Technology Reseller - v14 2018

technolog y reseller.co.uk 39 60 Seconds... 60 seconds... with Gareth Bray, Commercial Director Enterprise, Exertis What’s currently having the greatest impact on your business? Industry-wise, there are different challenges and opportunities depending on the sector. In the datacentre, it’s the move to HCI; in networking, demand for best-of- breed wireless solutions dominates; in UC, convergence and collaboration are key; and in security – well, that throws up new challenges every day. Internally, within my area, the greatest positive is bringing the expertise of the Exertis and Hammer businesses together and managing the growth that comes with that. Where do you see the next big opportunity? HCI is becoming a larger part of our business, and we have started to see the first implementations of NVMe. Cloud continues to change the market, and in a positive way. It’s a huge driver for our white box acceleration, where we are having great success in a number of vertical markets. Convergence in the UC space is driving all sorts of new solutions, whether hosted or on premise. What would make your day job easier? I’m lucky to have a fantastic team with great experience and technical expertise. If I could clone them to fill our expanding business, I would. What’s the best bit of business advice you’ve been given? From a former MD, Mike Alden: Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you have to make the decision right, but the important thing is you make a decision. If you had had a crystal ball, would you have done anything differently? Exertis recently signed up to the Tech Talent Charter. I’m committed to do more to bring greater diversity to the workforce at Exertis. I’d like to have started this sooner. Describe your most embarrassing moment. I’ll skip the details and just say ‘reply all’ is not your friend. e channel TR: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing channel businesses today? AS: Customers being seduced by cheaper prices and savings online that are too good to be true. TR: Could vendors and distributors do more to help you overcome them? And, if so, what? AS: Other than service providers, we find we no longer have any face-to-face meetings with vendors/distributors. The days when account managers would come in and get to know your business and how to promote their products have gone. Changing this would help a lot. TR: Are customers becoming more demanding, and, if so, in what ways? AS: Customer expectations are high, which is to be expected given that they depend on the products we supply and support, especially in data connectivity. I think we are now in an age when if something does go wrong, we feel it should be fixed immediately. This won’t always happen, and it can be frustrating for the customer and supplier when fixing a problem is in the hands of the service provider. This can reflect badly on our business through association. TR: If you could change one aspect of your job, what would it be and why? AS: Dealing with BT. Customers get charged if a BT engineer finds a fault lies with the customer’s equipment. However, we are unable to charge BT if the fault lies with its network/ service. Communications What was your first job? I was a pizza delivery driver. On a moped and everything. What would be your dream job? I wouldn’t mind taking Matt LeBlanc’s job on Top Gear. Money’s not an issue, what’s your perfect car … and where would you like to drive it? An Eagle Speedster. At Goodwood Revival Favourite holiday destination? Cancun, Mexico. It’s hard to beat the honeymoon location. How do you like to spend your spare time? I have an 18 month-old child. I am not familiar with the concept of spare time! Photo by Conor Luddy on Unsplash