VAR500 Newcomer Wants To Take U.S. By Storm

"It's a little bit like the difference between driving a Jet Ski and a yacht," says Andrew Borgstrom, CEO of T-Systems North America, the New York-based systems-integration business of German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom. "The Jet Ski is small, but fast and maneuverable, and the yacht is great, but it takes more time to steer."

Borgstrom is using his diverse experience to turn T-Systems into a recognizable brand in North America. In 1997, Borgstrom, who had served as a senior executive at Chrysler Systems, founded Technology Asset Management (TAM), a solution provider based in Naperville, Ill. Two years later, TAM was acquired by Debis IT Services, where Borgstrom became CEO. In 2000, Deutsche Telekom acquired Debis IT Services and rolled it into T-Systems, with Borgstrom at the helm.

Now Borgstrom has plans to branch out from T-Systems' installed customer base, which is composed of Deutsche Telekom's major European clients. To do so, he is emphasizing utility computing and infrastructure solutions.

As for customer targets, Borgstrom is methodically concentrating on select global enterprises and plans to lead with cost-reduction services rather than pushing high-priced products and chasing long-term outsourcing contracts like some of T-Systems' competitors.

"We're surgical in our approach. When a customer hasn't locked down their IT infrastructure and doesn't know exactly what they want, it creates problems," he says. "It's a lifetime of unmet expectations. You have to go through an honest process of mutual discovery."

Now that T-Systems is moving ahead in the United States, Borgstrom is hoping that plenty of enterprises are up for discovering his business.

T-Systems made its debut on the VARBusiness 500 ranking of solution providers at No. 7.