Mark Davies, Westcoast Cloud
Computing's Cloud Excellence Awards recognise the very best of the UK's cloud industry, from the most innovative and compelling products and vendors, through to the top use cases from end-user firms.
This year's winners will be announced at a live awards ceremony on Thursday 21 September in Central London.
Westcoast Cloud, one of the finalists, is in the running for the Best Cloud Support Provider.
We caught up with Managing Director Mark Davies to find out what makes their company different from other technology firms.
Mark has over 25 years experience across sales, operations and technical. He says he's always searching for ways to build new revenue streams and create business across both direct and indirect channels, and constantly looking at business development activities through new business sales, channel sales, resellers, vendors, distribution and outsourced opportunities. Currently, Westcoast Cloud is building out a range of cloud services through distribution to add value to the company's 7,500+ UK partners.
Computing: Please provide some background on your company for our readers. What makes you different from other companies?
Mark Davies: Westcoast Cloud is one of the leading providers of cloud services in the UK. We've been running the business for about 8 years and our mantra has remained the same the whole way through: What value can we bring to our partners, and how can we provide them with the best service possible that they in turn can provide to their end customers? In the last year we have reached over 1.3 million end user customers, with over £125 million of revenue.
What one company achievement in the last 12 months are you most proud of?
I would say the Elevate Pathways events have given us an opportunity to generate business directly for our partners using our knowledge and experience of the services that they provide to their end customers.
All that our partners have had to do for these events is to get their customer through the door. All other aspects including venue speakers and collateral have all been provided at no additional cost to them. Both, Westcoast Cloud and the partners that took part have seen a direct increase in revenue as a result of the events.
What are you working on this year?
Driving out a larger cloud portfolio for our partner. Adobe has been the first stage of that this year with other larger vendors like Alibaba Cloud and Acronis forming a part of this as well. We are also broadening out across Europe with the recent acquisition of Komsa, and we have just recruited someone that will be helping to support both areas of growth.
Why are events like the Cloud Excellence Awards important to the IT industry?
I think that the recognition of the great work happening throughout the industry is really important. Allowing both companies and individuals the ability to showcase their successes and have them celebrated can only be a good thing in terms of ensuring that the overall industry thrives.
The Cloud Excellence Awards will take place on 21 September in London. Click here to view the shortlist and here to book your table.
