technologyreseller.co.uk 15 VIEW FROM THE CHANNEL play an important role in education and enablement, particularly around emerging technologies such as AI and advanced cyber security capabilities. We are currently working with several of our partners on such initiatives. TR: Are customers becoming more demanding? BS: Customers are certainly becoming more sophisticated, but I wouldn’t necessarily describe that as more demanding. Organisations today expect transparency, measurable outcomes and clear accountability from their technology partners. They want to understand not just what tools are deployed, but how those tools reduce risk or improve productivity. Cybersecurity is a good example. A few years ago, many businesses simply wanted to know that they had antivirus installed. Today they want monitoring, visibility and response capability. In many ways that shift is positive because it pushes the industry to focus on genuine business outcomes rather than technology for its own sake. TR: If you could change one aspect of your job, what would it be and why? BS: One of the things I’m enjoying most in the CEO role is spending time with customers. Sitting down with business leaders, understanding how their organisations operate and hearing firsthand about the challenges they’re facing often reveals far more than any report ever could. Those conversations help you understand where technology can genuinely make a difference. If I could change one thing, it would simply be having more time to do that more often. I’ve learnt that the closer you are to your customers and their businesses, the better decisions you can make as a technology partner. www.sota.co.uk delivering disconnected services, we are building integrated platforms that combine infrastructure, security and operational management. This aligns with a broader trend I’ve been speaking about recently, the emergence of AI-first or as Microsoft calls them ‘Frontier Firms’. These are organisations designed around automation and intelligence from the outset rather than layering it on later. We have also doubled down on our independent positioning. With significant consolidation happening across the channel, many customers still value independent providers who prioritise long-term relationships and flexibility. TR: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing channel businesses today? BS: The channel appears to have been going through a significant period of transformation. One major challenge I see is margin pressure. As technology becomes more commoditised, traditional resale models are becoming less sustainable. Partners need to differentiate through services, expertise and outcomes. Another challenge is the growing security responsibility placed on service providers. Customers rightly expect their partners to protect them against progressively sophisticated threats, which requires ongoing investment and capability. Finally, there is the broader challenge of keeping pace with technological change. AI, automation and evolving cloud architectures are reshaping how organisations operate. The MSPs that succeed over the next decade will be automation-first businesses, not labour-heavy service providers. TR: Could vendors and distributors do more to help overcome these challenges? BS: Vendors and distributors remain vital parts of the ecosystem, but there are areas where collaboration could improve. Simplification would be a good starting point. Partner programmes and licensing models can sometimes become unnecessarily complex, which creates administrative overhead for both partners and customers. There is also an opportunity for greater alignment with service-led business models. Many partners today deliver integrated managed services rather than simply reselling products. Finally, vendors and distributors can create the most value. That combination of financial discipline and technical leadership has been a positive shift for the business. I am genuinely proud of our team and what we’re building together. That progress has been reflected in our Great Place to Work recognition and improving engagement survey results, which are probably the most meaningful indicators of culture. Externally, recognition such as our MSP501 ranking and our inclusion in The Independent’s Best of British campaign were also fantastic milestones for the team. Ultimately, though, the wins that matter most are when customers tell us we have made their environment simpler, safer or more resilient. TR: Where is business proving most difficult? BS: Recruitment remains one of the more challenging areas within our industry. Technology continues to evolve rapidly and finding the right combination of engineering, security and architectural expertise isn’t always straightforward. In our case that has meant recruitment sometimes taking longer than we might ideally like. However, we have made a conscious decision not to rush hires. It’s far better in my opinion to wait for the right people than compromise on capability. The positive outcome of this approach is that we’ve been bringing in some of the strongest technical talent we have ever hired, alongside adding a number of new roles as the business grows. The other challenge is the sheer complexity of the vendor ecosystem. There are more tools, platforms and security products available than ever before. Whilst innovation is obviously a good thing, it can also lead to fragmentation and integration challenges for both partners and customers. Many organisations now operate environments with dozens of tools generating alerts and data but not always delivering clear outcomes. That is where the channel has an important role to play, simplifying technology stacks and focusing on results rather than just products. TR: How have you changed business operations to exploit new opportunities? BS: One of the biggest shifts we’ve made is becoming much more automation-first and AI-enabled internally. The traditional MSP model has historically been quite labour intensive. Automation and AI now give service providers the opportunity to deliver better outcomes at scale while freeing engineers to focus on higher-value work. We are also investing heavily in platform thinking. Rather than
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