New Name: Bigger Mission

When Entex Information Services was acquired in April 2000, the corporate reseller apparently vanished from the scene. But appearances can be deceiving. Though Entex's name may not be the same, the core of its services business,especially its expertise in IT asset management,is the core of Siemens Business Services, the $5.4 billion IT services behemoth.

Terry Edney, senior vice president of strategy and marketing at Siemens Business Services, said Rye Brook, N.Y.-based Entex was key to the services company's mission to build a larger footprint in the U.S. market. John McKenna, who was CEO of Entex when it was bought, now leads the U.S. division. And offerings created in the U.S. market,notably the new SieQuence management services portfolio,are being rolled out across other geographies.

"We have merged a couple of smaller operations, and we are now at the point where we are looking forward and hope to significantly grow our business," said Edney. "Our aim at this point in time is to grow the business we currently have in the shorter time frame around our specialization in the IT infrastructure space and our IT consulting business. At the moment, we're finding a lot of interest and business in the migration to Windows 2000 or XP, and we have excellent experience and expertise,everything from the business justification of that right on through to the implementation."

Two other areas where Siemens Business Services' U.S. arm hopes to make a stand in enterprise accounts are the new SAP modules for supply chain and CRM applications and the SieQuence services, Edney said. Unveiled in late February, SieQuence helps enterprise accounts make better use of existing IT resources and figure out where to invest over time. It consists of four phases: State One: Responsive Solutions, for restoring operations; State Two: Proactive Management, which uses knowledge management technology to prevent service disruptions; State Three: Enterprise Performance, which includes solutions for improving the performance of existing applications; and State Four: Global Network of Innovation, a future offering under which the other pieces will be added to other Siemens Business Services offerings.

"One of the major themes that's resonating very well is this whole issue of transformation over the course of time," said Bruce Coughlin, vice president of portfolio management at the company. "So being able to take that road map, being able to plug services in very quickly with a proven, repeatable methodology,while doing that all within a well-managed cost framework,is a message that people are receiving extremely well right now. It's not uncommon to look at companies that have really struggled with network management tools. For example, maybe they have made some significant investments that they really haven't optimized. Having a road map that turns on best practices within the scope of where that client is on the value continuum is being received extremely well. Our ability to plug clients in at the right level gives them flexibility that they don't typically have."

David Johns, senior vice president and chief supply chain and IT officer at Owens Corning, said his company cut per-seat management costs for its distributed computing environment up to 25 percent by using SieQuence's Proactive Management offering. The same service is supporting more than 24,000 MetLife employees, according to MetLife CTO Steve Sheinhedt.

Going forward, Siemens Business Services is preparing to disclose several other SieQuence customer wins, and the company is now rolling out the offering in Europe, said Edney. Other services on Siemens Business Services' radar screen include mobile solutions, which are being tested by the company's European division, and security. Currently, the company offers customized security that is integrated into its other services, but it may consider introducing point solutions in the future, said Bill McNamara, vice president of strategic outsourcing.

>>> COMPUCOM'S COMPLETE OVERHAUL
>>> MICROAGE: TRY, TRY AGAIN
>>> NEW NAME, BIGGER MISSION

To read an interview with Siemens Business Services U.S. execs.