Tom McManus, our resident muso and technical guru, joined the Spitfire Midlands office over 6 years ago. In that time he has passed CCENT and is CCNA qualified, making a real impact to the Partner Service.
Could you tell us about your role?
My role as Senior Engineering Partner Manager at Spitfire is to provide a high level of technical assistance to our partners and develop the amount of business we do together. My focus is on ensuring that the most appropriate voice and data solutions are provided to their clients, based on their technical requirements. I am also responsible for looking after a number of key customer accounts within the Partner Service team at Spitfire, building long-term plans to make sure that their needs are met technically and commercially..
How long have you worked at Spitfire?
Time flies when you are enjoying yourself, it only seems like 5 minutes since I started at Spitfire, but according to LinkedIn, I have been here 6 years!
What do you enjoy most about working with Spitfire?
It sounds like a rather cliché answer, but it’s definitely the people, customers, partners and colleagues alike. Everyone here at Spitfire are a pleasure to work with, they are extremely supportive which makes for a really pleasant working atmosphere. Another thing that I love about working for Spitfire is getting stuck in to a technical project where my knowledge and experience can really make a difference for a customer.
What’s the best thing about working with Spitfire Partners?
No single Spitfire partner is the same and the projects they work on are all completely different. It’s extremely interesting to be working with one partner to deploy a multi-site 3CX solution in the morning, and designing a resilient MPLS network for another partner in the afternoon.
Working in such a fast moving, ever changing industry, what advice would you give your partners in the current environment?
Talk to your customers and find out their plans for the next 18 to 24 months. The world of IT is constantly changing and within the next few years, almost every business process your customers’ have will rely on IT in one form or another (if it doesn’t already). You need to be at the forefront of any decisions they make, you never know, there may be a huge opportunity!
After a busy day looking after our Partners, how do you unwind?
After work I spend time with my partner Charlotte, we like to walk and I’m fortunate enough to live by some rather nice parkland. During the past 12 months with travel restrictions being in place, I made it my mission to explore some of the fantastic hiking locations available here in the UK, including the Lake District. When at home I spend a lot of time (possibly too much) on my Xbox, I’m a huge fan of the Halo series.
Finally if you were asked to set up a new office for Spitfire’s Partner Service anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Stockholm – I’d love to visit Sweden, and being such a technologically advanced city, I’m sure it would be a great place for Spitfire to open an office!