CLRCRMCK
Westcon-Comstor UK sales lead looking for growth
The freshly appointed UKI executive shares her priorities and first impressions of the task ahead
It has been just a few weeks since Olya Scekaturova took up the role as vice-president of regional sales for the UK and Ireland at Westcon-Comstor, but she already has a vision of growth for the business.
The former Blackbox, Computacenter and Insight staffer comes with a deep knowledge of the partner ecosystem, and is keen to build on the work already done by the distributor in the region.
“Priorities for me are building a stronger sales team and growing the UK and Ireland region, getting closer to vendors and partners so that we can execute better and make sure [we deliver] smooth operations, and generally adhere to the European operating model to make sure we operate as one,” she said. “Again, giving our partners a better, simpler way of doing business.”
Westcon-Comstor has been at the forefront of using data to help drive partner insights and expose revenue opportunities, and Scekaturova said the efforts to deliver enhanced support for partners would continue.
“It‘s all about modernising and adapting to the changes in the market, making sure we stay relevant and continue to deliver more value,” she said. “So, obviously, diversifying what we do, but being very deliberate about it, and ensuring a great experience for our partners, and also allowing vendors to scale up through it.”
“Data is king … it’s rationalising that data and creating the business intelligence that helps us reach the market and helps us amplify the vendor messages,” said Scekaturova.
“The data is crucial, and it helps our partners to reach their end customers. We’re continuing to work and heavily rely on data. It’s just making sure this data is used in the right way, where it helps everyone to do business better.”
Opportunities for growth
The UK market is well established with a competitive distribution scene but, Scekaturova said there are still opportunities for growth.
“There is a lot of opportunity, with emerging technology as well as mid market,” she said. “A lot of vendors try to increase their market share through SMB and mid market, and it takes effort to uncover those accounts and deliver that value into that sector and help vendors scale up that way. I also see new joiners, the PE-backed businesses, joining the UK market that are looking to challenge the existing, well-established market players. So, the opportunity is there. It’s about being smart about what you do and how you go to market, and how you support your clients.”
One of those emerging technologies is clearly AI, and Scekaturova’s view of the technology is that it can play a powerful role in improving the business and the life of partners, but there has to be a balance between the costs and the improvements that are being sought across the nosiness.
“It’s the use cases and implementation and adoption of that technology that will showcase who is strong in the market and help those providers who deliver the real value to stay,” she said. “It’s all about business cases and showcasing the savings, and showcasing the operational efficiencies.”
Westcon-Comstor is already pursuing a strategy of operating in some of the key growth markets of networking, security, cloud and AI, and that has put it in a strong position in the UK channel ecosystem.
“The decision was made a few years ago to go heavy on cyber security and networking, AI, and cloud – it was absolutely the right call for us,” says Scekaturova. “It’s the technology in demand. Everything is underpinned by security. Everything is cloud-driven. So, we are in the right place at the right time.”
