Channel Live 2019 EVENTS
“I think there could have been a point where SD-WAN as an entity wouldn’t have needed to exist if the
industry had moved faster, made their networks more dynamic, made them more interactive. Would SDWAN
have been necessary?” Neil Wilson, Head of Products and Marketing – Virtual1
CONSIDERATIONS FOR A WORKPLACE
TRANSFORMATION – ACCORDING TO CISCO
WORKSPACE UTILISATION
When investing in a large-scale transformation project, naturally you want to
make sure you’re getting the most out of your space. In order to achieve this,
first you must understand what your employees need to be successful.
WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY
Creating workplace flexibility is a competitive differentiator, says Geoff
Warren, CBRE’s regional director of investor services. But, it’s important to
have a clear stance on what flexibility means for your individual business and
then make sure this is reflected in the functionality of the workplace. Getting
this right comes back to being clear on the intent of the office.
TALENT ACQUISITION
More and more, employees are prioritising flexibility and technology when
selecting a place of work, so this must be a key consideration in creating the
most optimal workplace. Employees –especially millennials –want to know
that the tech stack available will help them be successful in their roles, and
that the workplace is flexible enough for them to balance their professional
and personal lives.
COST SAVINGS
Rather than looking at a workplace transformation project as a pure costsaving
exercise, it’s more pertinent to look at how much money it’s going to
make the business in the long run. The focus now is on how to make smart
investments in the workplace and technology, in order to drive productivity
and innovation.
Exhibitor interview – Terry O’Brien, CEO of Digital
Wholesale Solutions
Comms Business Magazine (CBM): What is Channel Live about
for DWS?
Terry O’Brien (TOB): For us, this is an opportunity to bring this new brand to life
so our partners can see it, feel it, touch it and it has worked really well for us. The
design of the stand is really inviting and that’s how I want people to feel, I want them
to feel invited when they come to work with us.
CBM: What have you launched here at the show?
TOB: We have launched two big things, one is our Guardian Security product which
is focused on making it really easy for small businesses to secure themselves for
email and web browsing in a price competitive manner. It’s fit for channel too, it’s
easy for them to sell, with sensible margins, a competitive product, and a high-tier
product in terms of grade of solutions. The feedback has been really positive. No
one has really cracked this yet in terms of how you make security simple, easy and
affordable for small business.
We also launched Webstore which aggregates all of our distributors in the UK and
brings our buying scale to play for partners for products. I think this is the future of
the subscription economy, being able to put this stuff on a monthly fee and getting
value back from the products you have bought over the longer period. We’ve been
investing over the last year in loads of API technology to make this simple, real-time
and enable partners to be really competitive because you get all the residual values
with it. We’ve been demonstrating that in Beta phase here and getting feedback
from partners. Partners can also take it and brand it themselves for their own
customers to buy from, it has gone down really well.
www.commsbusiness.co.uk October 2019 | Comms Business Magazine | 17
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