Sprint forms new government and business unit

An internal shuffling and formation of a new government and business unit at Sprint Nextel won’t negatively affect administration of the company’s Networx Enterprise program management, a company spokeswoman said.

“Sprint has had a dedicated organization focused on supporting the federal agencies and their missions for over two decades,” said Bill White, Sprint senior vice president of corporate communications.

The new communications services unit, the Sprint Business Markets Group, will comprise more than 4,000 sales, support, marketing and operations personnel, and is meant to sharpen the company’s focus on the needs of enterprise, general business and public sector customers, Sprint said in a statement.

Sprint previously managed its business, government and consumer sales under an umbrella organization. The new and separate unit brings Sprint’s business, government, 4G, IP wireline, international and strategic alliance teams into a distinct sales and marketing organization.

The reorganization makes sense, said Roger Entner, senior vice president and head of the Research and Insights Telecom Practice for Nielsen Co. “Previously, as a potential customer, you’d have one group calling on you for voice and another one calling on you for data; sales efforts weren’t well coordinated,” he said. "Combined as one team for voice and data, it’s more efficient for the customers and the company.”

“Sprint’s formation of a Business Market Group will only strengthen the capabilities available to our federal customers,” White said. “Capabilities like 4G wireless, unified communications, and SIP trunking will bring to agencies the next ‘big bang’ to significantly impact their strained IT and telecom budgets.”