Commit Services acquires IBM’s NZ cabling business

Commit Services acquires IBM’s New Zealand cabling business

IP and skills retention enables new IBM Business Partner to establish immediate position in market and continue trusted client service delivery

New Zealand, 30th November, 2007 - IBM today announces the sale of its New Zealand cabling business to Commit Services Limited, for an undisclosed sum. Under the agreement of sale, all cabling staff will transition to Commit Services and the newly-formed company joins the IBM Business Partner community.

As an IBM Business Partner, Commit Services will continue to provide cabling services such as consulting, design and the implementation for IBM clients and the wider New Zealand market.

IBM acquired the cabling business through the Logical acquisition in 2004. The business has a nationwide reach with staff and contractors currently based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Under the sale agreement all cabling staff become employees of Commit Services as of 30th November.

“The retention of staff with key skills, blended with many years of experience across the business, ensures a smooth transition for our clients,” says Katrina Troughton, Managing Director of IBM New Zealand.

Together the company’s management team has accumulated over three decades of business and management experience with a range of NZ blue-chip IT and telecommunications organisations.

Warren Giles, General Manager of Commit Services undertakes the overall responsibility for business operations and management. He departs IBM after three and a half years of service, to undertake his new GM role, in which he’ll draw upon his fifteen years of experience working in the cabling arena.

Mark Giles, Director of Commit Services has held the positions of CEO at Alcatel (1999 – 2004), and Director of Sales at Vodafone (2004 - 2007).

“The unique blend of passion, skills and market opportunity made our decision to purchase the cabling business easy,” says Giles. “Initially we will focus on the consolidation of the great business that Warren and the team have established over many years, we will have a single minded focus on achieving our vision of being ‘first choice’ in the customers we serve.”

Robust cabling solutions are the backbone of quality network services says Giles, “Today’s businesses have very specific requirements and most are looking to converge voice, video and data systems into unified communications. Commit Services will provide New Zealand businesses with that robust foundation to build IT infrastructure upon, enabling efficient, collaborative organisations.”

The new IBM Business Partner will gain sales leads by leveraging relationships and maximising the opportunities in the channel pipeline, and by on-selling its cabling services to the wider New Zealand market.

“We have already established a strong working relationship with the Commit Services team and I am confident they will continue to deliver the level of service excellence expected by our clients,” says Troughton.

As to why IBM is selling the business, Troughton says, “IBM continues to align itself around core capabilities and strengths where we have a global presence and global communities of practice because these are the areas of differentiation for us in the market. The cabling business is not strategic to our services focus, so this sale will allow IBM to put more focus on its core business and strategic offerings, which provide a value-add component to our clients.”

ENDS

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