Colt Technology Services bigwigs exit stage left

Colt Technology Services exec director Simon Walsh and some of his lieutenants have exited the business, The Channel can reveal.

"We can confirm that Simon Walsh no longer works for Colt Technology Services and that Jürgen Hernichel is now leading that area of the business," a Colt PR person told us.

Previously, Hernichel was Colt MD of the Northern Region and of Germany, and prior to that he spent seven years as top dog at T-Systems international, the biz arm of Deutche Telecom.

Walsh, who joined Colt as exec veep for the newly formed Enterprises Services business nearly three ago was given his marching orders yesterday, our sources claimed.

The former Computacenter UK MD took control of the integrated networking, IT and comms services business in February 2011 with the aim drafting and rolling out a managed services strategy.

Other departures confirmed by Colt include veep for business transformation Jon Bennett, and Clarke Turabee, veep of finance. Both previously worked for Computacenter.

Several sources claimed that the UK biz did not meet management expectations for the numbers.

In half year financials for Colt in calendar '13, the firm saw revenues decline 1.1 per cent to €788.9m led by declines in its Voice and Data units.

Managed services revenues grew to €107m, up 7.1 per cent which seems respectable in the current climate, but it is possible that management wanted more from Walsh and his top people.

Colt refused to comment further on the reasons for the departures. ®