Career so far I am a qualified chartered accountant. I started working in ICT in 1994 as finance director of a video conferencing business. After a variety of roles selling core public networking solutions, initially to BT, and then to other service providers worldwide, I moved to Australia in 2000 to establish Marconi’s business there. In 2004 I took over responsibility for Marconi’s business across Asia. In 2006 I joined Ericsson following its acquisition of Marconi and led the enterprise business in Australia and New Zealand before returning to the UK in 2008 to run Damovo.
Cloud – friend or foe? Cloud is perhaps the most over-used and over-hyped phrase in our industry, often meaning different things to different people. Yet behind the hype is the reality that organisations are already taking advantage of cloud-based services and that trend will only grow as more services become available. I see two opportunities which if we ignore will become threats. The first opportunity comes from helping our customers to answer the two key questions: “What services and applications are appropriate to have delivered from the cloud in my business? And when?”, and then secondly answering those same questions for our own business.
Has 2011 been as bad as everyone said it would be? The answer is both yes and no. Certainly at a macro level we have seen the impact of government spending cuts, non-existent growth, and increasing mid-term uncertainty. However, within our industry performance at an individual company level is mixed. Some companies have had a great year with both revenue and profit up while others have literally struggled to survive.
What do you see as the channel’s biggest challenge in 2012? Without doubt 2012 is going to be a difficult year. At best we will see low growth in the UK, but if the euro collapses or China’s growth slows we could face the most challenging economic environment we have ever seen. Whichever way it turns out, success will depend on agility, innovative approaches and a willingness to think radically.
