‘It’s about orchestration, not overhaul’: SCC new CEO on AI focus
Robert Vassoyan discusses SCC’s AI shift, team reshuffles, and evolving vendor relationships
Robert Vassoyan, SCC’s new CEO, intends to lead the company into the AI age.
“Taking this position now, during the AI revolution, is incredibly exciting,” he tells CRN.
“I’m convinced SCC has a role to play by adopting AI internally to improve how we work and externally to help clients do the same.”
To drive these changes, the leader teases “inevitable” changes and adaptations regarding workforce.
“I’ll bring in expertise from my network, in terms for example of management and technology, but I’ve found SCC already has tremendous energy and capability,” Vassoyan explains.
“The challenge isn’t a lack of skills, but rather focusing and clarifying responsibilities, so we channel all that enthusiasm productively.”
He intends to develop AI skills by training and adapting internal talent, as he sees a high level of expertise across sales, management, digital, cyber, and data.
“It’s about orchestration, not overhaul,” he adds.
While he explains that “there isn’t a single CEO on Earth who doesn’t think about their AI strategy daily,” he adds that SCC needs humility when approaching it, as not all solutions are mature and ready yet.
“For SCC, the first step is to place AI at the centre of our internal transformation - in logistics, supply chain, and go-to-market - and learn from that before deploying solutions for clients.
“We’re also reviewing our partner portfolio across hardware, software, compute, and storage to integrate more AI, as well as updating our professional and managed services accordingly.”
Partnering with AI companies before becoming one
The CEO highlights that some of the VAR’s biggest partnering vendors include Dell, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Veeam, Nvidia, who have all “embraced AI.”
The organisation is also in talks with emerging AI-native companies that can move faster and bring innovative data, SLMs, or automation solutions.
“These new partnerships will complement, not replace, our core ecosystem. It’s about enriching what we already have, not replacing it,” Vassoyan tells CRN.
In the future, he wants SCC to become an AI company itself.
“Our employees across different sectors, such as sales, presales, and professional services, must understand and promote AI.”
Other tech opportunities
Beyond AI, the CEO sees cybersecurity as driving growth moving forward, as well as cloud and sovereign cloud.
“We have a key role to play in cloud and sovereign cloud, not as a host ourselves, but as an orchestrator helping clients manage hybrid environments responsibly.”
The CEO also identifies opportunities in the digital workplace sector.
“While we’re already a strong player in device distribution and related services, we now intend to move into high-value digital workplace solutions, AI-powered automation, predictive maintenance, and user experience personalisation.
“We’re expanding these services both onshore and offshore, particularly in Romania, where we’ve built advanced delivery centres.
“Finally, I believe we can significantly increase our managed services mix, growing service volume while maintaining productivity and profitability.”