Softcat’s first-half (H1) numbers can be added to results from Bytes and Computacenter that indicate an improvement as of late.
Challenging conditions remain and customers continue to be hesitant about spending – which partly explained why Computacenter described the UK as “disappointing” in its results – but there are signs that the ongoing need to secure data, transform infrastructure and the attraction of artificial intelligence (AI) are all creating demand for the channel to utilise.
Graham Charlton, CEO of Softcat, shared his views about the prospects for the rest of this year as he discussed the firm’s H1 numbers for the six months ended 31 January.
“My hope is that they will improve the more this calendar year goes on. They were set to improve when we had some upbeat noises around the economy last autumn. We had the change of government and a change of approach, so I think that’s delayed the upswing in sentiment. But clearly, the world has always got some bad news that it’s ready to throw in our faces, but IT infrastructure is more important to the operation of pretty much every organisation these days,” he said.
“That’s the business we’re in, and I think there’s some pent-up demand in there because of the conditions that we’ve seen over the past few years. So I’m ever the optimist, and I think it will improve as this year goes on,”
The firm indicated that it was ahead of expectations in the numbers and, as a result, the year would be stronger than previously expected.
Charlton said that despite its significant position in the market, there were still acres of opportunity for the UK business to go after.
“Whichever way you cut it, there’s lots of customers that we’re not yet working with, and there’s lots of IT spending from the customers we are already working with that we’re not doing for them. So, I don’t see growth in the UK for Softcat drying up anytime soon,” he said.
The firm has always remained solely focused on UK&I, but increasingly finds itself supporting customers further afield.
“We are increasingly being asked by our UK customers to do work for them in their overseas operations, and we’re building capability to do that in the US, Europe and the Far East. So, we’re following our customers around the globe and helping them with their that work. We’re not selling to foreign customers yet. That might happen at some point, but right now, what we call our ‘multinational capability’ is one of the things that we’re investing in,” he said.
Charlton listed security, datacentres and networking as high areas of customer demand, with increasing opportunities being generated by the spread of AI.
“It’s a very powerful new technology that will have ramifications for decades to come on how computing works and how the digital economy works, and it is already placing huge demands on the infrastructure to run it, and that’s the business we’re in. It is one of many exciting forces that’s driving the structural growth in our industry, and so we’re building capabilities around being able to support our customers in embracing that,” he said.