David Ellis
Director of new technology and services, Computerlinks
Career so far After studying electronic engineering, I worked for four years as a test engineer at GEC-Marconi Instruments. I then moved to Midwich Thame for eight years and worked in a number of technical and commercial roles. I joined Unipalm as a product manager just after the MBO from Worldcom in 1997. I became a member of the UK board and we were acquired by Computerlinks in 2000. I joined the group operating board a few years later and have responsibility for the global development of our services and training businesses (including our ALVEA Services Cloud and Managed Services portfolio).
If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be? One of the top players on the PGA golf tour. What a life! Being paid huge amounts of money to play on fantastic courses and having the satisfaction of the ball going in the direction that you want it to.
What will next year's most overhyped industry buzzword be? One that I particularly like is "smishing", which is a mobile version of phishing and involves crooks sending fake SMS messages which attempt to lure users into downloading Trojan horses that will take over the mobile device.
Has 2012 been a good, bad or ugly year? Overall it's been a good year, albeit a tough one. It's always difficult for channel partners to act as entrepreneurially in challenging trading conditions but I think those that have will have been rewarded.
What would you have as your last meal? Fruits de mer to start, followed by a rib-eye steak washed down with some nice wine.
What keeps you awake at night? The trials and tribulations of running an U12 football team.
What piece of technology could you not be without? After having an iPad for a couple of years, I would have to say that. I'm not really an early adopter of gadgets but you can do so much with it.
Have any of your predictions come true this year? The massive rise in the use of BYOD and mobile devices in the workplace coupled with the challenges that organisations face managing and securing them.
What is the best partner/customer trip you have ever been on? Having the Olympics on our doorstep this year just highlighted how fortunate my wife and I were to get along to Atlanta in 1996. We went to some fantastic events.
What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2013? I believe it will be morphing their businesses so they can sell more service based propositions (including cloud). This includes everything from the approach of the salesforce to the management teams building compensation plans that really motivate their staff to switch from selling tin.