IAN MUSGRAVE Chief Technology Officer, Forfusion.
What did Forfusion set out to achieve this year?
The main focus was on consolidation and building back from a couple of tough years managing the fallout from Covid and its impact on our customers and supply chains.
Has everything gone according to plan?
More or less, we’ve engaged with more new customers than ever before, and the pipeline is the strongest it’s ever been. We’re still being impacted by the significant backlogs and delays on the hardware side. Network equipment manufacturing is still suffering from shortages on the chip front; these will take some time yet to dissipate entirely. But the company is agile enough to adapt; for example, we’ve added new managed service offerings that have brought new revenue streams to the business.
How has the business bounced back from the Coronavirus crisis?
Really well, we’re a very adaptable organisation. We’re agile enough to shift focus quite quickly when we hit challenges like those described above. So, the coming six months should see us exceed expectations if we can deliver against the pipeline we’ve built.
What are you most proud of this year?
Our workforce has shown remarkable resilience and flexibility through what has been a tough period. I’m very proud of all of them.
What’s the best business advice you’ve received this year?
Don’t panic! – the confidence I have in our outstanding workforce means we’re able to adapt and ride out challenges which others are not so capable of doing.
How has your team evolved?
I think we’ve learned a lot about ourselves as a company this past year, and on top of everything thrown at us, we’ve managed to mature significantly as a business in quite a short period of time. Some tough decisions have had to be made coming out of the pandemic. Where in the past, we may have been slow to make critical decisions, that is no longer the case.
Describe 2022 in three words
Busy, surprising, resilient.
What does the remainder of the year hold?
Hopefully a little bit of a break to spend some time with family and friends, reset and get ready for 2023 – it looks like it’s going to be quite a year at Forfusion.
What are Forfusion’s goals for 2023?
To set some records and leave the last couple of years well behind us.