity is a West Coast-based buy-out firm that focuses primarily on services businesses with a recurring revenue stream.
Their focus as an organisation is on ongoing operations, rather than the exit, which sets them apart from many in the field. Their uniqueness is derived from the fact that they are an M&A&O firm: and it is the "O" (Operations) that is the differentiator. Many of Platinum's 150 staff actually hold operations roles.
Tom Gores founded Platinum Equity in 1995, and last year the firm was placed 34th on Forbes' Largest Private Companies List. There are currently 19 companies in the portfolio and, to date, there have been just 12 exits.
And NextiraOne?
NextiraOne is a global communications solutions and services integrator.
NextiraOne was created in 2001 by bringing together acquisitions from Racal, Timeplex and Williams Communications. In April 2002 Alcatel's European Enterprise Sales & Service business was acquired to give NextiraOne the global reach it sought.
What have been the key cultural changes for NextiraOne post-acquisition by Platinum Equity?
The change in ownership has created a fundamental culture shift from that of vendor-owned channel to vendor-independent channel. The other key change has been the shift in strategy from being a business that offered services in order to help sell equipment, to that of a business whose primary focus is on selling services.
Internally, we have worked on developing our vision, values, mission statement, branding, strategy, and communication to support this new found vendor independence.
In sales and marketing terms, we have undertaken a sales force transition programme that has led to a consultative sales approach throughout the business and a high emphasis on marketing communications.
NextiraOne operates separate corporate management teams for the US business and the European business. What was the rationale behind this dual management structure?
Although NextiraOne Inc and NextiraOne Europe are fully unified in terms of supporting multi-national customers, vendor relationships (with the likes of Alcatel, Nortel and Cisco) and branding, the two organisations do have separate management teams.
The reasons are entirely pragmatic: 1) there are specific market requirements by region that are best met by an experienced team from within that region 2) vendor relationships that were strong in Europe can be more fruitfully adopted in the US and vice-versa and 3) at a very simple level, the differences in time zones represents an important consideration.
When NextiraOne Europe put in place its new management team, what were the core competencies sought?
In addition to the core functional skills required by role, whether that be sales, HR or corporate strategy for example, it was felt that the business required in each individual a blend of international experience within a blue-chip multi-national corporate environment, combined with start-up or early-stage experience - in order to shape NextiraOne into the type of business we wanted, and one that was going to be successful.
How will NextiraOne compete in what is a tough marketplace?
There are a number of ways. Firstly, we compete on international footprint. Specifically, we have true nationwide sales and service capability in 17 countries in Europe plus North America. Secondly, we now possess very strong vendor relationships with Alcatel, Cisco and Nortel. Gartner's 'Magic Quadrants' supports that this is truly a 'world class' portfolio of vendors for our key areas of focus. Finally, despite our size, we are fleet of foot, and can respond quickly to customer demand.
In terms of new strategic initiatives, we are also looking at partnering with tier one telco's and SIs, both in terms of providing them with specific technical skills resource, as well as geographical resource outside their traditional boundaries. This is a new initiative that is currently being developed.
To find out more about NextiraOne visit www.nextiraone-eu.com Platinum Equity can be found at www.platinumequity.com. Ian can be contacted at ian.ashby@nextiraone-eu.com.
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