Hot Seat 2013 - Paul Barlow
Sara Yirrell talks to the managing director of Servium about his growing business, the tasks facing Microsoft and the importance of customer satisfaction
What are your plans for this year?
We are building on 30 per cent growth from last year, which helped us smash the £10m [turnover] barrier. This year we are aiming for up to 25 per cent growth in our business plan – we don’t want to overstretch ourselves, but want to remain ambitious. We are hoping that on the back of the 30 per cent growth last year we will see more in the next year.
We are looking to create growth by increasing our account management teams and we are also about to appoint a new director of services to drive our value proposition around both established and emerging technology. We see six priorities for the coming year: end-user computing, email collaboration, platforms, networking and security, data management and commodity IT.
We are looking forward to building on the functionality we have created over the past few years. In recent customer feedback 99 per cent of our customers were either extremely satisfied or satisfied with our service levels, and 96 per cent were very satisfied or satisfied with their experience with us. Our strategy is to grow headcount and build on that high level of customer satisfaction for which we are becoming known.
We took on three graduates last September and we are looking to increase that success later in the year.
We also want to further enhance our relationships with vendors and distributors and create a great platform on which to work with them. We want to bring value to our vendors and our partners. Distribution is still a key part of the value chain for us.
What technology trends do you see in 2013?
We recently become an Apple Authorised Reseller and we want to further our relationship with such vendors. We still class Apple as an emerging technology in the enterprise space along with some flash vendors.
Flash technology for storage is going to take off. It increases the number of functions to existing systems – enhancing the longevity of a system by putting flash alongside it.
Cloud is also going to continue to develop. I do not think we will have a watershed moment throughout the year – in the very early stages of cloud, it could be likened to the dot com boom where there was a lot of hype, but people are buying it more for business and personal use as well.
Cloud is starting to mature – creating real solutions for real companies. I think the analysts’ predictions, especially concerning backup and disaster recovery and email are true. A lot of enterprises will keep their crown jewels local, but non-critical functions lend themselves to the cloud.
Our mid-market customers are also benefitting from functions such as email archiving and our partnership with Mimecast.
The latest version of Microsoft 365 is also interesting, although Microsoft faces a challenge with its Surface device – it still has a lot of work to do, such as winning the hearts and mind of dedicated Apple users, and features like the flimsy-looking keyboard on the Surface still need some work.
You also have the uncertainty surrounding Dell [Michael Dell trying to take the company private but encountering numerous obstacles], which is creating an opportunity for firms such as HP and Lenovo.
End-user computing – such as laptops, desktops, smartphones and tablets, all of which were taking a backseat with some of the bigger players such as Dell who were concentrating on servers – with Windows 8 and BYOD is breathing new life into this area of technology.
Finally, desktop virtualisation. People have to do a lot of work on helping their customers understand the ROI of desktop virtualisation but we are seeing more demand. There are a lot of companies that have embraced server virtualisation already, but a significant number have not, so there is an opportunity there as well.
How do you see the economy panning out?
The UK economy will continue to stutter along. The national press will focus on the bad news as always, but there will be snippets of good news along the way. IT has a different economic cycle to the rest of industry. In a recession, business leaders will cut costs and look to remove the dead wood. But they are also thinking about what makes them more efficient and the first thing they look at is IT.
Business is out there but it is all about looking after your customers properly. If you put customers’ interests first, they will continue to come back to you and they will spend.
There is no point chasing short-term deals – these are a lot harder to achieve and if you burn a customer on price, they will not come back – you have to prove you have their best interests at heart.
That is where it is advantageous to be an independent VAR. If we only supported one hardware manufacturer and one virtualisation technology, while you might get the in-depth knowledge of that specific technology, you will always say the answer is A, where the customer might be looking for answer B or C or even none of the above.
Specialist knowledge is what distribution is for and we leverage their expertise. But if you can give customers a balanced answer and with more choice, therefore offering the best level of service, everything else will fall into place and customers will continue to return.
COMPANY PROFILE
Servium is split into a North and South office, based in Warrington and Leatherhead respectively. The firm has a mix of medium-sized and large customers in both the private and public sector and its turnover broke through the £10m barrier in its most recent financial year.
It offers a range of functions including hosted services, hardware and software supply services, data management, voice and UC technology, and business consultancy. Its vendor partners include Lenovo, Mimecast, Cisco, Netgear, Dell, Apple and IBM.