FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
gen-i Appoints New General Manager for Australia
Internet Integrator continues to expand across the ditch
AUCKLAND, July 11, 2001 - Internet Integrator, gen-i has appointed John Bessey as its new General Manager for Australia.
His role and responsibilities will include leading gen-i’s team in Australia, managing the Sales and Marketing team,
formulating strategies for client acquisition and as General Manager, he will also have input to setting the company’s
strategic direction as a whole.
gen-i currently employs a total of 16 staff in its Melbourne office, and expects this to grow to 40 by October
(including the opening of its Sydney office), and over 100 staff by early 2002.
According to John, the expansion into Australia was fundamentally important from a strategic perspective and inevitable
due to the trans-tasman requirements of many of gen-i clients.
“gen-i has developed more large scale Citrix implementations than any other business in Australasia. For instance, we
are currently working on generating multi-million dollar savings for Air New Zealand Ansett over the next three years,
with the provision of facilities management services, configuration, optimisation and support services for the airline.
This expansion further represents a significant opportunity for us to leverage our growing intellectual property and
competencies in server based computing (thin client architecture), Microsoft applications, network security and Wireless
Application Protocol (WAP).”
“Further, we are successfully winning new business with Australian clients through strong partner relationships with the
Australian arms of our key global partners,” says John.
Prior to this role, John was General Manager of Procurement at gen-i where he was responsible for the management of a
supply chain team consisting of 40 staff. This team worked closely with many of gen-i’s blue chip clients and key
partners, streamlining the company’s entire procurement process and ensuring the company’s cost efficiencies and
performance improvement goals were realised.
He has also been Marketing Manager at Dell Computers and Sales and Marketing Manager of Business Intelligence Solution
Provider, PST Software.
In March 2001, gen-i was selected as the preferred supplier for the largest
technology contract awarded to a New Zealand IT company and also one of the
largest IT contracts in Australasia to manage over 11,500 workstations for the Air
New Zealand Ansett Group.
ENDS
About gen-i
gen-i limited is the first and largest New Zealand-based e-business Internet integrator, focusing on designing,
building, implementing and supporting e-business solutions and systems for large corporate customers. With over 400
people at offices in major centres in New Zealand, gen-i extends customer support worldwide – both online and through a
network of service partners.
gen-i has four major areas of focus and expertise: Infrastructure, Ventures, Field Force and Procurement. gen-i
Infrastructure is geared to providing and supporting all the hardware, software and networks required for today’s
e-business – and to achieve that in a number of new ways. gen-i Ventures is an Internet innovation operation geared to
providing knowledge and experience in building e-commerce sites, Intranets, extranets and implementing and supporting a
wide range of e-business & traditional applications. gen-i Field Force is New Zealand’s leading technology engineering onsite capability, expertly
trained and ready to deploy or maintain the country’s leading technology networks. gen-i Procurement provides a fast,
easy and cost-effective way to select, purchase, install and maintain office technologies.
gen-i is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cullen Investments Limited. Its blue chip clients include Air New Zealand,
Department of Corrections, Department of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, National Australia
Bank, New Zealand Dairy Board, Simpson Grierson and WestpacTrust.
Prior to its name change in 2000, gen-i traded successfully for more than 20 years as Wang New Zealand.