Interviews

Do you love Microsoft Corp.'s recent TV ads? Hate its "Apple Tax" marketing campaign? Then meet Brad Brooks. As Microsoft's corporate vice president for Windows consumer product marketing, Brooks approved both campaigns as part of his goal of burnishing Windows 7's image in advance of its October launch (and tarnishing Apple's).

TREVOR CLARKE talks to Sybase director channels and alliances, Stephen Dolan, about the business intelligence vendor’s innovation agenda and solid results in the face of the economic downturn.

Tandberg channel manager, Adam Britten, has the job of building the Scandinavian videoconferencing vendor’s local indirect presence. He speaks to MATTHEW SAINSBURY about the attraction of telepresence, working with partners and living on the central coast.

Although he acknowledges businesses have yet to embrace IPv6, security guru, Scott Hogg, says that doesn’t mean IT executives can ignore the security problems that the next generation Internet protocol can present.

The blurring line between telco and IT was the catalyst for the launch of mobility provider, Techhead Interactive. Its founder, Tim Fussell, spoke with NADIA CAMERON about selling telco solutions to IT resellers, his farm, and long-term ambitions to fl y.

Dynamic Supplies managing director, Scott McLennan, kicked off his career in finance before making the switch to distribution and to ASX-listed player, Cellnet. Following a successful career as CFO, where he was on-hand to witness Cellnet’s growth and acquisitions strategy, McLennan joined Dynamic Supplies. He caught up with NADIA CAMERON to talk about expansion plans, market sentiment and his aspirations.

Stuart Smith took over the managing director’s reins from Cellnet founder, Stephen Harrison, earlier this year after spending a year as CFO. He inherited a battle-scarred but newly focused distribution company, which has rebuilt its foundations around two key areas: The IT server market, and retail/telco. Smith caught up with NADIA CAMERON to talk about the distributor’s recovery plans and goals for the future.

The printing space has always been tough, but with the economic crisis biting margins and revenues, the channel has been up against it like never before. HP imaging and printing group vice-president, Richard Bailey, took on his position just as the doom and gloom started to hit six months ago. He talks to TREVOR CLARKE about his fi rst half year in the job.

Callum Eade is Lenovo’s recently appointed director of small business and consumer, and comes to the company with experience in both Australian and New Zealand channel markets. He spoke to MATTHEW SAINSBURY about making the move to Australia, qualifying for the Iron Man world championships, and plans for the future.

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

Security experts say it all the time: If a company thinks it has suffered a data security breach, the key to getting at the truth unscathed is to have a response plan in place for what needs to be done and who needs to be in charge of certain tasks. And, as SANS Institute instructor Lenny Zeltser advised in CSOonline's recent How to Respond to an Unexpected IT Security Incident article, "ask lots and lots of questions" before making rash decisions.

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.