Channel Awards: Q&A with Titan Data Solutions

Following its win for storage distributor of the year, Titan Data Solutions sales director Steve Low tells CRN what the Channel Awards mean to the company

Why do you think awards like the Channel Awards matter? would winning this award mean to your company?

For me, it's the best night of the year in our industry. We only ever enter in one category (Storage Distributor of the Year). Winning this award previously in 2021, only our third year of business, had a dramatic impact in terms of channel perception and awareness. It provided us with a real springboard to build upon, converting those inquisitive resellers into trading customers, whilst it also positively helped with staff and vendor recruitment too. Having the judging panel recognise specialism over size meant a lot to us- as that is exactly what we set out to achieve when we started the business.

What would you say is your company's proudest achievement over the past year?

We have added some phenomenal people and vendors to our business in the past 12 months. We truly have an Edge to Cloud proposition now and one of our proudest achievements of the year has to be the moment one of our established core vendors, Datacore, appointed Titan as their Exclusive Distributor in the UK, which is a testament to our progress and tenacity as a business. We will go into the last quarter of our FY ahead of budget (20 per cent increase YoY) with exciting plans for the future.

What have been the biggest challenges of 2023 so far and how have you overcome them? How have your people helped with that?

In our world, the challenges we face primarily stem from the explosive growth of data and evolving regulations. Meeting the ever-increasing demand for scalable and compliant storage solutions is a critical hurdle. Moreover, ensuring data security and privacy while adapting to changing regulations is complex.

The key to overcoming these challenges really does lie in our people- it must be the same for every other business in the Channel. We have worked really hard to develop our expertise in understanding customer needs, offering tailored solutions, and understanding data governance. I think the ability to stay updated, innovate, and maintain a strong customer-centric approach is what sets Titan apart in this evolving landscape.

How do you think the channel has changed over the past year and what changes do you think it still needs to make?

We are certainly seeing an acceleration of acquisitions, with some well established UK resellers being snapped up (Vohkus, Tangible and Q Associates spring to mind immediately). I also think what once was the lure of Private Equity or VC funding is now becoming a necessity for some business owners in the channel. This theme certainly created a gap and opportunity for Titan to step into the distribution landscape back in 2018, and I'm sure that 2024 will be the same across for resellers and MSPs as trading conditions become tougher.

It's also refreshing to see some smaller companies be awarded a place on the new TePAS framework. I still think that a paradigm shift needs to happen within the Public Sector in the UK, but for the first time in a while, I think that they have started (and only a small cross section) to look at companies with verticalised expertise as opposed to large corporates with compliance certifications.

What do you see as the main opportunities for the channel in the coming year? How do you plan to capitalise on those opportunities?

Whilst I am sure the majority of your answers here will revolve around ‘AI' or ‘Marketplace'…one of Titan's remits as a distributor, as we are not controlled by tier one vendor directives, is to bring emerging technologies into the UK market. Scanning the horizon regularly is exciting and there are major developments coming in the way of Data Governance and Data Management solutions. Our Pre-Sales division is well embedded with CTOs and CIOs across the UK, which means we can breathe life into a start up over here without the need for them to invest heavily. I think for most of our competitors, the conversation starts with MDF, and ends after that, so we have been capitalising on this quite well.