Technology Reseller v33

technologyreseller.co.uk 39       Voice capabilities for Teams Seamless migration Commercials not to be missed Find out more [email protected] Direct Routing For Microsoft Teams Available would on their own. Every business comes with its own ERP, its own data systems and so on, and we are constantly acquiring, so being able to create a data lake as part of that platform, which people can plug into and which enables us to share practices across the group, has been a major project during my tenure here. TR : Has the current climate, with Covid obviously but also political problems with China, affected the global roll out in any way? TG: Addressing the Covid question first. I think most people recognise that there is no horizon point where it will all be better and so one has to adjust and manage the circumstances in which you find yourself. Obviously, it has had an impact; we have had businesses that have really thrived because changes in the social fabric or the way people use technology have played into their areas of specialism, but there have also been businesses that have had to morph their capabilities to adjust to the new landscape. The reality is there are always peaks and troughs in any business. One of the benefits of being diverse, as we are, is that it allows you to have top performers and those performing less well in the portfolio and still delight our shareholders. Re: China. The challenges that have evolved as a consequence of US-China relations pervade our industry, and we are having to work through those, like everyone else, both in terms of being a good partner to vendors and putting together solutions that recognise some of the limitations that have been created. TR : Presumably with the recession and all the difficulties businesses are facing, there might be opportunities for you to acquire other businesses. TG: You would like to think so. And, as you say, we are an acquirer. One of the challenges for any economically challenged business that is looking to be bought is that they might be in that position because they didn’t have good business fundamentals and so might not necessarily be a good business to acquire. It is a mixed bag, but, clearly, we look at this as an opportunity and we will step into it appropriately. TR : Does your notion of a new era of global distribution run counter to current trends, such as the rise in nationalism and protectionism? TG: I think you are right that those are long-term trends, but even some smaller businesses and enterprises are probably going to have three or four geographies outside their home territory, and to deliver a solution they need a partner who has that reach. So that is an aspect of ‘global’ that we see continuing; while there may be a preference to buy locally, there is still a requirement to reach globally. The point we are making with the announcement is around specialisms, articulating how our scale enables us to be specialists that can invest in IP and subject matter experts who can enable our reseller communities to do more and leverage that specialism to a greater extent. That’s really the point about global specialists, which is where we think the future lies.