What is the Embedded Directory?

25 November 2019

The Embedded Directory was created with the knowledge, experience and passion of its founder, Phil Clark, who for decades has been trying to make sense of the complexities of the Technology Supply Chain. 

The Directory is here in response to two very common issues:

• How do IT Buyers expand their horizons to find new suppliers that will be focussed on them, without having to sift through the marketing bullshit?
• How do IT companies, specifically around the Channel, attract new Clients that are in their “sweet spot” without spending a fortune on blitz marketing?

Boiled down, both Buyers and Suppliers are trying to solve the same problem.  Finding companies that are suited to their specific needs, based on a range of fact-based attributes rather the luck of mass marketing. 

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Meeting 7 - South Hants IT group - Microsoft Teams

12 September 2019

Blog content to be completed!  Sorry, I missed one but will be getting this done over Xmas.

Meeting 8 - South Hants IT group - SD-WAN

22 November 2019

SD-WAN was a bit of a gamble for a subject within the South Hants IT community, specifically it had the potential to be very technical, but clearly has broad relevance as a topic that is being discussed by many (normally larger) enterprises. All respect to Tayo Ogunseyinde, our presenter from Versa Networks, in finding an excellent balance between delivering a technical subject in a way that even I could understand. Thanks also to Axians UK for helping line up the speakers

The presentation was to provide an overview of what SD-WAN was, when it was relevant, what the likely benefits were, who the major players were in the marketplace and what questions to ask to engage the market. Versa clearly have an excellent well rounded proposition, and although the presentation was an independent view of the topic, it is clear they have an interesting angle (especially considering their relatively modest size). Again, Tayo was fiercely honest in the positioning of Versa against his competitors, listing both strengths and weaknesses of his product vs the other brands.

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Meeting 6 - South Hants IT group - Procurement

17 July 2019

I was very excited about the joint CIPS and South Hants IT meeting, as a bit of an experiment to see how different audiences would interact, and I was not disappointed. We managed about 35 attendees, broadly split 50/50 between Procurement and Channel Sales people, and lots of interesting dialogue was had. No fights broke out, no-one got injured. Result!

I delivered an hour and a half of content explaining my views on Technology Procurement and how the interface between Sales and Procurement could be improved. From the front of the room I didn’t see anyone dozing off, which is always a good sign, and a big thank you to large percentage of the audience who participated with questions and debate, many of whom got free CIPS stress balls. For a relatively dry topic, it was really engaging and we still didn’t manage to conclude whether RFP’s were a good or a bad thing…..

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