Bechtle appoints Chief Technology Officer

• Dirk Müller-Niessner to fill brand new position of CTO from 01 January 2023
• Bechtle consolidating platform strategy responsibility

Neckarsulm, 21 December 2022 – For the first time in the company’s history, Bechtle will appoint a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from 01 January 2023, with the position being filled from within its own ranks by Dirk Müller-Niessner, who will take on responsibility for all Bechtle Group platform activities. These include the Bechtle Service Factory’s Managed Services offering, the development of bechtle.com, the Bechtle Clouds platform as well as operation of the Bechtle data centres located in Frankfurt am Main, Rüsselsheim and Mutterstadt. Bechtle’s complete platform strategy will, therefore, fall under the remit of the new CTO, ensuring even greater efficiency and profitability at the largest German IT system house. Dirk Müller-Niessner will report to the Executive Board.

“We are delighted to have secured an experienced colleague from within our own ranks to take on this challenging role,” says Michael Guschlbauer, COO, IT System House & Managed Services, Bechtle AG. For Bechtle and our position as a future-first IT partner, installing a CTO is a logical step to take, and one that will help us optimally leverage the opportunities of the digital transformation, not only for the benefit of our customers, but also for our own organisation.”

Dirk Müller-Niessner has been Managing Director of Bechtle Hosting & Operations GmbH since the start of 2021 and previously supported the IT company as an external consultant. The 52-year-old has extensive experience, especially in managing change projects and has overseen the opening of the Bechtle Service Factory, in which Managed Cloud Services in particular are bundled. Bechtle plans to significantly expand its services portfolio to position itself as a leader in outsourcing, operational and Managed Cloud services. The future CTO will also take on technical responsibility for the Bechtle Clouds platform.

Dirk Müller-Niessner will furthermore be tasked with driving forward development of the bechtle.com platform in order to bolster e-commerce business. This year, Bechtle has gained some initial experience with micro-businesses, which had not previously been target customers, with the aim of providing them with opportunities to expand their autonomous business through the online platform.

The final area of remit concerns the running of the Bechtle data centres in Frankfurt am Main, Rüsselsheim and Mutterstadt. Bechtle has been operating its data centre on the largest European data centre campus in Frankfurt since 2016 and, with the additional infrastructure in Mutterstadt, has been able to significantly expand its Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) capacities this year, with business expected to continue on an upward trajectory into the future.