Interview with Alyson Hamilton-Lacey, Managing Director of Itex (Isle of Man) Limited
By: Liz Corlett
19 April 2010
The Isle of Man’s growing e-Gaming sector is one of its economic success stories. What role have companies such as Itex played in this success?
This success was largely down to the foresight of the Isle of Man Government . We do, however, assist and support the success by bringing the major IT brands (i.e. HP, VMware) to the table in a way which inspires confidence in the e-gaming clients. Knowing the standard of work we do, the major IT manufacturers have encouraged us to open offices here, as we provide a solution for them, to the extent that we not only carry their logos but also, in some case, deliver services on their behalf.
The data centre businesses on the Island know us personally and enjoy what Itex brings to the table - i.e. assured capability. While data centre businesses are good at operations, they aren't typically best placed to build the technology solutions that e-gamers and others demand. The challenge for manufacturers is how to develop the relationship with the technologist into a partnership to shape their product roadmap. As a trusted partner to the client and the manufacturer, Itex provide that bridge.
You have offices in the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. How do these three operations a) differ from and b) complement each other?
Jersey is accented towards finance rather than e-gaming but, due to the presence of a lot of decision-makers, many strategic projects are lead out of Jersey. Guernsey’s economy combines finance and e-gaming, and we see more operations but less projects, while the Isle of Man has a balance of the two. The skills and capabilities that the Group brings to us are immense - for example, we have very experienced Cisco CCIEs, Citrix CCEAs and HP StorageWorks Master ASEs on staff, some of whom are based in the Isle of Man, while others both support and transfer skills into our Manx team. How these offices differ is largely driven by the comparative maturity of the markets and the make-up of the businesses there.
Can you give us an idea as to the diversity of businesses to which you provide advice and solutions?
We work with, amongst others, the Government, banks, gamers and recruitment companies. What we deliver for different sectors differs markedly, as we realised early that IT does not provide a competitive advantage to firms as a stand-alone entity, so the value added by pure technologists is limited. Itex doesn’t just deliver IT; we have business consultants who also know technology and technologists who also know business.
Last year, Itex was awarded Gold Status within the VMware Authorised Consultant (VAC) Programme. What does this mean to you – and you clients – in practical terms?
There are subtleties in the accreditations of most vendors - i.e. it’s usually pretty easy to carry a logo. The difference is in the level of accreditation, and the level of support offered to us. The Gold Status is VMware recognising that we have fully trained and experienced VMware engineers, and that we are fit to provide professional services on their behalf. That is, we know the products inside out, so we don't just box-drop or consolidate servers; we know the strengths and, weaknesses, all the features and all the best practices, so if you're working with Itex, you know you'll get a solution that works long term, not one that needs fixing on a regular basis.
The level of technological support is commonly cited as one of the main positives for setting up and doing business in the Isle of Man. What do you think the IT industry needs to do to maintain this ‘competitive edge’?
Quite simply, keep investing. Understand the clients and develop products and services that make our customers more successful.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges facing the IT support industry in the next 5-10 years? And the most interesting developments?
The most interesting development of the past few years, and looking into the immediate future, is virtualisation: some of our clients have achieved a 35:1 consolidation ratio – that is, roughly, 35x less power, 35x less servers and 35x less floorspace - which means datacentre businesses will have to adjust or go out of business. Most of our clients have either virtualised or are actively looking at it. Microsoft, as ever, are making plays to ensure businesses upgrade to the next version of software - essentially pushing out the 'fringe' players. For example, you see much more voice capability in Microsoft Exchange, and archival in the box too.
There is increasing consolidation/convergence in the marketplace with Oracle's acquisition of Sun, Cisco entering the Server marketplace and HP entering the network space.
'Cloud' is, in a sense, already with us. This is where businesses seamlessly use resources provided anywhere on the Internet as part of their IT services. Itex have Managed Services that we deliver through an Offshore Cloud. Lastly, Business Process Reengineering and Outsourcing, which is taking a higher priority to assist scaling of businesses - so you see a trend for comms and 'offshoring' of back office. The real challenge for IT support is to demonstrate that it is of competitive value to the firm, and not just a back office function that can be outsourced and/or 'offshored'. That's where we come in.