Channel Awards 2024: Q&A with James Connelly, chief revenue officer at Harbor Solutions.
Harbor Solutions find themselves on this year’s Channel Awards nominees list. We catch up with CRO James Connelly on what the nomination and the awards themselves mean to them.
CRN: Why do you think awards like the Channel Awards matter? What would winning at this awards mean to your company?
JC: Harbor is a channel focused organisation and we work with the UK largest resellers. This type of award is recognition within the channel community and will help our brand in this ecosystem.
CRN: What would you say is your company’s proudest achievement over the past year?
JC: Over the past year Harbor have doubled our top line revenue and are growing very quickly. One of our key vendors is Rubrik and Harbor was awarded the prestigious Global MSP of the Year award for 2024.
CRN: What have been the biggest challenges of 2024 so far and how have you overcome them? How have your people helped with that?
JC: Ransomware is fueling the growth of our business as organisations look to outsource the risk of recovery from these types of events to specialist operators. The levels and complexity of attacks is a constant challenge over the past 12 months and our people’s ability to work with these end users in challenging and stressful circumstances is a testament to our customer satisfaction and low churn rate.
CRN: How do you think the channel has changed over the past year and what changes do you think it still needs to make?
JC: Generally speaking, after a tough few years' post covid, we seem to be seeing the Channel recovering in terms of budget. Spend seems to have risen, particularly in cyber security and data protection, which is great for organisations like Harbor. We’ve also seen Channel organisations lean more on an agnostic message for their customers, as opposed to backing a single tech, again focusing on that consultative led sales approach which customers seem to be looking for.
CRN: What do you see as the main opportunities for the channel in the coming year? How do you plan to capitalise on those opportunities?
JC: Customers more than ever are looking to channel partners for specialism and expertise around topics such as Cyber Resiliency and AI. At Harbor we have extensive knowledge and experience to help our customers be winners in keeping their most critical data protected and their business operational..
The CRN Channel Awards take place in London on 14th November. Click here to view the shortlist, and here to secure your place.