Softcat CEO On ‘exceptional’ Results, Renewed Computacenter Marketshare Contest And ‘new Normal’ Kit Shortages

Presumably you’ve got to know GDT even better since you announced the acquisition. Is there anything about the business that’s maybe unexpected or surprising?

No. We’ve been working with the management team at GDT for seven or eight months now, so the last two or three weeks haven’t surprised us in any way. In fact, quite the opposite. We’re seeing some really good proof points in how we’re going to be able to work together. We’re excited about that, and we’ve got the teams beginning to come together and spend more and more time with each other.

Can you name one thing you’re looking to achieve in your next fiscal year?

Although we’re combining with a large business in the US, we’re very focused on making sure both GDT and our existing Softcat business continue to run on the tracks they’re already on, and that, as we build collaboration between those businesses, it’s additive and not disruptive to the businesses we’ve already got.

We’ve got a really clear plan on how to do that, but there’ll be a lot of focus on that. People and culture, unsurprisingly, is always the most important thing on our mind. If we do a good job of that, we’ll realise the value in the core businesses and through the combination.

What’s a storyline in the industry not enough people are talking about?

I think the broader appreciation of that big picture [of AI] sometimes gets lost because people want to talk about what NVIDIA or Anthropic is doing.

We’ve had the internet, we’ve had cloud, and now we’ve got AI. The internet connected people, cloud connected the applications, and AI wraps it and integrates it with intelligence. That’s enormous, and it isn’t just affecting one part of technology.

It’s not a year’s build out. It’s not two years. It’s not a cycle. It’s a new wave of technology that’s stimulating growth in exactly the space that we’re capable for. When you stand back and look at the broad capabilities that we have, you just see opportunity. And what we’re able to do is to respond to different trends underneath that big picture.