The Oxygen Awards are now in full swing, with the entries closing on 9 October.
Here we catch up with Craig Aston, CEO of Oxygen Awards Gold sponsor Celerity, to find out why they are backing the event.
Why is Celerity backing the Oxygen Awards?
Because they’re different. They’re very people focused. A number of the awards in the industry at the moment are quite staid. We’re trying to change the way the industry looks, and I think the awards look at the industry in a different way, which is really exciting.
Why are you sponsoring the Gifted Graduate/Apprentice category?
Because it’s really important in our business. We have a number of graduates who we are bringing through in different sets of technologies.
The IT market, particularly the world we live in – the IBM ecosystem – can sometimes be a little bit old, and actually we need to be bringing through new talent and really getting them to understand the careers that are available in some of the more legacy technologies.
It’s important for us to be able to support that and support the graduates of the future.
What is Celerity’s USP?
We are very much an IBM-focused partner. We have IBM at our core, and it’s been the core of what Celerity does for a number of years. Our USP is the breadth of the IBM offerings that we support, and then bringing our own IP alongside those offerings to do things that are unique in the marketplace.
An example of that is our CopyAssure offering, which is a backup offering in the IBM Power space, reducing restore times from many hours to minutes and having automatic scanning of backups. Our USP is trying to find new approaches in what are quite legacy technologies.
What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
We’ve just announced our fourth acquisition, Insight 2 Value, and will be looking at non-inorganic growth as we go forward.
One other thing we’ve done in the last 12 months is bring our new logo team into Manchester with a number of sellers sat there – actually on the phones doing the hard yards and trying to win new logos. Our growth in that area is going to be really important to us in the next 12 months.
What’s the recipe for success in the UK IT channel this year?
The secret in the market is finding a reason for a customer to answer your phone call or your email. There has to be a reason for a conversation to happen.
Clients are so well educated now. Sometimes they’re a long way along the decision-making process before they get to speak to anybody in the channel. So you need an opinion.
One of the big things we’re talking about a lot is quantum readiness, and [it’s about] having an opinion [on that] and having products that are forward-looking, both from a managed services point of view and in an assessment sense.
I think it’s having an opinion and being able to have that reason for the conversation. That to me is the most important thing there.
This article was produced in association with Celerity is classified as partner content. What is partner content? See more here.
