CRN Hot Seat 2013 - Bordan Tkachuk
The final head honcho to sit in the hot seat for 2013 is Viglen's chief executive. He gives Sara Yirrell an insight.
What are your plans for this year?
It has been a tough year so far – particularly our markets in the public sector and education – as both have been hit by a reduction in budget, which makes it challenging as spending is being reduced. Our task is to take a bigger share of a smaller market. Our focus has been on how to own more customers and how to sell a larger range of products.
With that in mind, we have done a couple of things. Three to four years ago we were 85 per cent education and 15 per cent public sector, now we are 55 per cent education and 45 per cent public sector. We have changed the organisation in terms of the market. It is like driving a supertanker into a port and being careful not to hit anything.
We don’t want to damage the education market, but our core skills selling to education mean we grow market share in the public sector as well. That is where we are doing well. Our storage and HPC business is also growing.
Our half-year results are the best they have been in more than 10 years. That is a big jump for us. The average selling price of a computer compared with 10 years ago is half of what it was, so it is no mean achievement. For example, Microsoft told me that the number for the market at the moment is -1 per cent – we are at +29 per cent, which means we have a 30 per cent delta against the market.
We are increasingly seeing the big guys really fighting for each vendor – there is a sea change going on. They are not shipping tin but services as well. We are a more end-to-end provider, and doing more of that is my plan for 2013/14. We are introducing some good products in the coming year. They have nice features and are quieter, have better security features and are more ergonomically designed.
What technology trends do you see for 2013?
Obviously there is a big move with tablets at the moment – touch is playing a big part. We have seen the first round of tablets coming to market and competing against the iPad. Some have been innovative, but the next wave is coming through now with better screens and battery life. Windows 8 will also have an impact on that part of the market.
However, a lot of products are coming to market that are complementary to tablets, such as Ultrabooks. They are lighter than notebooks, and more suited to business.
Also, the “all-in-one” PC market is going to be stronger – the days of the old white box under or on the desk are definitely over. Mobility and what it does – 24/7 computing and cloud – is part of that mix. Cloud still has a long way to go in how it manifests itself and the suitability for market. But cloud doesn’t suit all. If you have a very small business, cloud services may work quite well for you, but if you work in a much larger business, they are not the answer –perhaps a combination or a hybrid mix.
Emerging markets are looking for definition and solution sets that meet customers’ needs. For example, if you have a poll running on your website for one month a year, there is no point setting up infrastructure – cloud works very well for that.
It is the same for VDI – some scalable things work well, such as ticketing at an airport, but if you are an education establishment with 300 different applications, VDI is not the answer.
One other thing I think we are going to see is different screen technologies coming along as screen manufacturers develop their offerings, and that will change the dynamics of how computing works.
How do you see the economy panning out?
Public sector is our space, and it is being driven by a government agenda to reduce costs. It is going to be tough to operate in. For example, look at replacement cycles for technology and how they have changed.
Some of the sales are simple: you will have much better energy-efficiency products than before. So there is financial effectiveness and also the green agenda – products that give organisations a better carbon footprint.
We are all going to have to buckle up our belts as we are in for a tough ride for some time to come. It is not just in this sector where things are tight, the SMB sector is too – not all companies are thinking that to grow they have to invest in IT.
Every organisation is going to be watching its operating costs – they are going to be looking at headcount and the costs of running the business.
But there will always be winners and losers. If you understand that, look at product sets and company profile and look at what market you are going to go for – if you stay true to those and keep resolute in terms of how you take them on, you should be fine. Straying from this is always one of the dangers in an economic slowburn.
Some companies struggle harder than others and become desperate – they sell products at any price and they look at margin and are in danger of driving prices down to nothing. They do that more when they are desperate to stay alive. Even companies that are doing OK have to remain competitive. Customers take a short-term view and wonder if the company is going to be around for a long time. Look at what is going on right now – such as Dell for example, and of course 2e2, and HP with Autonomy – even the bigger companies are going through hard times.
As markets go we are relatively mature, the emerging markets will be the ones to watch in future.
COMPANY PROFILE
Viglen was set up in 1975 by Vigen Boyadjian and was acquired by Alan Sugar’s Amstrad company in 1994. Over the years the company has established itself as a big desktop and server system supplier to the education sector and other public sector organisations.
The Hertfordshire-based firm supplies IT hardware, software and technical support to two thirds of the UK’s universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, and a growing number of UK schools. It holds an Accredited ICT service supplier accolade from Becta, numerous ISO certifications, and operates a quality management system which is assessed by BSI.