Building robust market relationships in the hybrid workplace

Our people blog series continue with hybrid workplace specialist Lloyd Parker, Sales Manager at VCG

Lloyd Parker joined VCG in 2019 having previously worked within the IT Solutions industry for a number of years within the Cisco Partner sphere. As Sales Manager, Lloyd heads up our ever-growing Account Management team; ensuring we are positioned as closely as possible to our clients desired outcomes and business goals. He also works very closely with our vendors and partners to deliver the best products and services in the market to our client base.

How do the best customer partnerships work?

‘We work really closely with our customers to ensure their IT and technology roadmap concentrate on key business transformation themes. We understand that businesses need to stay agile and working in partnership with an MSSP can really help support them in achieving their outcomes. With access to leading technical expertise, our teams help identify, develop and implement security, network and connectivity strategic priorities.’

What buying trends have you noticed in recent months?

‘The pace of digital transformation and speed of business change has been expedited rapidly due to the global circumstances of the last 18 months. In turn, customers now require a partner who has the agility to align their services to their desired goals efficiently.’

What do you think are the key solutions required for hybrid working?

‘Personally, I see two strands to this; firstly, it is securely empowering your users to ‘work from anywhere’ efficiently through collaborative solutions, allowing customers as a minimum to maintain the levels of efficient working they experienced pre-pandemic. What excites us is where we have been able to build a collaboration strategy in response to the pandemic which has enhanced the efficiency of our customers’ workforce. Secondly, and critically, it’s underpinning the changing ways of working with adequate security solutions and services. This provides our customers with the peace of mind that they need to ensure a stable, digitally resilient, hybrid workplace.’

How do you help your customers manage security risks?

‘There has been a fundamental change in the way we are all working, and that change has opened organisations up to increased cyber security threats. Our teams have access to leading technical expertise, so we can help identify cyber security strategic priorities by planning the right steps and solutions to cut potential cyber threats.

As a business, we also had to adapt and not only make sure that what we offer is relevant to the changed world, but tailor all our security products and bundles into an end-to-end approach to our customers’ security posture. This means we are now more focused on consulting and advisory, helping organisations evolve their security posture but also pre-empting security risks before they actually happen.

As a business we understand the importance of security being embedded into every layer of the network, endpoints, data centre, cloud applications and users. Our cyber security services concentrate on the core elements of the IT estate so customers can be assured that weaknesses are eliminated.’

What is that you like the most about working with VCG?

‘It’s the strength of the partnerships we have with our vendors and the technical capability our teams have gained over the years, regardless of the departments they’re in. Besides, it’s fun and encouraging to work in a business that values the work-life balance and places so much emphasis on progress and making an impact in our teams, but also in our customers’ and partners’ technology and business. I am extremely excited for the successes and challenges that lay ahead for us all at VCG!’

VCG has a key focus on partnering with organisations to deliver growth, agility, efficiency and best-in class customer experience through the latest technologies.

Trusted by our customers, our relationships grow stronger so that we can help you get the most value from your IT investment and ultimately help you to achieve your goals.

For more information – contact the team today! sales@vcg.group