Chief executive, Integralis AG
Career so far I was promoted from chief operations officer of Integralis AG; previously I was managing director, Integralis UK, and prior to that vice president of security services at VeriSign.
If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be? I am very happy with who I am, but if pushed and as an underperforming time trial cyclist, I would say a pro-cyclist with a big engine such as Fabian Cancellara or Bradley Wiggins.
What will next year’s most overhyped industry buzzword be? I think we’ll see more from BYOD but, unlike other buzzwords, it has the potential to live up to the hype. Next year, we’ll see the proliferation of a larger selection of mobile devices being provided by the enterprise. The iPhone 5 will take us closer to that with iOS6 enhanced enterprise functions probably married with 3rd party services such as mobile device management.
Has 2012 been a good, bad or ugly year? 2012 has been a good year. Organisations are embracing new technologies and changing the way that they do business and we are in a great place to be able to support them. This year we have transformed our business beyond traditional managed services to offer real value with an integrated blend of managed and professional services continuing our move to Trusted Advisor relationships.
What would you have as your last meal? Anything cooked by my wife!
What keeps you awake at night? Actually, I sleep very well at night. Every day brings new challenges and excitements which always gets me out of bed on time.
What piece of technology could you not be without? I would hate to have to rely on just one piece of technology. Brilliant innovators have created such a range of different technologies to meet such a variety of our needs; it would be hard to just pick one. But if I had to, it would be my iPhone which is securely set up for both personal and business purposes.
Have any of your predictions come true this year? Yes, we can see that uptake of tablet and smartphone devices has rocketed forcing businesses to respond to the demand for BYOD and confront the issue of security in the overlapping personal/corporate space. The next step will be for enterprises to move from just seeing smart devices as tools for calendar and email sync to fully exploiting the opportunities for real business transformation through, for example, bespoke business applications.
What is the best partner/customer trip you have ever been on? I have enjoyed our Achievers Club Alpine trips as it’s great to see good work rewarded, and also I get an opportunity to spend time with the team in a relaxed environment.
What do you see as the channel’s biggest challenge in 2013? Cloud and the step change that it offers business will continue to have a huge impact. The channel will need to continue working with security experts to develop the right solutions to ensure that they are best placed to take advantage of the huge commercial and game changing opportunities presented by (securing) the move to the cloud. Margin pressure and how the channel players differentiate their value add services to compete will continue to have a significant impact on performance in 2013.
