Business Insight: Interviews

In an interview with IT veteran, Kaz founder and Hostech executive chairman, Peter Kazacos, discusses why businesses need to prepare for the NBN, opportunities in regional Australia and the integration of all the acquired business.

Ingram Micro was caught in a whirlwind of economic forces this year, and its newly installed Australian vice-president and general manager, Jay Miley, found himself quickly anchored in the middle of it.

When it comes to his success, Anittel founder and CEO, Peter Kazacos, does not dwell on former glories. And why would he? The three year-old services company is successful in its own right, nabbing ARN’s SMB Reseller of the Year gong two years in a row.

XSI CEO, Glenn Gray, has been a stable force within the storage integrator since it was established 20 years ago. He speaks to MATTHEW SAINSBURY about a start in accounting machine sales, the growing importance of ROI, and the pointlessness of GPS systems in golf.

Interview with Dimension Data sales director, Christopher Long

Adopting more service-orientated architecture (SOA) products are just some ways business software vendor, Infor, is trying to achieve its goals this year despite stiff competition from SAP and Oracle. Senior vice-present for global strategy, Rick Parker, met up with JULIA TALEVSKI to discuss what role the channel has to play in Infor’s plans, the significance of SOA and how the market is shaping up.

The managed services trend has become a beacon of revenue light in the economic storm and those already in the game are travelling well. TREVOR CLARKE caught up with Kaseya president, Mark Sutherland, and CEO, Gerald Blackie, to talk about the vendors plans for the market and the possibility of picking up smaller companies.

Novell vice-president of alliance and channel sales, John Donovan, has 25 years experience in IT and channels. He speaks to MATTHEW SAINSBURY about the importance of 2009 as a global tipping point, interoperability between competing vendors, and the importance of iPods over razors.

Westcon Group veteran CFO, John O’Malley, made his fi rst visit to Australia this month for the local management kick-off. He spoke to NADIA CAMERON about the role of distribution and tackling the dour economic climate.

New channel recruit at EMC, Leo Lynch, joined the vendor three months ago after a long tenure with HP. He talked to MATTHEW SAINSBURY about opportunities in storage, social responsibilities in enterprise and BlackBerry devices.

Lexmark international vice-president and general manager of worldwide SMB and printing solutions, Kevin Goffi net, caught up with MATTHEW SAINSBURY to discuss where the SMB printer market is at, what the pain points are for channel partners working in this space, and where the opportunities lie.

D2K managing director, Matthew Drane, was nominated twice for Young Australian of the Year and built a successful business in Queensland – all by the time he was 33. He speaks to MATTHEW SAINSBURY about being a regional player and his ambitions to do something significant for the broader community.

If there’s anyone in the IT industry who knows about starting up and running a successful services business, it’s Peter Kazacos. The founder of the Kaz Group sold the business to Telstra in 2004 for a cool $333 million and worked for the telco giant right up until September 2006.

What was your first job?

Microsoft director of SMB and partners, Paul Voges, spent several years with integration giant, Dimension Data, before relocating to Australia in 1999 and eventually jumping into vendor land. He caught up with NADIA CAMERON in the lead-up to Microsoft's local Partner Conference to talk about channel enablement and opportunities in online services.

You're best known as the local guy who took on the multinational outsourcers. What are you doing in SMB?