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'We're racing towards a cliff edge' - Ultima boss on why sustainability is now top of the agenda

Scott Dodds speaks with CRN about becoming more sustainable and recruiting through a pandemic

The sustainability of devices used by remote workers is a challenge that the channel must be proactive about," according to Ultima CEO Scott Dodds.

He told CRN that sustainability has moved higher up the company's agenda as a result of customer queries and feedback and that the channel should be driving the circular economy rather than waiting for customers to approach them about it, he added.

"We, as an industry, are racing towards a cliff edge, accelerated by the amount of technology demanded by the world that we now live in - and COVID has driven more of that demand," he explained.

"The concept of circular economics, and how we do that, is now an enormously powerful topic that we've got to get to grips with as an industry and as a planet. If COVID had happened even 10 or 15 years ago, it would be almost impossible to imagine companies being able to survive this because they couldn't manage the business the way they're doing today [remotely].

"It's going to be a big topic going forward because we now realise how important technology is in all of our lives and we've got to work out how to make it sustainable."

While the pandemic has distracted many organisations from the importance of having a green agenda, Dodds said it is still a topic coming up repeatedly with customers.

"Since COVID broke out, I've been on a couple of forums with a lot of industry partners and vendors and we've been talking a lot about this very topic," he said.

"It's going to be, very important to have this strategy clear with ourselves and what we're doing as a business, and also with our customers because they're going to demand more of the credentials of the business in terms of what you're doing and whether you're living up to those goals around your green agenda."

Ultima is coming to the end of its current fiscal year which ends in March, and Dodds was coy on delving into the figures but he said that he expects "strong" results. However, he did state that its software automation development strategy will remain a focus for the company and it has hired 36 new heads in the last six months, mainly in technical areas.

He also wants to work with more partners on its automated managed service platform.

"We're priming the pump; a lot of the stuff that, we're now doing demands new capability and new people as we scale up some of the new services," he stated.

"We're seeing real traction with our automated managed service offering; the customer can buy the platform and use it themselves and we're also extending that to partners as well.

"We're working on how we develop a partner strategy and we have a number of partners that we're working with who are using those software platforms to enhance their managed services."