Avanade CEO: 'The pandemic has taught us to be more nimble and respond quicker'

Pam Maynard tells CRN about how the coronavirus crisis has increased Microsoft's relevance among enterprise customers

Avanade needs to be more agile, nimble and quicker to respond in order to take advantage of the opportunities being presented by the coronavirus crisis, according to CEO Pam Maynard.

Maynard took over the chief exec mantle from her predecessor Adam Warby nearly 12 months ago and since then has had to guide the systems integrator through a turbulent market.

A joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft, Avanade has a five-year strategy that aims to achieve and sustain market leadership in each of the 25 markets in which it operates, Maynard explained to CRN.

"The pandemic has taught us that we need to be more agile, more nimble and we need to respond quicker to signals in the market than we've ever had to do in the past," she said.

"The destination at the end of that five-year strategy, the path that we will use get there and the navigation that we need to do it will evolve as the signals in the market from Accenture, Microsoft, the analysts and our clients will start to change, and our ability to respond to those is going to be really important.

"I wouldn't call the pandemic a spanner in the works [for the five-year plan], I'd say it's creating an opportunity for us to think and behave differently for the new reality."

The crisis has also thrown up lots of opportunities for Avanade, she said, adding that it has proven the enterprise capabilities of Microsoft's offerings, which in turn is creating a "tailwind" for Avanade, she said.

"The increasing relevance of Microsoft in the enterprise is really being borne out this year," she stated.

"That increasing relevance is triggered by intelligent cloud, their workplace technologies and their personal computing.

They've seen over 30 per cent growth in the last two years. That is creating a tailwind of opportunity for us as clients start to really think about how remote working is here to stay and how can they drive greater value from that? How do they build resilience into their supply chain for the future, given the lessons they've just learned? And that is creating opportunity for Avanade."

Stay tuned for more on CRN's Big Interview with Maynard, including how she has navigated her first year in charge of the firm and how a sudden change of mind lead her to a career in IT