VIEW FROM THE CHANNEL 30 01732 759725 With Darren Ellis, Regional Vice President, Sales, EMEA at Park Place Technologies of services. The future is always difficult to predict. However, the success of the business over the past 15 months gives me a lot of confidence going forward. TR: In what areas are you experiencing strongest demand? DE: In the current climate, we are seeing an increase in demand for IT infrastructure lifecycle services and the provision of technology skills to cover clients’ short, medium and long-term gaps in expertise. TR: What recent wins are you most proud of? DE: I am extremely proud of any win where we have helped an existing or new partner solve a customer problem. The level of collaboration we have with our partners is testament to the trust and alignment within our partnerships. TR: Where is business proving most difficult? DE: Two big challenges in the technology market are the pace of technology evolution and the shift to different delivery models, for example consumption-based infrastructure, and the impact this has downstream on the service provider market for IT lifecycle services, with narrower entry points and the need to develop new IT services. TR: How have you changed/are you changing business operations to exploit new opportunities? DE: We’ve not changed our business operations. However, we continue to invest in expanding our services portfolio and strengthening our focus on international markets in EMEA, APAC and LATAM. We have a strong and loyal partner community, and these investments allow us to scale our operations and give partners access to more resources. TR: What are the biggest challenges facing channel businesses today? DE: The channel ecosystem still faces many of the same challenges it has had to contend with over the last 12 months. Economic headwinds and uncertainty due to high inflation and interest rates, the fragility of the technology supply chain, the recruitment and retention of skillsets in what has become a hyper-competitive market and increasing complexity in technology adoption all continue to impact the channel and create an environment that could fundamentally pivot the direction and investment strategy of a channel partner. It goes without saying that in uncertain times the competitive landscape can change dramatically as partners face margin erosion, credit and financial inflexibility and changes in the behaviour of buyers who have pressures of their own. Partners need to operate in an ecosystem that encourages collaboration to redefine best practices and create effective prospect/ customer engagement models for top-offunnel pipeline creation. TR: Could vendors and distributors do more to help you overcome these challenges? And if so, what? DE: Vendors and distributors need to continue to invest in educating the partner community on technology and tech services at a time of rapid change in technology and the way vendors are packaging solutions. With the shift to consumption-based infrastructure models and ongoing cloud and as-a-service adoption, plus growing cybersecurity complexity, better alignment of vendors/ distributors and the partner community is key. Not just in terms of education, but also in terms of business drivers and impacts within specific sectors, verticals and markets. More open collaboration between vendors and partners is essential to help overcome partner challenges and strengthen partner relationships. TR: Are customers become more demanding, and if so, in what ways? DE: I wouldn’t necessarily say customers are becoming more demanding. However, in times of macro-economic headwinds, buyer habits can change and closer scrutiny on spend often results in a more competitive landscape with more focus on the bottom line. It is also the case that customers now tend to be more informed and knowledgeable coming into the buying process, so channel partners really need to invest in education at all levels with a strong orientation towards end-to-end customer satisfaction. www.parkplacetechnologies.com Park Place Technologies provides a range of services to help organisations manage and optimise their IT infrastructure, from procurement to decommissioning. These include data centre and network hardware maintenance, professional services, IT infrastructure managed services (ParkView Managed Services), network monitoring software (Entuity) and new and pre-owned hardware sales (Curvature). Powered by its on-the-ground engineering team and global Enterprise Operations Centres, Park Place Technologies helps more than 21,000 clients worldwide optimise data centre budgets, productivity, performance and sustainability. As Regional Vice President for Sales in EMEA, Darren Ellis is responsible for the company’s IT services portfolio in the region, with a focus on ensuring customer satisfaction and sales growth across all lines of business. Here, he gives his view from the channel. Technology Reseller (TR): How’s business? Better or worse than 12 months ago? And how confident are you about the future? Darren Ellis (DE): The business is buoyant and in a strong position overall in what has been, and is likely to continue to be, a challenging market, with the pressure of economic headwinds and the flow-down impact of those on businesses of all types, including channel partners. Our business at Park Place Technologies continues to show year-over-year growth which has been achieved through the formation of strong partnerships and our investment in an expanding portfolio View from the Channel Darren Ellis
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