ALEX TATHAM FEATURE
WHAT ABOUT HUAWEI?
“Westcoast are a Huawei
distributor for mobile phones
which is a relatively new area of
business for us. We signed them
at the start of the year and we are
starting to see that side grow as
they focus on the B2B sector.
I can’t really comment on
the networking bad press but
I will say I think some of this is
global politics, and I think that
is unfortunate. As far as I am
aware Huawei have zero things to
apologise for. I’m not saying these
things shouldn’t be checked, but
there is a signifi cant amount of
negative publicity which is unfair
I think.
They have a partnership with
GCHQ which enables all the
equipment to checked, and they
have the best 5G infrastructure
out there! Maybe the world isn’t
ready for 5G and they are going to
give this as an excuse! They are
clearly leading that 5G space.
There is an opportunity to take
a lead here, particularly when the
UK isn’t so tied
to the rest of the
EU. I would like
to see Britain
make a statement
that shows intent
to lead the fi eld
in 5G.”
Partners found they needed the energy
and support of the distributors which
is why we are all doing so well in this
space with Microsoft.
Westcoast aren’t alone in this, all
the tier one partners are helping their
customers get into the cloud. Microsoft
have a partnership mentality and that is
helping them compete against Amazon
and Google. You are going to see
Amazon invest significantly into their
partnership base this year. Amazon has
just taken a key person from Microsoft
to head up their indirect business in the
UK, you will see more happening this
year whilst they build. It’s an interesting
one because their natural mentality was
to kill the partner off, but now they are
going to support them.”
If you deny Amazon and put your head
in the sand then that is an opportunity
missed. You have to make sure you can
work with them where you can and
compete with them where you can’t.”
On the major drivers for growth this
year Tatham remains bullish about the
opportunities emerging.
He said, “Clearly, end of support
for Windows 7 is going to drive a
significant amount of activity this
year in the UK. You will also see a
whole range of opportunities for the
MSPs because they will know where
all these PCs are because they have
all the right capabilities, particularly
in the public sector. Fifteen percent of
machines in the NHS are still on XP,
what a huge opportunity! You will see
plenty of hardware coming through
also so it will be a good year for the IT
industry.”
“I think you will begin to see the
systems integrator channel and the
service provider channel, people that
own data centres, buy directly from
distribution also.
You are going to see services,
financial services, Device-as-a-
Service, cloud services, configuration
services be the preserve of
distribution. The disties will invest
more in this space, effectively helping
resellers close down their warehouses
and outsource it back to distribution to
do the main logistics.”
Tatham concluded “What was
considered value-added ten years
ago is no longer a value-add. Partners
now have to do what I would call the
MSP work i.e. monitoring customers
and providing them a real service.
Westcoast will be at the heart of that,
our services business will grow 5 fold
this year. If you are not monitoring
your customer’s business then you will
lose out. Someone else will provide a
managed service if you don’t!”
April 2019 www.technologybusinesstoday.com 21
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