Carousel Industries Welcomes Former Wipro GM Steven De Maayer: Exclusive

‘As we’re seeing across the market, the demand from clients for buying not just point solutions but buying true services with an outcome-based solution is driving where we’re seeing the industry go. So, as Carousel we want to be at the forefront of that,’ says Carousel’s first chief services officer, Steven De Maayer.

In this exclusive interview with CRNtv, former Wipro General Manager Steven De Maayer talks about how his new role at Carousel will meet today’s changing market needs by helping the solution provider double down on services.

What can you tell us about this new role?

It shows the commitment of Carousel in services, and where they are really going to be focused in the market. So, [I’m] excited, just started, and [I’m] really looking forward to expanding and growing our services.

What was the need for this position?

As we’re seeing across the market, the demand from clients for buying not just point solutions but buying true services with an outcome-based solution really is driving where we’re seeing the industry go. So, as Carousel we want to be at the forefront of that.

What changes are you going to make to the cloud services organization?

One of the key things that we’re doing in the cloud services organization is we’re integrating a lot more of Carousel-delivered services as part of that. So, what we’re finding is that as clients buy cloud services, what they need is, they need more help on how to optimize those services, how to migrate to those services, and how to run those services. As Carousel we are going to provide, and we are providing those services, as an integrated whole to make the client’s transition to the cloud a lot easier and faster.

How about when it comes to security offerings? How are you going to drive and enable digital and business transformation for clients?

So one of the key things, especially now with COVID, is cybersecurity, and we’re seeing a great need from our clients in the cybersecurity space. So, what we are really investing in and driving within Carousel is not only on the assessment side—so assessing a client’s environment for cybersecurity vulnerabilities—but also working on remediating those, and then, ultimately, running the client’s environment to prevent those from happening again and keeping them in a highly compliant state. So that’s absolutely our vision in cybersecurity.

What is it about your experience and background that will go toward establishing growth at Carousel?

I think when you look at my experience, I’ve both had jobs where I managed the overall delivery of a services organization, but also selling services and packaging different service offerings. So, what I plan to do as I come in and really drive as the chief services officer for Carousel is to bring all of that together, end to end, from creating the offers that are relevant in the market to delivering those offers, and then ultimately managing the client success as the back end. So that’s really the integrated approach that this role really brings together for Carousel.

Do you plan to bring on new vendors? If so, how will these partnerships benefit partners?

It’s early to talk about which other partners we’re bringing in. We’re really looking to double down with the current partners that we do have. We’ve worked for a long time with Avaya; we’ve got great relationships with Cisco, Fortinet; [and] we’ve got a brand-new relationship with Arctic Wolf. So, as clients are looking at all these different IT companies that provide point solutions, they need somebody that can integrate that all together and provide an overall service around it that can protect their environments, and that’s what Carousel is aiming to do.

And what are you hearing from partners so far?

What we’re hearing is that they’re excited. They’re excited about this direction that we’re going into. They’re excited that we’re doubling down on services. I mean, what they want is a partner that is able to make it easier for clients to adopt the technology that it is they’re selling, and we as Carousel provide that. I mean we’re able to put it all together, you know, install it, configure it, but then also manage it at the end and deliver the actual outcome that the client is interested in getting.

Hear more from De Maayer, only on CRNtv.