Richard Eglon

Career so far: I have spent nearly 15 years in the IT/telecoms industry. My first role was working in marketing for a global telecoms manufacturer. Following this I have held senior marketing roles at a telecoms software firm, IP telephony specialist and, more recently, a leading channel IT support provider.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be and what would you do? I always wanted to be a fighter pilot, but at the age of 16 I was told to take a different career path due to not having the required 20:20 vision. So if the opportunity was presented to me now for a week, I would leap at the chance to fulfil those boyhood ambitions. What would you have as your last meal? Roast beef dinner with all my family and close friends and a bottle of Rioja.

What is the best corporate jolly you have ever been on/taken partners on? It has to be our annual sales incentive trip to Finland last year. We were right up near the Arctic Circle and the border with Russia in what felt like the last frontier. We experienced some exhilarating events in the most spectacular scenery, such as ice go-karting, snowmobiles, husky sledding and skiing.

Do you see the cloud as a threat or an opportunity? Like most new technology platforms that are introduced, we feel the cloud will complement our multi-vendor, multi-technology approach to IT support. Our focus is on service delivery, irrespective of the technology type and we see the cloud opening up new opportunities for the channel as a whole.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? Yes - that the channel would prove its resilience through the economic downturn and come out on top.

What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2011? I feel the biggest challenge in the channel during 2011 will be presented to those organisations that have become complacent in supporting and supplying solutions to the public sector and larger blue chip firms. I think we will start to see the emergence of a number of much leaner, client-focused organisations who can offer much more competitive pricing models, whilst increasing client efficiencies and productivity.

What is the best part of your day? It has to be early in the morning before the phonecalls, emails and meetings start gathering momentum - this is a time when I can plan my day in total solace. Even at weekends, early morning is a really tranquil time of the day which I often spend walking on the beach with the family.

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• Services and Outsourcing
• A-List 2011