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Jim Kent

CRN Staff
14 December 2010

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Career so far: I joined Datapoint as chief executive in September 2009, with a mandate to strengthen the company's core business as a communication systems integrator. Prior to that I held a number of senior management positions focused primarily on business transformation within IT/telecoms, including chief executive of Vistorm from 2004-2008, and vice president and general manager of HP Services business in the UK, as well as other roles within HP, Compaq and EDS.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be and what would you do? Lee Westwood or Graham McDowell, with that winning putt for the European Ryder Cup Team.

What would you have as your last meal? Sushi - a healthy option for a last meal.

What is the best corporate jolly you have ever been on/taken partners on? Ah, I must be a really awkward person. I don't do corporate jollies.

Do you see the cloud as a threat or an opportunity? A significant opportunity, where our enterprise customers are looking to us for advice on which cloud models and communication applications they need to consider for support of their organisations in future.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? A year ago, we predicted the rise of SIP and voice virtualisation. Companies are using products such as Avaya's Aura IP-communication platform for application sequencing and SIP-based session management to reduce the cost of connectivity to service providers, enabling better use of telephony resources. However, it's still early days, with strong potential given the continued need to do more with less. In addition, the virtualisation of voice is exciting where it's set to transform voice communication in the same way that server virtualisation revolutionised the data centre.

What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2011? The enterprise needs a lot of help to optimise the infrastructure and tune for efficient business processes. We implement and support many mission-critical environments today, but the market as a whole is undeserved and expectations are low. As we move forward, the enterprise will recognise the needs and will require even higher levels of innovation and service delivery quality.

What is the best part of your day? Waking up before the alarm and having time to lay awake before the madness of the day begins in earnest.