Indispensable channel analysis

MicroScopemicroscope.co.uk

October 2014

HELP IT DEPARTMENTS GET A GRIP ON

SHADOW IT

PLUS:

◆ THE PROS AND CONS OF THE TECHNOLOGY TRADE SHOW

◆ AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL DELL ON HIS CHANNEL STRATEGY

◆ THE MONTH IN IT ◆ OPINION ◆ LETTERS ◆ FIVE-MINUTE INTERVIEW ◆

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Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk OCTOBER 2014 | 2

Dell Solutions Summit: Channel delivers $20bn and growingIt has been seven years since Dell rediscovered its love of the channel. The indirect business is now worth $20bn and delivers a third of the vendor’s revenues. Globally the vendor now can boast a reseller base of 167,000 partners and managed to get 4,255 of those to premier level by the middle of this year. Speaking at the company’s recent Solutions Summit in Brussels, the vendor’s founder and CEO Michael Dell said that there was no upper limit on the level of business that could be done with partners, and said he expected it to grow beyond a third.

“The indirect business is a third of the business and we don’t have an upper limit. We have some countries where we are 100% channel,” he said.

“Europe has always been more channel orientated than in the US.” He added that some of the growth was coming from its relative late entry into being an indirect player: “We are catching up.”

He also admitted that the growth in channel revenues was already much larger than the firm had expected: ”We are way ahead of any of the plans we had back in 2008 and 2009 and I don’t have a lot of complaints,” he said.

“We now have a $20bn channel business and I don’t think anyone would have believed that back in 2007.”

Nude photo leak a chance for channel to talk cloud securityThe revelations that a hack led to a flood of naked celebrity pictures hit-ting the internet is a timely reminder that the channel must promote security to users placing sensitive and personal data in the cloud. The celebrities hacked include movie and music stars, with Jennifer Lawrence Selena Gomez and Rihanna among them, with nude images they would rather have kept private now in the public domain.

Trend Micro expands numbers with industry veteran hiresTrend Micro continues its policy of staff investment to support its growth ambitions bringing on board two security industry veterans to take up senior positions in the UK organisa-tion. Earlier in the year Trend expanded its regional account man-ager network and doubled its techni-cal sales team in efforts to widen its reach in the market and has now added an enterprise sales director and a new technical director.

HP looks to boost sales with ‘Make IT Matter’ campaignHewlett-Packard has kicked off its biggest advertising campaign for at least a decade to stir demand for its products and services across a reviv-ing UK market. The vendor is pro-moting its brand across newspapers, magazines, TV, cinema and advertis-ing hoardings as part of the “Make IT Matter” campaign intended to remind customers how much the vendor offers beyond traditional PC and printer technology.

Say goodbye to SQL curriculumChildren returned to school this term to find their IT lessons noticeably changed. No longer are they con-cerned with the intricacies of switch-ing a computer on or the innermost workings of Microsoft Word. The government says the new curriculum will prepare them for “life in modern Britain” and will teach children to code from the age of five.

VMware brings Horizon Desktop as a service to UKVMware bought DaaS provider Desktone in 2013, signalling its arrival into the DaaS scene. Desktone trademarked the ‘Desktop as a Service’ and ‘DaaS’ back in 2009, giv-ing some indication of the firm’s intentions in the hosted-desktop arena. The buyout proved a slick tac-tic in the battle to bring an enterprise-grade solution to market. VMware Horizon DaaS launched in the United States in March and filled in many pieces of the ongoing puzzle.

Channel to the rescue for BoxBox held its fourth annual gathering – BoxWorks – in San Francisco, where 5,000 customers and partners descended on the Moscone Centre. Depending on who you speak to, Box is either a hot and exciting startup, ready to break free from the shackles of convention; or, despite being a decade old, has yet to turn a profit, pushed back an IPO, has taken another $150m in venture funding and seems destined to follow in Twitter’s footsteps – a cracking idea that doesn’t make money.

Xerox channel boss looks for indirect revenue growthIt has only been a matter of weeks since John Corley was appointed channel chief at Xerox but already he is talking up the role resellers play for the company. Corley stepped into the role as president of channel partner operations to replace Douraid Zaghouani, who had been running the channel for two and a half years. Corley said more can be produced from working closely with partners.

Virgin Media Business shakes up SME market with new servicesResearch conducted by Virgin Media Business found a quarter of SMEs don’t expect any growth in the next six months and fewer than one in ten would turn to the government for help. Virgin Media Business polled over 1,000 companies with between two and 250 staff. Over a quarter of respondents said understanding the digital technology required at the startup stage was one of the biggest challenges they faced and over half said that getting the right business advice was a significant hurdle.

Cisco hands Avnet security remitAvnet’s decision to set up a dedicated networking and security division continues to bear fruit when Cisco handed it the vendor’s security prod-uct brief. Avnet has already attracted some interest from vendors such as RSA, which also opted to work with the distributor because of the prom-ise of a more dedicated focus.

Updates and ‘bendgate’ spell a very bad week for AppleWith Apple forced to withdraw the iOS 8.0.1 update after widespread reports of it bricking iPhones, it’s apparent that “measure twice, cut once” is not an adage that made it to Cupertino. The update was expected to fix minor faults with the operating system, but reports flooded in that it rendered devices incapable of mak-ing calls and broke Touch ID. This is the first time Apple has been forced to withdraw an update. ■

Liberata steps in to start the next chapter at Trustmarque Business process services specialist Liberata UK has acquired Trustmarque Solutions, ending weeks of speculation about the destiny of the reseller after it opted to change its investor. In the last few days Trustmarque has been looking for alternative investment and landed on Liberata, which plans to run Trustmarque as a separate entity without changing its current business. Last summer Trustmarque led an MBO, backed by Dunedin, that enabled it to part company with its former investment backer LDC in a deal worth £43m but in recent weeks it has become clear that a new investor was needed to take the business forward.

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the month in the channel

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Increasingly, the IT department is being sidestepped by other business units that know what they want and then order out of their own budgets

What has Microsoft got against the number 9?

BILLY MACINNES OPINION

What does Microsoft have against the number 9? It’s a question many people are asking now

the software giant has hopped from Windows 8 to Windows 10 without even the briefest acknowledgement of Windows 9. Alright, not that many are asking the question but it has given to the (un)amusing joke about Windows going straight from eight to 10 because seven ate nine.

I wonder if it has something to do with The Beatles track Revolution 9. Those of you fortunate not to have heard the Fab Four’s temporary eight-minute foray into the avant garde will be unfamiliar with its almost eternal loop of someone saying “number nine, number nine” again and again. Paul McCartney, wisely, argued against its inclusion on the album but lost out.

As an aside, John Lennon considered nine his lucky number. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 1970, he said: “Nine turned out to be my birthday and my lucky number and everything.” Lennon was born on 9 October 1940. His first home was 9 Newcastle Road, Wavertree, Liverpool. Spookily, another track he released during his solo career entitled #9 Dream is featured on his ninth non-Beatles album, was issued in September (the ninth month) and reached number nine in the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US.

Anyway, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella obviously doesn’t have a thing about the number nine (unless he believes it’s an unlucky number). According to an article on CNET, a number of reasons have been given but I’m not convinced by most of them. However, it does provide a link to a post on reddit which may have the most plausible explanation for the decision to bypass nine.

It reads:Microsoft dev here, the internal rumours are that early testing revealed just how many third party products had code of the form

        if (version.StartsWith

(“Windows 9”))         {  /* 95 and 98 */         }  else  { 

... and this was the pragmatic solution to avoid that.

There’s a lively discussion on the page suggesting that, while the theory sounds plausible, not everyone is convinced.

There is one other reason, of course: Microsoft realised that by going straight from Windows 8 to Windows 10, it would get more coverage of its plans because a lot more people would be interested in why it left out Windows 9 than might have been interested in the news that it was preparing the next release of its venerable operating system. ■

SIMON QUICKE EDITOR’S COMMENT

As the temperatures drop and people start wondering where they stored all their scarves and gloves last year, things start to hot up in the channel as the fourth quarter

gains momentum.Although summer is never quite as quiet as it was

– and there have been efforts to ensure this is not a seasonal business – there is still a buzz in the air when it comes to October.

Part of that is probably due to the influence of consumer technology. All the big releases in home technology will be released in time for Christmas and that gets people thinking more in general about IT.

For many firms, the fourth quarter is also the last three months of the fiscal year and there will be targets that have to be hit – getting that little bit extra out of customers will become the ambition.

With that in mind it is interesting to read Billy MacInnes’s piece about shadow IT and the way that now, more than ever before, the channel needs to

have relationships with customers at multiple levels. Increasingly, the IT department is being sidestepped by other business units that know what they want and then order out of their own budgets. Resellers need to keep an eye on that developing landscape and ensure they catch that money.

It’s also worth reading Amro Gebreel’s piece on trade shows because that is where a lot of the customers will be getting their inspiration from and finding out about the latest trends and technologies in the market.

Despite numerous online communication options, there was almost universal agreement from the people that contributed to Amro’s article that trade shows and channel events play a vital role.

As things hot up on the sales floor and get a bit chillier outside, let’s hope October is a solid month for the channel and sets things up for a good finish to what has been a year of increased optimism and growth. ■

If you would like details of forthcoming themes running in the MicroScope ezine, wish to share your reaction to this one, or make any other contribution, email squicke@techtarget.com.

There’s a buzz in the air for the channel

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The channel needs a complementary blend of youth and experience

NICK BOOTH OPINION

There are many hundreds of tedious jobs in IT that have to be manually tackled. According to an estimate by

Firemon – a company which makes existing security systems work more efficiently rather than constantly ‘dis-rupting’ the clientele – a typical cor-poration has 8,000 processes that are documented on spreadsheets. This means some hapless victim will be assigned to spend their days dragging information out of people, entering it into a series of columns and then manually acting on each entry.

The cloud is creating software tools that allow people to automate these drudgeries. But there aren’t enough people around who can do the automation, even though the web tools purport to be easy to use and intuitive. Surely if they were that intuitive, there would be no shortage of people who could do the work. Like many words in the IT industry, ‘intuitive’ has come to mean some-thing else. As a result, according to EU sources, there will be a skills shortage in the digital sector of up to 1.3 million jobs by 2020.

Meanwhile, there is unemploy-ment in the UK. There is a particular problem with the over-50s who, despite having years of practical experience in various disciplines, one day find themselves deemed no longer fit for purpose. Unless you can type LOL or some cliché about ‘engaging content’ into several social

statistics. The training, such as it is, usually consists of some failed pro-grammer reading out of a manual he doesn’t understand.

The movement behind National Coding Week won’t be like that, says Rolfe. I’m inclined to believe him, as he is a head teacher, so he knows infi-nitely more about the culture of learn-ing than 99% of the goons and chanc-ers so often paid to train people. Secondly, old head Rolfe and young entrepreneur Love might make a good team, as they possess what football managers like to describe as “the right blend of youth and experience”.

Another reason why this initiative might work, and create some useful talent that the IT channel can har-ness, is that the culture of IT has changed since I worked in it. I remember IT people being mean-spirited and selfish – nobody shared any information as they seemed to think it devalued their own stock. That’s all changed now, says Rolfe.

“The millennial generation are not like that. They have grown up shar-ing information. They put their entire lives on social media,” he says. Besides there are so many opportuni-ties up for grabs – around 750, 000 digital vacancies in London alone, according to Bloomberg – that nobody need be greedy, he says.

“The world is big enough for eve-ryone to have a slice of the pie, and London is the app capital,” says Rolfe. Let’s hope he’s right. ■

media platforms, you’re regarded as unemployable.

So, in effect, there’s a massive sur-plus of experienced people on the employment market. And, simulta-neously, a massive shortage of people with experience in business pro-cesses and a basic knowledge of how to code using an ‘intuitive’ system (also known as a system that needs a few days’ training).

Can anyone spot a gap in the market? I’m glad I’m not the only one. Former head teacher Richard Rolfe and young entrepre-neur Jordan Love have launched #NationalCodingWeek to get people interested in programming – includ-ing those with life experience.

If we live in the ‘information econ-omy’, surely experience is our most valuable asset. And yet, people with decades of experience about office politics, business processes and the variation of cultures across different industries are generally shunned, in favour of people who don’t know their AAS from their elbow.

The lack of knowledge of business processes is the primary reason many

IT integration projects fail. Let’s face it, IT salesmen aren’t the greatest lis-teners in the world. They only ever stop talking to think about what they’re going to say next – mean-while, your queries wash over them.

At the risk of making a massive generalisation, it might be said that women are better listeners than men. Surely, listeners are what we need in this industry. Which is why another movement, Women Who Code, could be useful too. “Women Who Code UK is about helping women excel in tech careers,” says founder Sheree Atcheson. “Through a week like this, we can all work on showcasing amazing tech careers and prospects to girls and women all over the UK.”

Both this movement and National Coding Week could be useful to the channel, if they create an environ-ment where people can learn useful skills from each other. If they did cre-ate that culture, it would be a massive achievement – as the challenge is substantial. My personal experience of government IT training was pretty grim. They are usually meaningless stunts to massage unemployment

People with decades of experience are shunned in favour of people who don’t

know their AAS from their elbow

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Shadow IT is becoming an increasingly important part of the IT landscape, even if, as its name suggests, it’s

not easy to gauge just how important. But there are a few indicators that provide some clues.

Several months ago, MicroScope reported on a survey by Cisco Consulting Services and Intel – Impact of Cloud on IT Consumption Models – which claimed the UK had reached a tipping point, with lines of business (LOBs) set to overtake IT departments in spending this year. The report revealed 45% of IT fund-ing was controlled by LOBs and pre-dicted the figure would rise this year.

Jo Laking, UKI cloud leader at Cisco, told MicroScope at the time: “Almost every conceivable business function can now be delivered from the cloud as a service, empowering departments to seize control of their own spending instead of waiting for a nod from IT.”

Alain Wiedmar, area sales vice-president for EMEA channels and service providers at Polycom, cites figures from IDC which reveal that 58% of new IT investments in 2013 involved the direct participation of LOB executives.

While that appears to be a large fig-ure, IDC predicts that LOB executives will be directly involved in 80% of new IT investments by 2016 and take the lead decision-making role in at least half of those. He believes this state of affairs will provide a “great opportunity” for channel partners to package and tailor services for differ-ent LOBs across the organisation.

Graham Jones, UK country man-ager at Exclusive Networks UK, quotes figures from Gartner that at least 35% of enterprise IT expendi-ture will occur outside the IT depart-ment by 2015, adding “so, naturally this is going to be an opportunity for channel partners”.

But he stresses that the reseller’s relationship with the IT department “is still going to be critical”, which could cause problems if it ends up “going behind IT’s back to capitalise on the opportunities [shadow

projects, and often have a deep understanding of those LOBs’ needs and problems, rather than corporate-wide initiatives.”

Phillips suggests partners will take on even more of “a gatekeeper role” between LOBs and the IT department than they did before. He says there is a perception that IT acts as a hindrance to technology implementations, high-lighting research from Frost & Sullivan which found 38% of LOBs thought the approval process for new software applications was too slow.

“Channel partners have a unique opportunity to bridge the gap,” he adds, “but they will have to work hard at building these different rela-tionships. They need to be ready to help LOBs in implementing projects, whilst at the same time helping IT ensure compliance with policy, gov-ernance and security.”

Tim Patrick-Smith, group CIO at Getronics, picks up on the concern that while departmental spending might generate more innovation than IT department projects, “the trend may lead to the use of services unsuitable for the enterprise, man-aged by individuals without the proper authority and poorly inte-grated with the wider network”.

Exclusive Networks’ Jones likens it to the situation 10 to 15 years ago when LOBs were buying and install-ing wireless access points “out of petty cash”, but says it’s up to the IT

Bring IT out of the shadowsChannel partners can help IT departments get a better grip on shadow IT and advise on how to deal with the issue. Billy MacInnes reports

department to “answer the demand and manage the risks in an appropri-ate way as a trusted advisor”.

Practical, strategic advisorChannel partners can help to ensure the wrong products aren’t ordered and the LOB does not have to take responsibility should there be a mis-take. He adds that most enterprise customers will want resellers “to provide sufficient practical and stra-tegic support to help achieve their objectives through IT, rather than playing the part of the arms dealer who encourages and profits from the conflict of these business depart-ments and doesn’t particularly care if no one wins”.

The comparison to an arms dealer is an interesting, if controversial, analogy to make. Richard Potter, director of innovation at Steria, makes another interesting point, arguing that shadow IT gives channel partners the ability to pitch to LOBs “on the user experience, without tak-ing into account the full enterprise technology cost”.

He echoes Phillips by suggesting that if the IT department regains con-trol of shadow IT, “channel partners will have to pitch competitively, reflecting the total cost-benefit case, including security, infrastructure and support”.

Ben Barry, director of Coeus Consulting, turns the issue on its

shadow IT

IT] presents. It might end up being counterproductive to long-term inter-ests with those customers if the part-ner is too hasty about supplying the LOB and creates conflict”.

Reseller as gatekeeperThere’s no doubt that the channel could have a very important role to play if LOBs become more influential in IT purchasing decisions, although Rich Phillips, UKI partner and chan-nel director at SAP, believes it’s more of an evolution in the existing rela-tionships that partners already have with LOBs rather than something entirely new.

“The move towards shadow IT is a good thing for channel partners,” he says. “Typically, VARs have tended to have relationships with individual LOBs anyway, as they are usually better equipped to deal with

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“Almost every business function can now be delivered from the cloud as a service, empowering departments to seize control of their own spending instead of waiting for a nod from IT” Jo Laking, Cisco

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk OCTOBER 2014 | 6

shadow IThead. It could be argued, he says, that if channel partners were “well respected by the business then shadow IT spend would be less likely in the first place, as they would be aware of what the business was try-ing to achieve and facilitate its deliv-ery through the appropriate central IT channels”.

The question that needs to be asked, he adds, is what is driving the adoption of shadow IT? “Poor IT ser-vices and delivery, lack of skills and innovation or a poor relationship with a channel partner who is not interfacing sufficiently between IT and the LOB?”

Like Jones, Barry believes this could leave channel partners walking a tightrope: “It will put channel part-ners in a difficult place. They would be expected by their reporting line [IT department] not to increase shadow IT. They may not want to be part of it, which could put them in direct conflict with their customer [LOBs].”

Stephen Dorling, EMEA senior channel sales manager at Okta, argues that with the role of IT becom-ing more about enablement and increasing productivity, rather than control, channel partners are in a good position.

“As business units start to procure their own IT services and applica-tions, channel partners are ideally placed to provide companies with the advice and technology to ensure compliance and security is main-tained across the business,” he claims.

But Dorling agrees with Barry that there are dangers as the IT spending power shifts to LOBs and channel partners “are faced with the decision of whether to continue targeting IT teams or branch out to include wider decision-makers in the organisation. In reality, they’ll never be able to scale enough to meet all ends of the business and would run the risk of spreading themselves too thin”.

Dorling believes channel partners “should stick to what they know, continue to maintain relationships with IT teams and carve a space by

positioning themselves as a trusted advisor on solving the problems that shadow IT presents”. Instead of wor-rying about potential lost licence rev-enues, he says they ought to “focus on engaging and educating IT teams on how they can obtain better visibil-ity, and secure shadow IT services”.

There’s nothing new for resellers in playing the role of trusted advisor, and Dorling is not alone in urging them to continue to do what they’ve always done.

“Because shadow IT is a relatively new concept and there’s such impe-tus to make cloud apps ready for business, channel partners which can act as trusted advisors will win,” says Eduard Meelhuysen, EMEA vice-president for sales at Netskope. “Enterprise customers need assis-tance discovering shadow IT, under-standing their enterprise risk, prior-itising remediation strategies, establishing and enforcing policies, and ensuring and reporting on policy compliance.”

Bridging departmental dividesChannel partners also have the capa-bility to act as a bridge between the IT department and the LOBs.

Dorling remarks that shadow IT will result in a lack of visibility over who has access to what across the organisation. “This presents channel partners with an opportunity to bridge the gap between the IT depart-ment and other lines of business,” he argues. “There’s the opportunity to help IT teams understand what’s going on in the business and get a handle on which services are being used, how frequently, by whom and how secure they are.”

Terry O’Brien, managing director of Daisy Wholesale, says channel partners “have a duty to guide their customers through the converging technology landscape”, and this applies as much to sales, marketing and customer services as it does to the IT department.

“As gatekeepers to effective com-munications, it should be in their remit to involve other parts of the business as they see fit, if the IT

department has not already done so and vice versa,” he adds.

O’Brien goes further, suggesting resellers need to take an active role in helping those adopting shadow IT. “It is not a question of whether they are willing – partners must be willing to help shadow IT leaders and embrace these new relationships to remain valuable,” he warns.

There’s a strong financial incentive for doing so. “The technology spend outside the IT department is said to be growing two and a half times faster than that of IT, so the opportunities are there for the taking,” he says.

Jones says resellers need to be ready to help LOBs gain more control over IT spending and direction being an obstruction is not going to help anyone. “We see this time and time again in the channel, with disruptive technologies, disruptive business models and disruptive working prac-tices,” he says.

Partners can’t afford to become complacent, but they also need to avoid becoming over-zealous in their enthusiasm for the ‘next big thing’ because it “might just turn out to be a flash in the pan”, warns Jones.

Coeus Consulting’s Barry also cau-tions resellers about being too gung-ho over shadow IT. “The more expe-rienced channel partners will seek to understand what is driving shadow IT to try to resolve the issues,” he says. “Where the LOB requires niche IT capabilities not provided by IT, the reseller will try to get the niche sup-pliers managed by central IT. So the IT spend does not actually become shadow IT.”

In effect, the channel partner will act as a buffer, helping to discover instances of shadow IT and finding ways to bring it back into the organi-sational fold.

According to Getronics’ Patrick-Smith, partners can also help the IT department to get a better grip on shadow IT and advise on how to deal with the issue.

“So far, there has been a distinct lack of client-side consulting services in this area,” he observes. “In addi-tion, we will soon begin to see the emergence of departmental job roles with a responsibility for IT – chief marketing technology officers (CMTO) for example.

It’s up to resellers to monitor this development and engage with CMTOs and their equivalents to build relationships throughout the wider business.”

Retain your valueThe cloud has been one of the key factors in the adoption of shadow IT because it has provided a means for LOBs to access applications and ser-vices they require without having to go through the IT department.

But it can also be a way for LOBs to form new relationships with different partners if incumbent resellers don’t stay on the ball and ensure they remain in the loop. There’s a danger they could be squeezed out altogether.

Exclusive Networks’ Jones says cloud has made it easy to commis-sion IT services, but the impact is still yet to be fully understood.

“It could be argued that some part-ners might well get squeezed out, but whether they do or not rests on the strength of their relationships and their ability to remain both valuable and relevant to their customer’s requirements,” he says.

In other words, whether it’s IT or shadow IT, the best thing resellers can do is to do what they’ve always done and make sure they don’t get lost in the shadows. ■

“Because shadow IT is a relatively new concept and there’s such impetus to make cloud apps ready for business, channel partners which can act as trusted advisors will win” Eduard Meelhuysen, Netskope

Phillips: “Channel partners need to be ready to help LOBs implement projects and help IT ensure compliance with policy, governance and security”

Jones: “Partners’ continued success rests on the strength of their relationships and their ability to remain both valuable and relevant to their customer’s requirements”

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk OCTOBER 2014 | 7

Most people in the chan-nel will open a new diary and pencil in not just the birthdays of

their nearest and dearest but also some of the major industry events they want to attend.

Whether it be BETT in January, CeBit in March, InfoSec around April or IP Expo in October, there is never a shortage of trade show dates for the calendar. Along with trade shows there are numerous partner events held by vendors and distributors to keep resellers busy.

But in the age of social media, instant messaging and video, is there really a need to walk the halls, press the flesh, pick up the brochures and sit through presentations and semi-nars? The channel is an industry cen-tred around personalities, and ven-dors invest in trade shows as a platform for product evangelism and building channel relationships.

Rowena Case, WatchGuard’s UK marketing manager, says that, despite the speed, convenience and low cost of using electronic communications and social media, there is still no sub-stitute for meeting people face to face – and that is why good exhibitions still work.

“For vendors like WatchGuard, it is an opportunity to meet partners, exist-ing customers and prospective cus-tomers over a period of two or three days – just add up the time it would take to do this piecemeal. While peo-ple do not have a lot of time at shows, it is time enough to have a meaningful conversation, understand their needs and present an initial concept of a solution,” she says.

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of Wick Hill Group, is a committed trade show attendee and has attended InfoSec for many years. He accepts that there are options for people to communicate with video conferencing and instant messaging (IM), but believes there’s nothing like face-to-face discussions.

“In particular, trade shows provide the opportunity to see and evaluate competing solutions in a much more effective manner than multiple meet-ings for different vendors. In our case, with our portfolio being essentially

Even some of those in the telco channel who know all about the video conferencing and instant mes-saging worlds agree the trade show has a place in providing an arena for the channel, vendors and customers to meet. The ability to meet a number of contacts at a single trade show is an attractive one for channel execu-tives hard-pressed for time.

Terry O’Brien, managing director at Daisy Wholesale (see Five-minute interview, p14), says the technological advancements in video conferencing are a fantastic way of having face-to-face contact without the need to travel, take time out of the office or attend to the time-consuming job of

finding a meeting point. But he says there is also a place for the trade show.

“The environment of a trade show brings much more than just faces on screens and voices through speakers. Video conferences or webinars tend to be restrictive when it comes to conversing amongst the audience and often lack the freedom of having one-on-one conversations. The beauty of trade shows is that it is a collection of people within the same market sharing their thoughts on its current state and what the future might bring,” he says.

But it is not all bright and rosy in the trade show world. Anyone look-ing back over old diaries will find

trade shows

complementary, it provides partners with the opportunity to consider other portfolio products without the formal-ity of multiple product presentations, which wouldn’t be of interest,” he says.

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“The beauty of trade shows is that it is a collection of people in the same market sharing their thoughts on its current state and what the future might bring” Terry O’Brien, Daisy Wholesale

The trade show:Return on investment or industry dinosaur?Amro Gebreel weighs up the pros and cons of the technology industry convention

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk OCTOBER 2014 | 8

trade showssome events that formed part of the channel calendar no longer the must-attend dates they once were.

“In the last decade, trade shows have become less useful for the chan-nel. One of the largest trade shows, Internet World, used to showcase all the prominent channel vendors and the audience was relevant and con-sistent. Attending was about making a statement that you were in the mar-ketplace. As attendance grew, the audience diluted, and a vicious cycle took off: vendors saw increasingly less value in attending as it became more difficult to target prospective business efficiently,” says Chris Roberts, head of channel at MTI.

Diminishing returns“On the other hand, smaller, more focused events tend to provide greater opportunities for channel vendors because they can offer access to a more specialised audience. When a business offers a specific service it is not financially viable to showcase to an audience that is too broad, so a more targeted approach is simply a better use of money. In turn, focused events will bring in a better return on investment,” he argues.

The sense that some trade shows have fallen victim to their own suc-cess is a view held elsewhere in the channel. As an event grows and expands beyond its original focus, the consequences can be damaging to those booking stand space.

Jim Tyer, AppRiver’s EMEA chan-nel director, says the trade show model is fundamentally flawed because it offers the same value now as it did a decade ago.

“Not much has changed in the way trade shows engage with the channel, and that, of course, produces disaf-fection. General events need to find new ways to provide value to the channel and the only events that are successfully engaging the audience are small events with a vertical approach on a topic that attendees can truly relate to. For that reason, in my opinion, trade shows are more about building brand awareness or customer retention, rather than creat-ing new business,” he says.

“Partners who go to shows are typically there for special meet-ings, networking or to catch up with

“The biggest mistake companies make is thinking that the job is done once the doors close” Rowena Case, WatchGuard

One of the main features of a trade show is the very public nature of the event. A stand can often be walked round and punters file past in a fairly random pattern. To ensure you get the audience you want, and the topic is controlled, the option to hold a private event might prove more attractive.

Graham Jones, UK country manager at Exclusive Networks, says trade shows still have a role that cannot be easily fulfilled in any other way, but there can be questions around the return on investment that can be achieved from attending a trade show, against hosting your own private event.

“By hosting a private event you have the ability to network with an ecosystem of people who are particularly useful to you. Hosting your own private event means you can invest more time in those meaningful business conversations with those that really matter to you. You have the ability to showcase who you are as a company, which will give you maximum opportunity to get better engaged with potential resellers and vendor partners,” he says.

“Having said that, trade shows and private events will always offer the opportunity to meet with a lot of people face-to-face, in comparison with digital platforms, therefore enabling a rapport to be built on a personal level. It would be almost impossible to engage with a large number of people by any other form of communication other than face-to-face – so why run the risk? We may be in a digital era where technology does it all for us, but let’s face it, no amount of technology can beat the good old fashioned handshake – businesses are still made on them.”

Private versus public show

connections. It might prove difficult to justify attendance without provid-ing the channel with an exciting level of engagement. If I’m a channel part-ner, I’m not at a trade show for cus-tomers. There is too much fluff and noise to sift through. Creating value for the channel from their current partners or potential partners is key.”

Anyone working in the channel knows about the customer’s preoccu-pation with return on investment and it is no different with a trade show. The time and money spent running a stand or visiting an event have to deliver a tangible return. The days of branding are fading. There once was a time when stories were generated by the absence of big names from shows. These days no-one cares as much about who is there, so long as the attendees are good and the infor-mation on offer draws a quality crowd. But those questions of return on investment are increasingly used to measure events’ effectiveness.

“We are increasingly sceptical about the measurable benefits of trade shows in the channel,” says Patrick Jocelyn, chief marketing office and general manager UK at MeetingZone.

“Our recent experience of attend-ing these was not a good one, in that attendance was poor and the few ‘interested’ punters in attendance were pursued by everyone. Sure, it’s good to network face-to-face and share industry gossip – but in the end, it’s the return on investment that really counts.

“It’s hugely expensive to attend shows in management time and direct costs of stand builds and expenses. Online forums, webinars and digital marketing provide a much more targeted and measurable way of promoting a brand message and providing a call to action. Our range of conferencing and collabora-tion services can deliver everything we need that attending a trade show can do, but at a fraction of the cost.”

Exploiting lead opportunitiesWhere there might be problems with events – whether general or focused – is not so much in the planning and delivery stage, but afterwards. What happens to all those details gained from the scanned badges, business

cards dropped in for a raffle or names gathered from conversations held on the stand? In theory, those are poten-tial leads that need to be shared with the channel. But how they are deliv-ered can be a serious business.

“The biggest mistake that compa-nies make is thinking that the job is done once the doors close. That is just the start. For channel partners, it is an opportunity to work with ven-dors and generate leads. There is nothing more satisfying than handing over a fistful of qualified opportuni-ties at the end of the week. It only takes a few good ones to come to frui-tion to pay for the show.

The return on investment in shows starts with choosing the right ones to go to, followed by creating a good presence; doing the work in advance to invite customers and partners, working the stand and finally working with resellers to do the follow-up, straight afterwards,” says WatchGuard’s Case.

She believes that, as well as the vendor having to work, there is some responsibility on the shoulders of the show organiser to make sure the event is marketed to the right audi-ence and the halls are full of decent customer prospects.

“With such a diverse IT industry, the trend has been towards sector- or technology-focused events, and this makes sense. It’s about quality rather than quantity,” she says.

Perhaps the conclusion of a discus-sion about trade shows is one where the decision to attend has to be based on a strategic decision. If there is still a desire to gather information, meet suppliers, prospective partners and research the competition, it is hard to beat a trade show. Some might have disappeared and others could find they have grown too large to ensure quality. But come next year, the chan-nel diaries will still be filled with the dates of trade shows and events that people want to attend. ■

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Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk OCTOBER 2014 | 9

vendor Q&A

Michael Dell on channel strategy and the joys of running a private companyThe Dell CEO discussed the vendor's approach to the channel at its recent Solutions Summit. Simon Quicke reports

Growing the channel businessAround one-third of the vendor’s revenues come from its channel busi-ness, so Cook asked Dell what he saw happening with that level and how high it could climb in the future.

“We don’t have an upper limit. At some point it becomes an aca-demic question because of the omni-channel approach we are tak-ing [whereby the vendor’s sales teams work with partners],” said Dell.

“We have countries where it is 100%, and our US federal business, which is very important to us, is about two-thirds channel-driven. The number just goes up and there is no ceiling on it,” he said.

Partners key to Dell’s growthThanks to resellers, Dell has been delivering double-digit growth, but could the momentum in the current market continue in the future?

“Our growth looks like it is two to three times that of the industry. We just introduced the 13th generation of PowerEdge and the reception to that has been very strong. We are six weeks through our third quarter and the growth is better than it was in the first half, which is a delight for us – and somewhat unexpected,” said Dell.

“More and more partners are going all-in with us. If you go back to 2008 and 2009, the partners were a little bit cautious because this was a new thing. We had a number of big part-ners working with us, but if you asked them it was a sort of ‘hush-hush’ thing. If you ask them about Dell now, it is all out in the open.

“When we meet with our top part-ners they regularly tell us, ‘You are our number one vendor’ or ‘Last year, you were number six and now you are number three’. We have stagger-ing growth with some of these

“We have 167,000 partners around the world, a $20bn-plus channel business

and partnerships with all the leading distributors in the world”

INTERVIEW

A t the recent Dell Solutions Summit in Brussels, CEO Michael Dell shared his views on the current state

of the firm’s channel strategy in a Q&A session led by the vendor’s vice-president of global channel alliances, Cheryl Cook.

Cook started by asking her CEO about the current state of play with the channel, seven years after the vendor took the decision to formalise its relationship with resellers.

“In 2007, the programme was for-malised and we have since acquired another 40-plus companies, and each one of those has had a channel programme,” he said.

“Fast-forward to today and we have 167,000 partners around the world, a $20bn-plus channel busi-ness and partnerships with all the leading distributors in the world. We have tremendous growth across all countries and across all markets, we have an omni-channel approach and we have incentives for our inside teams to work with channel part-ners,” added Dell.

“One of the big things our channel partners have been seeing is we have the broadest set of solutions of any of the companies, particularly for the fast-growing small and medium-sized businesses. We serve the largest companies in the world too. When you get into systems management, firewalls, backup and protection, encryption, the datacen-tre and the client, those are well covered,” he said.

“The other thing which is simple and straightforward is we have been reliable, consistent and predictable every year, again and again, with a programme that partners can understand. They like it,” he added.

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk OCTOBER 2014 | 10

partners, and I don’t see any reason why that won’t continue,” he said.

“We are still under-distributed. When you look at the raw data there is still tons of upside and we have a powerful brand, very strong prod-ucts and have invested heavily in innovation,” Dell added.

“It’s not just the core product lines that people have thought about Dell being in for 10 years. We have a whole array of solutions now that go into systems management – security, information management, a great dis-play business and thin clients are growing rapidly. All the things going on in converged infrastructure, the workloads are headed our way.

“Dell financial services – the bank of Dell – is open in 14 countries in Europe, and partners are using that, so it’s another accelerator. We just have lots of good news here,” he said.

Europe more channel-focusedWhen comparing the European region to the US, Dell was keen to stress that the channel did display differences in behaviour.

“Europe has always been more channel-orientated than the US. Maybe it’s one of the reasons why our growth has accelerated here, because we weren’t very channel-friendly up until 2007, so we have been catching

up for some of that time. I think part of that is there is an element of time and trust and relationships and con-sistency. It has taken some time, but people have moved decisively to work with us and the growth has been significant,” he said.

“Overall, we have growth all over the world. One thing that is different in EMEA is we have parts of EMEA where we started with channel in the beginning and are 100% channel.”

The freedom of going privateA question posed by MicroScope once the open mic session started was whether or not going private had enabled Dell to take a more stra-tegic view of channel relationships and invest in emerging areas rather than just backing proven revenue providers to hit quarterly targets.

“You take more risk and you are not as fearful of the quarterly

guidance, which is a pretty predomi-nant feeling that you get inside big public companies,” said Dell.

“Look at all the things that are going on today with the market for big public companies. You have shareholder activism. You have small shareholders buying up 1% of a com-pany, and then all of a sudden they have a position on the board and they are advocating that you do less of this, more of that, sell this and buy that – and then they leave and go to the next company.

“We are not doing any of that. No thank you. We are 100% focused on our partners and customers and growing our business and have a long-term focus,” he said.

“[Going private] has freed up about 20% of my time – and it was the 20% of the most annoying things you could ever imagine, and that is all gone. You get that time back to spend

with partners and customers and to spend on developing new products. It is just a delight to be private. Our growth has been accelerating, we have very good cashflow and, 10 months in, we absolutely love being private,” he added.

“There is a speed of decision-mak-ing. Here’s a way of thinking about it: let’s say you have a company about the size of Dell with roughly $15bn of quarterly revenues and roughly $1bn of quarterly profit. What happens is the managers and the leaders in that business are thinking about the next time when the company is going to report the quarterly earnings.

“Sometimes, in small ways and not so small ways, decisions are affected to make sure those targets are met. The cumulative effect of that can add up to some interesting things. For example, let’s say one of our leaders has a great idea to grow our business. If we are so caught up in our focus on the quarterly process but that idea requires some invest-ment now, we might not even hear about the idea.

“Now, we are hearing about the ideas and we are making the investments and are not obsessed about the quarterly target. That’s the way you should run a business,” Dell concluded. ■

“It is just a delight to be private. Our growth has been accelerating, we have very good cashflow and, 10 months in,

we absolutely love being private”

vendor Q&A

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk OCTOBER 2014 | 11

technology

Firms should stop waiting for better broadband and opt for 4G insteadMike Van Bunnens asks why businesses should put up with poor broadband when they could be using 4G

speed of 2Mbps. Yet, towards the end of 2014, significant parts of the country are still waiting. During those intervening five years, the landscape has changed: with the dominance of cloud computing, 2Mbps is barely adequate to support a business running all its applications and storing all of its data in the cloud.

This is a fact recognised by the rest of the world. Even countries with struggling economies, such as Spain, have a phenomenal communications network, both wired and mobile. In China and Japan, 100Mbps home connections are commonplace, with promises of gigabit-per second speeds to the home shortly. How can a UK business struggling with intermittent 1Mbps compete?

Taking controlToday, most businesses think the only option for broadband is fixed-line delivered by BT. If BT has no plans to upgrade the network soon, the business is scuppered. But this is ridiculous – especially in an era where 4G networks can offer download speeds of 10 to 30Mbps. So why are firms not using 4G? Costs are not prohibitive; deployment is not an issue, but businesses still believe they need to wait for the fixed infrastructure to be upgraded.

4G is being used widely across the world – especially in South Africa and Australia – to bring broadband to rural areas, but also as a quicker and cheaper way of expanding high-speed communications. Indeed, the UK’s evolution has been constrained by its early lead in the provision of copper networks, but the perception remains that hard wired is more reliable than mobile. Other countries without this wired infrastructure have invested in mobile communications because it is quicker

and less disruptive to add a 4G mast than laying cable in the road. As a result, these countries are ahead of the UK in providing universal high-speed broadband via 4G.

The good news is the roll-out of 4G continues fast, with coverage in hundreds of UK cities already. But there are barriers to overcome. Some firms have been scarred by inconsistent 3G experiences, with complaints regarding performance – and businesses believe mobile data isn’t as reliable as fixed-line offerings. Critically, cloud services and hosted applications require more bandwidth and greater reliability – therefore, firms need to be convinced that 4G networks will offer a true fixed-line alternative.

New communications realityIn fact, 4G is ideal for businesses. It is more efficient, can cater for higher bandwidth and be used to back up fixed-line services as standard. There is also the option to bond multiple 4G connections from multiple providers – linking multiple 4G networks can achieve a stable 50Mbps, with the benefit of extra reliability in uptime and throughput plus the resilience of different providers. 50Mbps may seem low when single 4G connections can almost deliver the same speed in certain locations, but, by carefully controlling the latency and taking control of the connection, stability that isn’t available on a single connection can be attained. Alternatively, a company can opt

to bond the existing fixed-line infrastructure with 4G – or 3G for that matter – to improve existing speeds and provide extra resilience.

Of course, a big sticking point for most companies is the data cost. But mobile data costs have plummeted with the arrival of 4G – today a business using 30GB per month via Microwave and BT line (8Mbps) can have a 4G solution for the same price and achieve far higher data rates.

Critically, the firm can perform effectively, exploit innovative cloud-based deployments without fear of business compromise and compete on a level playing field with the global competition.

Many companies are complaining about broadband speeds but doing nothing about the issue. BT’s timing and location of the fixed-network upgrade appears arbitrary at best, so why wait? The issue is reliability. No firm can afford to move into the cloud without high levels of network availability. When all data and appli-cations are online, a lost connection signals the end of business until it is recovered. UK firms require not only faster speeds than those on offer from standard fixed connections, but also better resilience.

UK firms cannot afford to be on the wrong side of the Digital Divide. Rather than waiting for BT to upgrade local services, UK firms need to consider the alternatives. ■

The roll-out of 4G continues fast, with coverage in hundreds of UK cities already

4G is more efficient, can cater for higher bandwidth and can be used to back up fixed-line services as standard

DIGITAL BRITAIN

Can businesses afford to wait for the UK to become fully effective in the field of digital technology?

If the government’s statements on digital strategy could be believed, even the most rural outpost should be enjoying high-speed broadband. But in reality even those operating in towns and cities are struggling to get a decent broadband speed via ageing copper networks.

So-called Digital Britain is fast becoming Divided Britain. And, while the impact on house prices of poor broadband connections is well established, it is the impact on businesses that is most damaging. How can a company exploit lower cost and more agile cloud services without reliable, resilient high-speed networks? And how can UK companies struggling with 2Mbps compete with global competition that already have 100Mbps and a commitment to 1Gbps soon?

Digital Britain is not working and 4G is a real alternative. So don’t just wait for BT – take action today and step across to the other side of the Digital Divide.

Falling behindAn inadequate communications network is placing UK businesses at serious risk of falling behind the competition in Europe and across the developing world. As more organisations exploit the cost and agility of cloud-based deployment, too many UK businesses are constrained by slow broadband – and not only in rural locations. Cloud services are too high-risk for businesses that cannot access reliable, high-speed broadband.

The government’s Digital Britain pledge back in 2009 insisted there would be broadband coverage across the UK by 2012, with a minimum

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Mike Van Bunnens is managing director of Comms365.

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk OCTOBER 2014 | 12

channel evolution

Channel principles remain the sameBurkhard Hensel looks at how the indirect channel has evolved to handle demands of today’s complex IT environment

The needs and motivations of the indirect channel have not changed in the past 25 years – partners and resellers need to remain focused on adding value by combining demand with execution

OPINION

The phrase “the network is the computer” has never been more true. Technological trends –

including mobility, big data, collabo-ration and compliance – are driving the IT mandate. But all require the underlying technology, tools and business models to run effectively.

To keep up with the latest develop-ments, organisations are increasingly introducing complex IT solutions offered in private, public or hybrid clouds. In turn, this means busi-nesses need to start addressing topics such as security and compliance. To complicate things even more, cloud services run in heterogeneous net-works with different bandwidth and virtualised architectures.

Adding valueAs we navigate the transition to a hyper-connected world, the indirect channel is again called on to redefine its role and help both users and ven-dors navigate the evolving IT land-scape. However, this is nothing new. Over the past 25 years, the main pur-pose of partners and resellers has always been to add value.

For example, when I started the indirect channel business for Europe at Sun Microsystems in 1988, most of the premium vendors worked according to a direct business model. The biggest partners were original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that integrated core technology and products into their own solutions and sold products as complete vendor-based solutions.

Then came the independent soft-ware vendors (ISVs), which devel-oped applications and drove cus-tomer demand that addressed specific business needs. In turn, this generated a whole new channel

industry, the value-added reseller (VAR). The VARs and systems inte-grators (SIs) based their business models on hardware, software and their own service revenues. They became the link between the ven-dor and the IT departments of the customer, offering customer-spe-cific solutions.

For a long time, vendors have understood the value of strategic indirect channel models. Integrating channel partners into their own

go-to-market strategies has enabled them to generate substantially better customer coverage, better customer service and incremental revenue.

Ultimately, a solid channel model for a vendor needs to address two aspects. First, the value proposi-tion for the end customer. Second, the business proposition for the partner. It is the vendor’s respon-sibility to generate demand and educate customers on the values of technology and related products. Simultaneously, vendors must decide what to invest in their own customer coverage and what they want to leverage over partners.

Channel partners can then judge vendors on their ability to generate demand, invest in coverage and will-ingness to integrate partners into their go-to-market models. For a part-ner, it is critical to trust the indirect channel strategy of the vendor.

Changing indirect modelsHowever, since early 2000, the inter-net has been slowly changing the

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indirect channel model. Notions of the internet of things and XSP mod-els have come into fashion and gener-ated new business models.

There are demands for new solutions that enable businesses to eliminate the blind spots in their network, so they can remain in control of the IT estate. It is impossible to be secured and compliant without having insight and knowledge of the data traffic and content in the datacentres.

As IT becomes more hyper- connected, the reaction of the chan-nel will determine its success or fail-ure. Instead of selling IT infrastruc-ture, the new channel philosophy is focused on delivering IT services. Yet the needs and motivations of the indirect channel have still not changed in the past 25 years. Partners and resellers need to remain focused on adding value by combining demand with execution. ■

Burkhard Hensel is EMEA vice-president of network visibility solutions at Ixia.

Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk OCTOBER 2014 | 13

community

“Resellers need to tell customers how potential downtime will be minimised” Ian Wells, vice-president, Veeam

READERS’ LETTERS

Corporations have become too accepting of data breachesCharles Sweeney, CEO, BloxxAugust was a grim month for data breaches. From UPS to Community Health Systems, the headlines relating to attacks were unrelenting – not unlike the hackers themselves. What strikes me more and more is that, as data breaches become more widely reported, corporations – regardless of the industry – display a degree of acceptance that seems to say, ‘Yes, personal data has been lost, but it could have been a much worse’.

Well, I beg to differ. As we hurtle towards a more connected future with the world of big data looming large, it is worrying that a hacker could use personal data to apply for a credit card in my name and potentially damage my credit rating. Any pretence to the contrary is short sighted and out of step with consumer feeling. We trust companies with our details and they have an implied duty to protect that data. Companies that do not realise this will lose customers and see their bottom line take a battering. You need look no further than Target as a prominent example of this point. No data is OK to lose.

It’s time to give smaller UK firms a chance at running IT servicesMark Colonnese, director, Aquarium SoftwareThe government’s plan to incorporate specialist businesses into the replacement IT system responsible for collecting £500bn worth of income tax is a wise move. The current solution is bulky and rigid, but Whitehall now believes it would be more efficient and effective to split the project into 100 separate contracts, calling on the expertise, experience and knowledge of some of the smaller and more agile UK technology firms.

As a small to medium-sized enterprise and technology platform developer, Aquarium Software knows how to play an important part in making huge projects work by completing elements assigned to us on time and within budget. Employing dynamic businesses with the enthusiasm and commitment to deliver, while working collectively,

is the key. These types of businesses are better equipped to meet the requirements of Whitehall at a much lower cost. It’s time for the money to go back into smaller businesses to prop up UK firms.

The fear-inducing element for the tax payer is the scale of the task at hand in breaking up such a large system and incorporating these smaller businesses into it. There is no doubt that the process needs to be carefully planned and to underestimate its size would be a great risk. However, with due consideration and the appointment of project managers well versed in

handling multiple smaller contracts, the government can, and should, make the desired cuts and improve a dated tax collection system. For years we have seen the large computer companies fail on an epic scale time after time – it’s time to try a new way. Go for it Dave.

Providers can give customers confidence with more insightIan Wells, vice-president, VeeamGartner has predicted IT spending will grow to $4.3tn (£2.7tn) by 2018. This is good news for the channel, since IT services offer more opportunities for new revenue streams than ever. But the journey is not going to be easy.

Becoming a service provider should be a matter of adding IT services on top of existing sales, which should come easily to many resellers. However, these extra services also have to match the expectations of businesses. Crucially, the modern business is always on

Luca Allegranza, freelance consultantI read with interest your recent piece about Kaspersky’s partner programme and its decision to focus on technical certifications. There seems to be a temptation in some programmes to only reward those generating maximum revenue and catch the efforts of the entrepreneurs in deal registration.

Whether or not those big revenue generators are offering high levels of technical expertise is debatable and so it is interesting to see a vendor go out of its way to ensure that element is covered. It should not only be a positive for customers – who get to talk to someone who knows what they are doing – but should also translate into a better relationship for the partner with the user. Everyone wants to have a “trusted relationship” and what better way of getting it than showing you really know your stuff?

Of course, there needs to be a balanced approach with that technical expertise combined with an awareness of the business issues customers are facing and the creation of a rounded solution. But it will be interesting to see just how the customer base reacts to Kasperksy Lab’s shields of technical accreditation and if they deliver some value across the channel.

Vendors should focus on expertise

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and demands IT services 24/7. But there has been a gap between the level of IT availability firms need and what IT can provide.

Resellers need to tell customers how potential downtime will be minimised and how the amount of recovered data will be maximised. This alleviates outage concerns the customer may have in two ways: first, it assures them that their business can remain productive if a service is down and, second, that long gaps between backups will not entail lost data when they attempt to recover it.

The more insight providers can give, the more confident customers will be. IT services represent ripe territory for the channel. But encouraging customer confidence is what will turn the opportunity into a steady revenue stream. ■

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Daily channel news at MicroScope.co.uk OCTOBER 2014 | 14

backchat

head, raring to go and get stuck in to a job you love.

Who helped you get to where you are today?Many people in all honesty. My family in particular has been a big driver and has supported me in everything I do. In business, there have been mentors and colleagues that have shaped my thinking, but I also think that, without the drive to want to make a difference, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

What is the best or worst business advice you have received – and from whom?The best piece of advice was given to me by a former boss of mine who I worked with for a long time, and that was to always do the right thing. The worst I have received – which I think is common in a lot of workplaces – is focusing on weaknesses rather than strengths when developing people. You should always

work to people’s strengths and aim to manage weaknesses.

What advice would you give to someone starting out today in IT?I would tell them to create an offering that centres on flexible working. By investing in mobility you can support the SME market in the future ways of working.

What does the next five years hold for the channel?A boom in opportunities. We are at a really exciting time for the channel. More and more innovative products will come to market that focus much more on enhancing the way users can work. We will see real growth in the market, as new technology and different ways of working allow the channel to own and dominate the SME market.

Tell us something most people do not know about youI like to eat raw Oxo cubes – they make a nice square meal.

What goal do you have to achieve before you die?

I have always wanted to be in a position where I could make a real difference, so something like prime minister – but that time might have passed.

What’s running on your smartphone?Email, Facebook, LinkedIn, BBC News, YouTube, a share price tracker and the Man United app, just to name a selection.

What is the best book you have ever read?It would have to be the autobiography of Jack Welch, a chairman of GE.

And the worst film you’ve ever seen?Sleepless in Seattle – I am not one for romcoms.

Name your Desert Island MP3s?Happy by Pharrell Williams, Masterplan by Oasis and anything by the Happy Mondays.

What temptation can you not resist?It would have to be fast cars.

What was your first car and how does it compare with what you drive now?It was a white Ford Orion 1.6 Injection Ghia and it was a lot cheaper than what I am driving at the moment.

Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with? Why, what did they do?My mum, but that is only because she is claustrophobic and would lose the plot in a lift.

If you could be any animal for a day, what would you be and why?A duck because they always look like they are smiling.

If you could take part in one event in the Olympics, which would you choose and why?The gymnastics floor event, purely because I would like to have an amazing body and be able to do incredible somersaults.

If you were facing awesome peril and impossible odds, which real or fictional person would you most want on your side and why?I should probably say Superman, so that I would have the best chance of surviving, but I think it would have to be Mr Tickle, so I could get some giggles in there before I go.

And finally, a grizzly bear and a silverback gorilla are getting ready for a no-holds-barred rumble. Who is your money on and why?I think my money would have to be on the silverback. They just seem to be sheer muscle. ■“If I could be any animal for a day,

I’d be a duck because they always look like they are smiling”

FIVE-MINUTE INTERVIEW

Tell us what you do for a livingI am the managing director of Daisy Wholesale, a provider of telecoms and IT services to the channel. My role is to ensure we are offering our channel partners the innovative solutions the SME market demands. However, more specifically, it is my responsibility to ensure that I have a great team of people around me with a clear direction and the motivation to ensure success.

Why are you the right person for this job?Simply because I love it. I have the desire to stimulate a change in the way businesses can work. By playing a key part in the channel, working closely with our partners, we can increase flexibility in the way SMEs operate.

What gets you up in the morning?Usually one of my four daughters! I have genuinely always been a morning person. I believe it is the best part of the day, waking up with a clear

Terry O’BrienDaisy WholesaleMicroScope puts its questions to Terry O’Brien, managing director of Daisy Wholesale

OCTOBER 2014 | 14

› Click here to read more five-minute interviews online