Dominic Pierce has branded his decision to leave Cisco to head up World Wide Technology’s European business “a strangely easy decision”, as he outlined his three priorities in the role.
Pierce joined the St Louis-based reseller and integrator – which ranked third in Oxygen 250 – last month after 17 years at Cisco (the latter two as its Managing Director UK & Ireland Partner Organisation).
“The opportunity to join WWT was unexpected, but it was a strangely easy decision to make,” he told IT Channel Oxygen.
“WWT is a huge global organisation with 10,000 people and $20bn-odd revenues, but the chance to take what has already been created in the UK and Europe and build on that, almost in a start-up mentality, was just hugely attractive.”
“The growth expectations are high”
WWT leapt into the UK in 2013 when it set up a London office.
At first, the operation primarily serviced the international needs of US-headquartered technology and financial services clients. But the focus has in recent years shifted more to acquiring UK-headquartered customers, said Pierce, who holds the job title of Vice President – Global Accounts Europe.
“The growth expectations are high,” Pierce said of his first priority – namely that of growing the UK and European customer base.
“There’s been some significant investment in the UK and European business, particularly over the last five years. Now’s the time we need to leverage the fantastic brand and capability we’ve got and grow the business, not just in the UK market but also moving into a select group of European markets.
“We have no public sector business in the UK and Europe, and as far as I can see there are no plans to change that. The organisations [we’re targeting] don’t necessarily need to be large, but they will be organisations where there is significant investment in technology and where technology is absolutely core to their business.”
Pierce pinpointed raising brand awareness as his second priority, as he conceded the WWT name is best known among large US private sector and global organisations.
His appointment comes after WWT CEO Jim Kavanaugh (pictured) committed $500m to drive enterprise AI adoption.
“Showing the capability we have and how we can go and help customers realise their ambitions in AI, and with the challenges they have around cyber security, is a key part of what we’re trying to achieve,” he said.
Finally, WWT will be “much more structured and organised” when it comes to engagement with its technology partners.
“We have the one, two or three position across the board with the largest vendors on the planet, in terms of the revenues we deliver. We need to ensure we’re being seen as as strong a partner here as we are in the US, where we have more customers and scale,” Pierce said.
“Clarifying our value to those partners is going to be really key, and the job I was doing most recently at Cisco will set us in good stead to do that.”
Moving into the trenches
Heading up Cisco’s channel has handed Pierce “a much more realistic view of the job I’ve walked into”, he added.
“The fact I was leading the enterprise business at Cisco and then did the channel job for the best part of two years has given me a much better chance of being successful in this role – having understood how Cisco partners and the reseller community makes money, are measured and go to market,” he said.
“Not having that incredibly strong brand I had in my previous role does make it a tougher job. You are out there in the trenches, fighting for business.
“But I’m not joining a company that’s trying to make its way.
“Leaving a job I was really enjoying was not a no-risk move. But given my knowledge of WWT, the cultural fit and the fact the people I’d worked with are really high calibre, it was the most comfortable transition into the reseller-integrator world I could have found.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
