ALEX TATHAM INTERVIEW
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manage and maintain it going forward. Those things previously done by system integrators are now being done by resellers and our job is to empower smaller resellers to be able to do this by offering that as a white box service that they can brand themselves. “As we sell almost 50% of the UK's laptops and PC devices, it's incumbent upon us to make sure that our service proposition is strong not just pre-sale, but also post-sale. That's something I'll be working on going forward.”
be able to develop a programme that they can then roll out across the world because we're big enough to do that. “For instance, we do Device as a Service, and we help Microsoft compete in different markets in many ways. That is one of the reasons that we won device distributor the year; we don’t just sell lots of PCs, but help Microsoft with a global view. Vendors particularly like that about Westcoast and that again comes from its agility. The future is Device as a Service. If you get a multinational end user, they're looking for all these devices to be managed: they need to know where they are, what software that is on them and who's using them all the time. “End users also need to ensure the devices are current and they haven't overspent on a bunch of obsolete machines – and that happens a lot. Retailers are increasingly looking for the range of post-sale services so they can offer a full device as a service proposition and if you could do it for PCs, then you could do it for other things as well. “We'll be looking particularly at PCs because we're so good at it, but also networking where we have a strong footprint. We are Aruba's partner of the year, for instance. And as WiFi 6 gets rolled out, you need to do site surveys and make sure that you add value by being able to manage the rollout and deployment of new WiFi capability and then
Future Alex is firmly focused on the future of
Westcoast and ensuing the business continues its impressive recent growth and capitalises on the opportunities in the industry and those presented by its partnership with Komsa. “Things are changing – we have artificial intelligence (AI) becoming more popular, for instance,” he says. “What's going to be the impact of AI? A lot of people are already looking at various elements of this. But what they are going to need is bigger computers, with more computing power at the edge because there's going to be so much more data created by this that will need to be processed. “It will also change all our jobs. And while that can be scary, from a computing and IT perspective there are lots of opportunities to do exciting things with this. I think the IT industry is in a great position to take advantage of AI and to extol its virtues, as well as help protect the world from its dangers. “That's clearly a direction that the whole industry will take and inevitably that will have an impact on Westcoast and what we do. Exactly how that looks and feels, it's a bit early to say, but that's going to happen. As I said, it pays to be agile and flexible because that will allow us to be able to take advantage in this area.”
I think the IT industry is in a great position to take advantage of AI and to extol its virtues, as well as help protect the world from its dangers. “ ”
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