Simon Payne

Managing director, Damovo UK

Career so far I was recently appointed managing director of Damovo UK, having previously held the role of deputy managing director. I originally joined Damovo in 2009 as director of Damovo Global Services and within two years developed the business into a market-leading services organisation and one of the fastest growing parts of the Damovo Group.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be? Richard Branson - so that I can whiz up and back into space!

What will next year's most overhyped industry buzzword be? Datacentre

Has 2012 been a good, bad or ugly year? All three: Good, as the technology landscape continues to undergo exponential change making this a hugely exciting time for ICT. At a company level, "good" for us has been in the form of new innovative client deployments radically changing the way our clients work and interact with their customers. Bad, as the market and business leaders face enormous pressure to do more with less. And finally, ugly as the economy continues to challenge us all.

What would you have as your last meal? It has to be a curry.

What keeps you awake at night? How we can constantly drive more efficiency within the business.

What piece of technology could you not be without? My smartphone.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? 1) BYOD is crucial and cannot be ignored; 2) Increased growth in unified communications and collaboration technologies; 3) The continued rise of cloud computing and the FUD that brings to many organisations; 4) Security has and will continue to be one of the top three IT priorities for business leaders; 5) Video is back?

What is the best partner/customer trip you have ever been on? I attended a Cisco Partner summit in San Diego this year which was incredibly well organised and innovative.

What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2013? Many organisations will re-evaluate their ICT requirements as the role of CIOs and senior IT executives focused on driving their organisations' IT success. The channel more than ever needs to demonstrate "differentiating value on a complete level". Organisations will have to adapt to survive, especially in a continued difficult economic environment.

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