Call Center and Unified Communications Solutions Provider Mitel Announces Sudden Departure of its President

By Juliana Kenny, TMCnet Web Editor

Call center and unified communications solutions provider Mitel (News - Alert) announced that the president of its U.S. sector, Richard Dell (News - Alert), is departing the company effective immediately.

Mitel has always been “quick to get out ahead of market challenges by making adjustments within the executive ranks, as well as more broadly throughout the organization,” according to Frank Stinson, partner and senior analyst at IntelliCom Analytics (News - Alert). He noted that the company may be feeling the pressure of recent financial changes it has made “since the April 2010 IPO that made it a public company again,” and has reacted to the “scrutiny” of the public by making impactful changes to its upper management levels.

Specifically after “the close of the 2007 acquisition of Inter-Tel (News - Alert) and again during restructuring announced at the beginning of the recession in late 2008,” the public witnessed Mitel shuffling its executive positions, so perhaps the company is following its own trend with the recent departure of Dell.

Stinson mentioned that Mitel's revenue performance could have been a factor in the departure of Dell, but added that Dell was one of the senior executives who joined Mitel with the 2007 acquisition of Inter-Tel and "the executives of the acquired company tend to leave within a few years depending on what the specifics of their contracts are." Dell's time at Mitel has extended beyond that of his colleagues as "most of the other former Inter-Tel senior executives are long gone."

Company officials have announced that Dell’s previous responsibilities and management duties have been bestowed upon Paul Butcher, president and chief operating officer of Mitel Networks Corporation. Butcher will take on Dell’s direction in addition to his current responsibilities on “an interim basis.” No word on a permanent replacement.

Mitel, which offers unified communications solutions for the call center and enterprise, recently received a 2010 IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award from TMC’s (News - Alert) Customer Interaction Solutions magazine for its Mitel Contact Center Solutions suite.

The company is also pending technological adjustments with new software and packaging that will “likely require adjustments at the go-to-market level,” according to Stinson. Recently, Mitel has been evolving its offerings to “more of a software-based approach that provides options,” that are gearing the company towards a potentially more cloud-based approach.

(source: http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/call-center/articles/95776-call-center-unified-communications-solutions-provider-mitel-announces.htm)