01732 759725 INTERVIEW 20 Simon Riley, Director, Vitale Digital shares his experiences over the past decade, what he’s learned, and the highs and the lows of our unique and challenging industry A decade in print PITR: And the low point? SR: The pandemic for sure, which was a challenging time for a lot of people in the industry. For me, leading and managing a sales team working from home was tough at times, I really missed the face to face engagement. It was also a challenge for me to adapt from my usual work mode of being on the road and having in-person meetings with customers and prospects, to a working day spent on Teams calls on my laptop. PITR: What (or who) has had the greatest impact in the sector in the last 10 years? SR: As I mentioned earlier, the Direct-tec acquisition was the catalyst I needed to do something I should have done a long time ago! PITR: If you could change one thing about the last decade, what would it be? SR: As above, that I didn’t set up on my own sooner! That said, I was working with a great team and with people I liked doing business with pre-acquisition there wasn’t really a good reason to change, and I think that’s why I didn’t do it earlier. PITR: What has been your proudest moment of the past 10 years? SR: There are many proud moments – too many to mention here, but here goes. Definitely recruiting and building a really strong sales team from scratch. I deliberately chose to recruit from outside our industry, I didn’t want to encourage a ‘we’ve always done it this way’ mind-set, I wanted to do things differently and it’s been really rewarding to see my team grow and thrive in their new roles. Secondly, we took a big risk and invested heavily to create and build a brand new technology platform from scratch without piloting it first. We tested it out on one client and her response was amazing – she said it totally transformed her working day. Having our decision validated was a really proud moment and we’ve won a number of big deals on the back of having that solution. PITR: Sum up the decade in three words. SR: Transformative. Challenging. Exciting. https://vitaledigital.co.uk PrintIT Reseller (PITR): You’ve been working in the print and IT industry for more than ten years. What led you to enter the sector? Simon Riley (SR): Well, when my first career choice didn’t pan out (see below), I had to come up with an alternative plan. I first entered the sector as a service technician fixing typewriters. Then I spotted a job advert for an engineer to service photocopiers, and I thought that would be a bit more interesting, so I went for it. Although I eventually transferred over to a sales role, my background in service has been invaluable and indeed, that knowledge of customers’ needs, wants and pain points, has been key in terms of driving the Vitale Digital hardware business forward. For example, one key initiative has seen us build an interactive service portal for each customer that enables them to monitor and manage their fleets across multiple locations, book a service call, contact us etc. That’s transformed service delivery. PITR: What was your first job? SR: I was an aspiring footballer, and played at a junior level for Orient, however an injury put paid to my hopes of playing in the Premier League! PITR: What has been the high point of the decade? SR: On reflection, the acquisition of Direct-tec reinforced my view that I liked the autonomy of operating in a smaller business rather than being restricted by corporate culture and red tape. This prompted me to partner with my wife Amanda in business and expand Vitale Digital’s offering with the launch of a new division focused on meeting clients’ requirements in terms of hardware, which complements all of the other digital-first technology solutions we provide. Simon Riley
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