Trustmarque sees itself challenging SIs and “not just competing in the VAR market”, its newly appointed Head of Public Sector has asserted.
Chris Jones joined the Microsoft and Cisco partner in January from IT consultancy giant NTT Data, where he held a similar position.
He will spearhead Trustmarque’s public sector business, which generates around 75% of its revenues.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Jones said a change in emphasis will see Trustmarque focus more keenly on citizen services and communities in the public sector space.
“We’re having a massive focus on pushing services into the public sector and drawing a straight line between the services and the impact on people’s lives,” he said.
“I want every single person in the public sector team to have an example in the next year of where they’ve made a material difference to someone’s life. That’s the exam.”
“We’re confident enough to approach the departments with our services – even if we don’t have an EA in place”
The shift will see Trustmarque expand beyond its supply and optimisation stomping ground and push further into digital & data, enterprise services and cloud, according to Jones.
“We don’t need our supply and optimisation business to go and do digital & data, enterprise services and cloud. We’re still doing that model, but we’re much more focused on saying ‘actually, we’re confident enough to approach the departments and NHS Direct with services – even if we don’t have that EA [Enterprise Agreement] or license agreement in place,” he said.
“The tweak is that we’re taking things to market which actually challenge the systems integrators. We see ourselves as challenging those existing and legacy companies, so we’re not just competing in a VAR marketplace, but we’re also driving true value to the heart of public sector.”
One Equity Partners-backed Trustmarque last month bagged the award for a single-supplier £450m framework with Digital Health and Care Wales around the fulfilment of Microsoft licensing.
“That brings to life exactly what we’re trying to do here,” Jones said.
“They wanted more services. It allows for proper transformative services to be introduced to NHS Wales in the Microsoft stack,” he explained.
He also highlighted a recent case study where Trustmarque helped develop a fertility treatment comparison tool for the NHS.
“We are building a number of data propositions for the NHS and these data propositions will go straight to the heart of NHS. They’ll make a material difference, they’ll drive optimisation, but they’ll also improve experiences,” Jones said.
Jones’ arrival sees him rekindle ties with Trustmarque CEO Simon Williams (pictured above), who himself moved across from NTT Data to join the £500m-revenue-plus, 9th-ranked Oxygen 250 outfit last year.
“When I saw the transformative difference we could make to the public sector, when I saw challenging the status quo, when I saw bringing a new name in town and striking to the heart of government and public sector, when I saw the propositions which we have available, I thought to myself – this is a place we can really make a difference,” Jones concluded.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
