The CEO Edit: September 2024

With the first half of the year under our belt, it felt time to look back on all the exciting updates and changes to have taken place at Servium. It’s fair to say there have been many!

Loving life at Advania!

As many of you will know, and for those that don’t, Servium was acquired by Advania in June. I’ve always been keen to share Servium’s journey with you all, but even more so now I’m able to reflect on what has been the biggest milestone in our history.  

It’s easy to say this, but it is the truth – the acquisition couldn’t have gone better. The warm welcome from Advania was felt by the entire Servium team, and everything has gone swimmingly! It’s testament to the hard work by both teams in the run up to the acquisition, leaving no stone unturned to ensure everything went off seamlessly. 

Beyond any onboarding actions, being an official “Advanian” has provided plenty of opportunities to get to know their capabilities in a day-to-day sense as part of our customer engagements. The strength and depth we’ve witnessed in a raft of value-creating technologies, especially with Microsoft in the arenas of Azure and Copilot, has been nothing short of impressive.  I knew our capabilities would be extended post-acquisition, but the experience has utterly surpassed what we were anticipating. 

With new skills and experts in the “kit bag”, we’re already seeing increased levels of engagement with customers who are interested to know more about our expanded offerings and what Advania now brings to the table.  

One of the three key pillars of our Modus Operandi – “We aim to delight” – is focused on making every interaction with Servium a positive one. The last 100 days has shown me that Advania is going to add hugely to that pursuit and the overall technology journey of our customers. 

Importantly, the value-creation of the acquisition flows the other way too. Advania saw Servium’s potential to bring much needed product supply and infrastructure integration capabilities (amongst other things) to their offering and we are seeing the value of that as we work closer with our Advania counterparts and meet their customers. 

So, it’s been a great start and I’m excited to see this continue! 

Reflecting on our performance

Turning attention to how we’ve performed so far this year, it’s fair to say a lot has happened outside of the acquisition in H1. We finished the period strong financially and with improved year-on-year performance, something that wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of our team, the support of our distribution and vendor partners and of course, our customers. In other news, we’re happy to announce we have been reaccredited with ISO 14001 following a successful audit, furthering our commitment to running a sustainable business. 

I’m also pleased to say we have recently launched our annual Customer Satisfaction Survey. Understanding our customers and where we need to improve is at the heart of what we do. Warts an’ all, this is where we capture a lot of the insight that shapes the operation of the business – from account management to logistics, commercials to marketing. Accordingly, I’d also like to extend a pre-emptive thank you to those who participate. 

(Not so) New business team

In my last CEO Edit we had just finished setting up our new business team (or the NBT, for short) in Basingstoke. Our commitment to investing in young talent continues through this team – they are well into their training pathways now and it’s rewarding to see how much this is already paying off with the progress they are making. By investing in young people, we firmly believe we are securing not only their future but that of the business.  

Interestingly, the arrival of our aspiring team has prompted us to extend the pursuit of training qualifications to other team members following requests from outside of the NBT. Despite the substantial experience elsewhere in our business, it would appear you can teach an old dog new tricks after all! It’s pleasing to see other team members coming forward and wanting to be the best they can be. 

Climate change!

Political & economic 

It’s no secret there has been uncertainty within the economy both at home and abroad. There will be more national elections this year than any other year in history – over 70 countries will hold leadership contests, affecting around half of the world’s population. These elections will shape not only national leadership but also broader geopolitical landscapes. Thankfully, with the UK election behind us and the US presidential race coming to a conclusion, I feel confident that there will calmer waters ahead.  

Tech 

On the tech front, the AI surge that accelerated throughout the first half of 2024 shows no signs of slowing down. Advania has been a pioneer in this field, both for customers and in their/our own use of the technology, having recently rolled out Microsoft Copilot to all employees. Certainly, in our own customer interactions we are seeing AI move beyond a concept and seemingly good idea into development and production-ready solutions. 

As a side note, I have personally been involved in several AI-focused client meetings alongside Advania, both with customers at the start of their AI journey and those already finding use cases in their businesses. It’s exciting to see what is happening and I have loved (and laughed) hearing some of the tool names given to customer AI deployments. I only wish I could share them publicly – there’s some real corkers! 

Unfortunately, it’s not all good news in the IT industry. There’s no getting away from the job cuts that have hit the news, particularly within the vendor/manufacturer landscape. Some exceptional people are now looking for work again, which is sad to see. Inevitably, realignment of resources on this side of the supply chain has (and will continue to) hit IT projects, particularly for those organisations engaging directly with the vendors.  

It’s at times like these that value-added resellers like Servium really earn their corn. I believe we act as an important interface to help customers get through these times. Our ability to engage with multiple vendors and facilitate projects with a plan B or C, thus ensuring things keep moving even at the most challenging of moments, is not easily replicated. Another of Servium’s Modus Operandi pillars is that we protect your interests – now more than ever I see this as an essential role we will perform for our customers. 

I’m going to sign off there. Suffice to say I am super proud of the entire team for the progress we’ve made so far this year and I can’t wait to see where the second half takes us.