Telecom to join forces with Computerland

By ADAM GIFFORD

Telecom Advanced Services is extending its reach by rebadging services from Computerland and GDC under its own labels.

General manager Chris Quin said the first customers for the Managed Integrated Network and Desktop service, offered in partnership with Computerland, should be signed up in the next few weeks.

"We have been doing managed networks, hosting, outsourcing of telecommunications, and we have been the supplier for the Citrix thin client project for Defence," Quin said.

"What we have not done is desktops, and we were looking for a partnership to allow us to do that. Computerland is strong in that space."

He said the service would target organisations with between 100 and 500 desktops. It would be offered through Telecom's direct sales staff and Computerland was also expected to bring in customers.

Telecom Advanced Solutions has about 400 staff, including 25 information technology and telecommunications sales staff and 50 design engineers. Computerland has about 600 staff nationwide.

Telecom's pure services revenue is more than $50 million, and Quin said Managed Integrated Network and Desktop should help Telecom in the business market, where it saw its best prospects for growth.

He said it was not a repeat of esolutions, the partnership with Microsoft and EDS which tried to sell applications online to businesses.

"In hindsight, esolutions was aiming at the wrong things. There was dotcom type thinking around the applications or the commercial constructs on offer," he said.

"We are focusing on what people most want from their network or thin client delivery. They don't want more applications, they want the things they have to work better and cheaper."

For those who do want new applications, Telecom will resell under the Officeware brand some of the applications on offer from GDC's iVasp service, including Microsoft Office and exo-net business software.

Quin said Officeware was aimed at companies with fewer than 200 desktops. Advanced Solutions had been working with GDC on the plan for several months, and it was not a concession for GDC losing the Telecom patch contracts.

Computerland head Chris McKay said the partnership meant customers would be able to get IT and network support through the same relationship.

"When you are operating in a tight, mature market, you have to do things differently to drive positive growth above what the market is growing at," Mackay said.

Dinesh Kumar, country manager with research firm International Data Corporation, said Telecom Advanced Services had made huge ground over the past three years.

"Outside New Zealand, most telcos are moving into services, it is a natural extension of their business. It is the way the business is heading with the convergence of telecommunications and computers," he said.

Computerland was a logical partner because of its franchise system, which gave it coverage across the whole country.