Convergent Technology director shares reseller's aims to be 'a true challenger' in the UK and global markets
The reseller's founder and director shares his assessment of the last 12 months and what's next in store
As we come to the end of the year, CRN is profiling some of the most successful channel firms in our market to talk to leadership about their 2022 highs, and to ask what's in store for the next 12 months.
Convergent Technology was recently singled out by industry judges to be included in this year's Channel Awards shortlist for Rising Star Award - Reseller.
Its founder and director, Jody Pawson, spoke to CRN to share his insights into the company's strategic direction, growth and profitability.
He also spoke about the reseller's ambitions to lead and manage the relatively new business, which was founded in 2017, into being a 'true challenger' on both a UK and global scale.
What did being highlighted in the shortlist for a CRN Channel Award mean to you?
It would represent a significant point in time as part of our journey to become a true challenger in the industry, and It would mean the last five years of work starting and growing the business to where it is today.
What have been your highlights of 2022 so far?
Doubting our turnover and profitability and increasing our sales team by 50 per cent, mainly through our graduate scheme.
We are a leading technology employer around diversity with over 50 per cent women's sales team.
What's the most interesting industry trend you've noticed this year?
As there's been a lot of uncertainty with the economy and other factors outside our control, we're finding that more customers are looking to optimise the technology they already have.
We see more customers trying to consolidate the number of vendors they use and are moving to an "as-a-service" model, allowing them to use Convergent and our partner's expertise and resource in areas they don't have the budget or resources to do themselves.
How has your partner's strategy evolved in 2022?
This has been a big evolution. We've added a lot more structure to our partner strategy this year. We wanted to focus on a smaller number of strategic vendors that aligned with the priorities that our customers are discussing with us.
With that in mind, we evaluated the market, selected major and disruptive vendors that we believe will have a big impact over the next 12-24 months and created a programme giving them more exclusive access to our sales teams.
We set mutual targets and made plans together on how we will achieve them. To date this has led to record performance across the portfolio.
What are you most looking forward to about 2023?
We have put a lot of time and effort into creating an extensive onboarding programme for our graduate scheme (2nd generation), which is now coming to fruition.
We have hired motivated young salespeople ready to start making a solid career for themselves. I'm most excited about seeing their progress and supporting them on the next step of their employment with Convergent Technology.