Phil Higgins

Career so far: I have always been on the reseller side of the business. After a brief period in engineering, I moved into reseller sales selling IBM twin floppy drive PCs. After a successful UK-based career, I spent nine years in international business, where I got a chance to see the world. For six of those years, I was in the US, running an international business division for an integrator. At one stage, four of the Fortune Top 10 were global customers. After a few years back in the UK, I co-founded Brookcourt - that was five years ago.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be and what would you do? Hugh Hefner!

What would you have as your last meal? The lamb at The London in Manhattan, with my family and friends.

What is the best corporate jolly you have ever been on/taken partners on? Recently, we have been doing a lot for charity. We've had a couple of very successful years and now we want to give something back. We've taken part in several long-distance cycling challenges with some of our biggest customers. Surprisingly, they have been a lot of fun and we've raised more than £20,000 for charity.

Do you see the cloud as a threat or an opportunity? As a solution provider, we see all forms of technological evolution as an opportunity, and cloud computing is definitely one of these. As the saying goes, when one door closes another door opens. There will always be a requirement for a solution provider, and we are flexible enough and possess the resources required to adapt to any of our clients' requirements. We also have a strong focus on emerging technologies, so we are always among the first to discover innovation.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? Yes. More and more organisations are seeing the benefits of, and accepting, social networking in the workplace. This has lead to an increased takeup of more sophisticated and tailored security tools; government regulations and compliance requirements have become more rigorous; and organisations have increased spend due to audit.

What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2011? Recovering from the recession. As companies begin to relax their funding constraints and invest more in their corporate infrastructure, competition among integrators, resellers and distributors is fierce and will continue to drive the channel in 2011. Also, understanding the customers' business requirements in order to maximise technology value.

What is the best part of your day? From about 6-7am - the start of a new day.