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Emma de Sousa, vice president and managing director at Insight UK & Ireland talks to PCR about delivering solutions and services to its customers.
How did Insight get started?
Like many great technology companies, Insight was actually started in a garage. It began as Hard Drives International in 1988, founded by Tim and Eric Crown, using the advance from a credit card. Since then it has grown into a global organisation. in 1995 it IPO’d and today it is a Fortune 500 company with more than 5,400 teammates across the globe.
What can you tell us about the ways in which education institutions use Insight’s services?
The rate at which technology evolves has made it difficult for many educational institutions to keep pace, which is why many are looking to third party experts for their help and support. From advice on the best tools to improving the learning experience for pupils, through to educating staff and pupils on device safety, the role of tech experts in the educational sector is wide and varied.
In today’s digital-first world, where pupils are ‘digital natives’, we are seeing the demand for technological change increase dramatically. Students want access to the same digital tools they have in their personal lives – for the education sector this has meant looking to how they can harness the power of digital to create immersive classrooms, where interactive devices and teaching methods are the norm.
By working with leading technology partners, we are able to create bespoke packages for each of our clients, ensuring they not only have the best of breed technology, but a solution that has been created to fulfil their needs. Insight is very well placed in this field to support the education sector with the frameworks we have in place.
“Like many great technology companies, Insight was actually started in a garage.”
Emma de Sousa, Insight UK & Ireland
Are there any common elements of services that all of your customers need?
The recent explosion of data is an ongoing and difficult challenge for companies of all shapes and sizes. in turn, we find this is what an increasing amount of clients look to us to support with. Clients – including those in education – need to invest in developing the right expertise internally, as well as working with the best partners to help them interpret the data available. As organisations do this, the adoption of cloud solutions increases and we’re beginning to see a huge growth in this area. With this deployment will come another challenge for organisations as they unlock hidden layers, such as licensing, which need to be considered to ensure they are compliant. Cloud delivery in general provides a higher level of agility and speed to service deployment, however it must be considered carefully as commercially this may not always be the best option when considered over time.
Tell about Insight’s data storage solutions
One of the most important capabilities we offer at Insight is our ability to bring leading providers together to offer an effective end-to-end solution. This is particularly true in our data storage division. We have very strong solutions around data storage, back up and disaster recovery that are based on a range of leading technologies. As a HPE Platinum Partner, and one of only a handful of DellEMC Titanium Black partners, Insight demonstrates a higher level of capability to deliver high quality solutions to our clients.
Insight’s expertise in these solutions ensures we are able to help our clients achieve a number of business outcomes through the correct use of data storage solutions. We also offer a variety of services that deliver a multitude of benefits to organisations that are looking to address challenges around data sprawling. These benefits include increased productivity, reduced downtime, improved cost control and increased data protection.
Our understanding and expertise allows us to deploy storage solutions that are tailored to each organisation’s specific requirements and business goals, while holding a deep understanding of the technical nuisances required to plan, build and manage these platforms in line with the initial expectations set.
Insight UK & Ireland is a Sheffield-based multi-solutions provider.
