Role: CEO, TalkTalk Business
What’s been your business high point of the last 12 months?
We’ve achieved a massive milestone this year: becoming a fully independent MSP after completing our demerger from TalkTalk Group. This marked two-and-a-half years of work that involved migrating every single one of our customers onto a new billing stack and ensuring our new 24/7 assurance desk and customer support systems went live in alignment with the migration. We also quickly followed this with our acquisition of managed IT and cybersecurity specialist, Planet IT – the sign of much more growth to come.
Name one thing your company is looking to achieve in 2026
We’ll be building on our position as a standalone MSP by cementing this with customers, activating our new brand and developing (and executing) an achievable but ambitious three-year plan.
What keeps you awake at night as a partner leader?
The complexity of the change which the industry is going through and ensuring our customers understand this change and how to take advantage of next gen services.
Is AI being over-hyped?
I don’t believe AI is over-hyped. But balancing a structured deployment with effective governance – without slowing teams down – can be challenging.
What’s been your most successful internal AI project to date, and why?
With our CRM migration complete and our data foundations in place, we’re developing an AI strategy that we can truly live and breathe. It’s not just about driving efficiency; it’s about delivering even greater customer outcomes, as demonstrated by the AI capabilities already embedded within our new CCaaS solution.
By completing our own adoption journey first, we can confidently take those lessons to customers and help accelerate their own AI transformations.
Can you share a surprising prediction about how UK IT channel partners or the UK IT channel will evolve over the next 5 years?
Within five years, there will be no such thing as a ‘non-cyber’ UK IT channel partner. As AI expands attack surfaces and supercharges cyber threats, security will become a core requirement of every channel technology offering.
Which tech gizmo (hardware or software) could you not function without?
I’m a big runner – so my Whoop band is my go-to.
Which three famous people, dead or alive, would you invite to a dinner party?
Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth I, and Brandon Flowers.
If you had a warning label, what would it say?
Careful what you wish for.
Which tech figurehead has impressed you the most this year, and why?
The industry is full of inspirational talent and people who go above and beyond. This year, if I was to pick someone, it would be the remarkable work and change which Alison Kirby is implementing in BT. The focus and direction seems relentless and is being executed well.
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