INTERVIEW Luke Horton-Walker - Cameo
“Resellers need to ensure that their service is able to both evolve and cater to these changing requirements
whilst maintaining continuity for customers” Luke Horton-Walker, Operations Director at Cameo
Why Compliance is King
The t erm ‘compliance’ has vast implications across the modern IT channel and it get more involved and
complex as each year passes. Luke Horton-Walker, Operations Director at Cameo, a UK IT hardware support
company for channel partners, explains to Comms Business Magazine why getting it right is a key to success
Comms Business Magazine
(CBM): With organisations
expected to operate in line
with government legislations
such as GDPR how can
channels deliver the level
of service and support that
companies both expect and
require from the vendors
providing their IT solutions.
Luke HortonWalker
(LHW):
For service providers in the
channel, service-level agreement
(SLA) compliance de nes the
level of service you expect
from a vendor, laying out the
metrics by which service is
measured, as well as remedies
or penalties should agreed-on
service levels fail to be achieved.
It is a critical component of any
technology vendor contract that
protects customers who rightly
expect a certain level of quality
in what they pay for.
Compliance is therefore
king for any partner wanting
to provide the most consistent,
industry-leading,
cutting-edge,
secure and
professional IT services to the
channel. Customers expect the
best service that they can get,
and cutting corners can cost
valuable business for service
providers. In addition to the
penalties which can be issued
when the terms of agreement
aren’t met, this can often cause
further challenges for channel
partners.
CBM: How can businesses can
strengthen their compliance,
and invest their own team
and infrastructure to meet
the demand set by these
agreements?
LHW: For resellers, the need
to show value-adds is vital for
remaining competitive in an
ever-changing IT landscape.
Naturally, every customer
comes with di erent hardware
and support needs, and it’s
critical that VARs evaluate
the requirements of every end
user, tailoring support to t
seamlessly around them.
A good SLA strategy
can accelerate
business
opportunities for service
providers. However, it is
important to nd the right
balance between o ering a
high quality service which
meets every customer’s
needs, and spreading
operations too thinly in
an e ort to serve more
customers.
IT hardware is always
evolving, and inevitably
shifts the needs of
customers as a result.
Resellers need to ensure
that their service is able
to both evolve and cater to
these changing requirements
whilst maintaining continuity
for customers. Conducting
regular reviews of customer
requirements to assess whether
the correct services are being
delivered can identify areas
where service providers are
currently lacking, and allows
resellers to make the required
changes to their service in
order to remain compliant and
maintain a strong customer
experience.
With this is mind, SLAs can
no longer have rigid terms and
providers must o er a certain
degree of exibility to ensure
their agreed service levels t
the needs of each customer - an
objective which can be met by
creating more speci c, bespoke
SLAs to t any business
requirements.
CBM: How would you advise
resellers to drive value in their
compliance offerings?
LHW:
Customer service has
become a big part of the
channel and resellers need to
be able to o er a service that
is both reliable and e cient.
ere are many ways that
resellers can lay the foundations
for delivering these services
to end users and maximise
SLA compliance. Whether
this is through an in-house
team of support sta or a
collaboration with accredited
industry partners, resellers
need to be able to trust that
the support they are delivering
to their customers is based
on vast practical experience
and expertise in managing
IT hardware on a businesswide
scale. Should they fail to
do so, the quality of service
can naturally depreciate and
maintaining compliance with
any set SLAs can quite quickly
become an uphill struggle.
With the right support
network and expertise in place,
resellers can adhere to the valueadd
demand to both keep their
competitive edge and provide
customers with the level of
service upon which they had
originally set out to o er.
With modern businesses
relying more on their IT
hardware every day, the
expectation for seamless support
from service providers will only
grow stronger.
48 | Comms Business Magazine | January 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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