IBM, Armonk, NY, has named its chief financial officer to head efforts to merge the company’s telephone call centers and Web management operations.
Douglas Maine, 41, will head TeleWeb, a new unit of the company that will forge a single sales approach for handling IBM customers through the Internet and through telephone customer service call centers. The move is seen as an effort by the world’s largest computer maker to step up its sales and customer support effort via the Internet.
Maine, who joined IBM 18 months ago, has extensive computer and call center integration experience from his previous position as chief financial officer for MCI Communications Corp., the predecessor to MCI Worldcom Inc., Clinton, MS.
Analysts estimate the new unit that Maine will oversee encompassed $11 billion in Web-based sales and $5 billion in call center sales this year.
John Joyce, general manager of IBM’s Asia-Pacific region and formerly the company’s controller, will take over as chief financial officer.
