Management Structure

In the past fiscal year, the leadership structures of Bechtle AG were further adapted to the size of the company and market requirements by means of the establishment of additional executive positions and the appointment of new division heads. As in the prior year, two key subjects were highlighted: firstly, the adoption of Bechtle’s strategically important decentralisation concept as one of the primary business principles in the system house segment, and secondly, the establishment of scalable, modular structures that are clearly focused on the company’s future growth areas.

The hierarchical separation of the strategic group management by the Executive Board from the leadership of the operational units remains the key characteristic of the management structure. In this way, Bechtle takes the dramatically grown leadership responsibilities into account and ensures high efficiency in the steering and management of the group. The two business segments IT system house & managed services and IT e-commerce are not only marked by different ways of thinking and structures, they also apply different development strategies for their expansion. Thanks to the extension of the holding board and the new distribution of responsibilities, which was implemented as of 1 January 2009, these two group segments now also have Executive Board members at the strategic level in addition to the Executive Board spokesman, who is responsible for the central functions. Moreover, the segment name “IT system house” was expanded to “IT system house & managed services”. With this addition, the company draws the customers’ attention to the close relation between managed services and system houses.

In the reporting year, Bechtle also expanded its system house activities by entering the Austrian market. With more than 50 system house locations, the company has come a step closer to the goal of geographic coverage in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In the IT e-commerce segment, the group has further expanded its Europe-wide positioning and has established new trading companies in Ireland in the reporting period and in Portugal in March 2009.

The operational units are headed by division heads. Apart from the cross-segmental public clients division, the division heads of the IT system house & managed services segment are responsible for the activities of the Bechtle IT system houses in northern/eastern, southern, and central regions of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria as well as for managed services. In the IT e-commerce segment, they control the trading business of the Bechtle direct and ARP Datacon brands and the licensing business of the Comsoft direct companies.

The central logistics & service division remains under the supervision of the holding board, as do the other central functions finance & controlling, investor relations, IT computing centre, human resources, quality management, legal and compliance, plus corporate communication.

During the reporting period, Bechtle further expanded its structures in the field of software licensing and management. Comsoft direct AG, which was already active in this business field in Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands, gained a new location in Austria. Thus, the international expansion of this area was pushed further ahead. The purpose of this concentration of competencies within the Bechtle Group is to address the ever more complex subject of software licensing with a qualified team of experts who offer customers a cross-vendor, full-service solution portfolio. In Germany, these services are offered directly by the system houses, supported by logistics & service. In Switzerland, Comsoft direct supports the Bechtle branches in this field; in the other countries, it operates independently in this market.