Last night’s Channel Chat Live saw panellists from Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Daisy and Focus Group open up on everything from AI job losses to the ‘Facebookification’ of LinkedIn.
The great and the good of the IT channel defied the unsettled weather conditions (and London tube strikes) by coming out in force to hear host Marc Sumner put the questions.
But the stiff breeze and ominous clouds outside were trumped by the storm-force soundbites exchanged inside the Samsung KX.
Here we round up 8 of those that registered highest on the Beaufort scale.
The panellists:
Alistair Wildman, GM North EMEA, Palo Alto Networks
Aine Rogers, MD – SME, Cisco
Lyndsey Charlton, CTIO, Daisy Communications
Neil Hall, CEO, Focus Group
Strong gale
Storm
Violent storm
Hurricane
We’ve provided a handy modified Beaufort scale rating by each soundbite, so hold onto your hats…
Stormy soundbite 1
“We’ve probably got too many partners”
Wildman stole most of the thunder on Sumner’s first question regarding the biggest challenge their organisation is facing this year. “We manage too many partners, and 90% of our business is done by 5%,” he added.
After 35 acquisitions in the space of four years, Focus Group has “some underpinnings to get fixed”, Hall said, while Charlton cited “moving at pace” to complete Daisy’s B2B merger with Virgin Media O2 as her company’s top challenge. Cisco’s Rogers nominated “the pace of innovation”.
Stormy soundbite 2
“I’m going with entrepreneur”
When asked about where they’d like to work if they got sacked tomorrow, Cisco’s Rogers said she’d start a business that “breaks down biases and barriers in the channel”. Hall said he’d like to work for another Hg portfolio company, but this time in the US. Charlton quite fancied a gig at a managed services provider, while Wildman nominated Anthropic, declaring “I love it”.
Stormy soundbite 3
“It’s the self-appreciation and glorification I struggle with”
Asked about whether LinkedIn is becoming too much like Facebook, Cisco’s Rogers admitted she isn’t a fan of people using the platform for shameless self-promotion. Hall agreed, conceding that he is “struggling with all of these sales people that have all of a sudden become coaches”. “I’m just sick of seeing it in my thread,” he said.
Stormy soundbite 4
“I still find it really useful”
Wildman begged to differ, however, saying he continues to value LinkedIn as a hiring tool. “We hired this fantastic young lady into sales recently. She was working at Wetherspoons before, and she’s just made the Presidents Club,” he illustrated.
Stormy soundbite 5
“People with AI skills will take your jobs, not AI”
Focus Group’s Hall felt AI’s “bonfire-of-white-collar jobs” narrative referenced in a question from Sumner “misses the point”. “As leaders, it’s about enabling our people. I think people will lose their jobs if they’re not open to AI,” he said. The widening poverty gap that could be fuelled by one billion robots entering the global markets is a “scary thought”, Hall acknowledged, however.
Stormy soundbite 6
“Knowledge workers will become knowledge engineering resources”
In response to the same question, Daisy’s Charlton disagreed that AI will destroy jobs faster than it creates them. “There are a lot of people [whose jobs] are very relevant to AI going forwards,” she said. “I think people will evolve the roles they do today. When I look at our business, we’re looking at an AI-first strategy, and to do that, we’re like, ‘that team over there has this capability; we could use them’ – so we’re already thinking about how we could retrain or repurpose them.”
Stormy soundbite 7
“This is an augmentation”
Rogers at Cisco was a third panellist to reject the bonfire-based analogy. “AI is so multi-faceted in different areas. There are new specialisms around analytics, ethics,” she said.
Stormy soundbite 8
‘The spikey deals are not happening’
In response to a question on where panellists are making the most money, Hall nominated cyber and services, noting that the tough economic backdrop has prompted Focus Group’s smaller customers to put one-off investments on ice.
“The ‘S’ of SME, what’s happening is that companies aren’t opening in the UK – in fact business confidence in the UK is lower than at the moment Rishi Sunak prescribed furlough. We’re growing our recurring revenue, which is about 85% of our business, but the one-offs aren’t happening,” Hall said.
Stormy soundbite 9
“I genuinely think you could learn a huge amount from Cisco”
Focus Group’s Hall directed some light banter at Wildman, calling rival Cisco “without doubt the most channel-centric vendor out there” (to which Wildman responded by saying that Palo Alto is 100% two-tier channel).
Stormy soundbite 10
“I don’t think we’ve done a good job, and Cisco do a really good job”
Wildman did tip his hat to the networking giant, however, as he vowed Palo Alto Networks is poised to pour more money into the channel.
“He’s going to rip the whole thing to pieces and start again,” Wildman said of the vendor’s newly appointed Chief Partnerships Officer Simone Gammeri. “We’re going to have a very strong programme for MSPs – tier one and tier two – it will be fully funded. We’re going to come back with some much better programmes, we’re going to put more money into the channel.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
