CRN Sales & Marketing Awards - Finalist Q&A with Tracy Ridgley, marketing director at Celerity
Tracy Ridgley talks being a finalist at this year's CRN Sales & Marketing Awards
What prompted you to submit for this particular award this year?
The honest answer is that the feedback from the event made the decision for us. When we partnered with IBM and GovNews to deliver our AI Innovation Roundtable for Public Sector leaders, we had a feeling we'd created something worth talking about. But it was hearing it directly from the people in the room that confirmed it.
Attendees told us they'd had conversations that day they simply couldn't have anywhere else and IBM described it as a standout success. People were still posting about it on LinkedIn days later, sharing reflections on the workshops, the peer connections, and the tour of IBM's Quantum Computing suite. When the reaction is that genuine and sustained, putting your hand up for recognition feels less like self-promotion and more like a responsibility.
What would winning this award mean for your people and your partners?
It would mean a great deal, and on several levels. Celerity is a lean, agile business and many of the organisations we compete against are significantly larger. Winning would be meaningful recognition that the depth of effort we invest in our customer and partner relationships is something that genuinely differentiates us, not just a claim we make in a pitch.
This event was also a real team effort. It brought in people from across the business and arrived at a particularly significant moment, having recently launched our AI managed service. The roundtable gave us a grounded, human way to bring that service to market through a room full of real conversations, real challenges, and tangible outcomes. Winning would be a strong signal that approach was the right one.
For our partners, particularly IBM, it would reinforce something they already recognise, that Celerity consistently delivers senior engagement and commercial impact.
What do you see as the main opportunities for the industry in the next 12 months, and how are you planning to capitalise on them?
Two areas stand out for us: AI and Quantum. They are more closely connected than many people currently appreciate.
On AI, the exploration phase is not on the horizon. It is already here and is reshaping how organisations operate right now. Our AI managed service is built to help customers scale AI responsibly, and we have been doing substantive work in this space for the past year. The roundtable itself was a proof point with three active IBM Client Engineering POCs now in development across use cases including FOI automation and AI-assisted discharge and bed occupancy.
On Quantum, Q-Day is approaching faster than most organisations are ready for. We have spent the past year working alongside IBM to get ahead of the conversation, educating public sector leaders and now we’re actively helping organisations assess their quantum readiness.
What have been the biggest challenges of the past year, and how have you navigated them?
Market volatility has been real and sustained. Budgets shifting, priorities changing quickly, procurement cycles stretching out: all of it creates genuine pressure. Being an agile business is our structural advantage because we’re not locked into rigid ways of working, which means we can adapt quickly when the landscape shifts rather than waiting for the dust to settle.
The other challenge is content saturation. Every business in this space is producing content, hosting events, and positioning itself as a trusted partner. Standing out requires a genuinely different approach. For us that has meant two things: getting ahead of trends rather than following them, as our Quantum work demonstrates, and putting our people at the forefront of our brand. We have shifted our strategy to make our team visible through video content, LinkedIn, and industry events. People trust people, and that human connection matters more now than ever, particularly as AI raises questions about authenticity.
How have your people and partners played a role in overcoming those challenges?
They have been central to it. On the partner side, working closely with IBM gives us access to capabilities, credibility, and reach that we could not generate independently. The GovNews partnership for the roundtable is a good example too: they brought us authentic reach into the Public Sector and helped shape an agenda that gave attendees something genuinely different from the usual event circuit.
Our people have stepped up in a significant way as well. The shift to putting individuals at the centre of our brand asks something real of people: the willingness to be visible, to share their perspective, to show up. That takes confidence and commitment. The response from the market has been encouraging, and it has reinforced that this is the right direction for us.
What is Celerity's proudest achievement over the past year?
Two things stand out. The first is being awarded IBM Select Territory Partner of the Year 2025. That is a significant recognition from one of our most important partners and reflects the quality and depth of the relationship we have invested in building.
The second is receiving a Service Delivery Award from one of our key accounts. That one carries weight because it comes directly from a customer. It is their way of saying: you showed up, you delivered, and it made a real difference to us. For a business that genuinely believes in putting customers first, having that validated externally and in their own words is the kind of recognition that means the most.
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