Tech Insights: Interview with Andy Farquharson, LogMeIn Asia Pacific

In our new Tech Insights series, we quiz industry leaders to get their views of what the year ahead holds for the IT world. Today we speak with Andy Farquharson, Vice President, LogMeIn Asia Pacific.

What do you see as the two or three biggest growth opportunities for your customers in 2015, and why?

For our customers a key growth opportunity for 2015 is being able to constantly improve and enhance their customers’ experience. The fact that mobile web usage continues to rise is hardly news to most businesses, but few have mastered the ways this has changed the behaviour of consumers or the strategies to address multichannel customer engagement.

A recent global study by LogMeIn and the e-tailing group found that over half of mobile users engage businesses via their mobile devices. With the rise of mobile as a preferred channel, LogMeIn is continuing to focus our innovation efforts to help businesses to be more responsive and timely than ever by developing their customer engagement strategies, with a mobile first approach.

What emerging trends or developing technologies may influence or change the way the ICT industry will do business in 2015, and why?

Most businesses are aware of the significant impact of the emerging Internet of Things (IoT). One principle driving expectations for the IoT market is its potential impact on the customer experience - the ability to improve customer experience and relationship management through creating intelligent services. The possibilities for businesses that utilise IoT are endless - fault detection, consumable replenishment, servicing, product enhancement, actionable intelligence, cross-selling and upselling to name a few.

By utilising ready-built networks, offering fast, secure and scalable connections alongside a range of tools designed to both manage this new class of devices and better engage the end users of those devices, businesses can concentrate their efforts on creating innovative connected products. And the cost model has lowered dramatically, making it available to smaller businesses, not just the big end of town.

What new and innovative technologies do you see emerging in your IT solution categories in 2015, and how will they help your customers?

One key finding for our region in a recent global study conducted by Ovum is the continued rise in collaboration in the workplace, with an emphasis on ad hoc meetings. Mobility and consumerised IT environments - as well as highly connected employees - are defining the modern business and changes in how workers collaborate. And for our customers they can gain significant advantages when they encourage the use of collaboration tools that their employees use day in day out, as well as styles of working for the modern worker and work environment.

In addition, the IoT will revolutionise business, allowing companies to improve their value propositions, engage with customers on a whole new level and build new revenue streams. In 2015, companies that manufacture products and want to better understand how customers are using them, and ensure that those products work properly and reliably, will increasingly begin IoT-enabling their products. Simply connecting products to the internet is not enough - the true value of the IoT is in the data extracted from the device and what you do with it.

Andy Farquharson is the Vice President for LogMeIn Asia Pacific and one of the founding staff members of its Australian operations. A cloud and technology specialist, he brings over 10 years’ experience in the IT industry spanning across Europe, the US and the Asia Pacific.