Eclipse Internet Blog

Name – Andrew Fawcett
Job Title – Product Manager
Company – Kingston Communications / Eclipse Internet

Tell us a little about yourself/your business.
I manage the Hosted Applications portfolio which includes our hosted eCommerce offerings and our Microsoft-based Messaging and Collaboration solutions.

What do you enjoy most about your job/role?
The opportunity to work across the whole KC business as well as its suppliers and customers.

If you did not have to work what would you be doing?
Probably inventing things at a frightening pace. Travelling a lot.

What is the next big thing in your market sector?
Mass adoption of SaaS (Software as a Service), particularly for Unified Communications and Collaboration.

What are your biggest business challenges?
Choosing what not to do when faced with myriad choices.

What has been the key to your success?
Taking each new day in its turn with a weather eye on the future.

How did you end up in your current job?
I originally managed the product offering of KIT -  Kingston Communications ground-breaking IPTV offering in Hull, which was closed down in 2005. Before that i had held product development roles in the Print, Publishing and New Media sectors.

What is your work ethic?
One way or another I am probably ‘at work’ 24/7/365. Most of the ideas are born at ‘stupid-o’clock’

What do you see yourself doing in 5 years time?
I honestly haven’t a clue (that’s not a very good answer is it?). Probably still helping people and businesses understand and get the best out of emerging technologies and services.

If you ever lost all your data – what would you do?
Celebrate and feel smug, because its all backed up remotely.

What would be your one piece of advice to other businesses?
For every pound you spend on technology solutions spend another on making sure your people understand and can use it properly to their benefit.

What is your favourite business gadget/piece of technology?
Usually the one i’ve bought most recently. Over the years though probably my Linn CD player and record deck.

What words or phrases do you most overuse?
Cheers, especially when no drinks are involved. I also use brackets (a lot).

My biggest extravagance is…..
A large CD collection and the odd bottle of single malt.

Which business website/book would you recommend?
www.silicon.com and Rogers Profanisaurus.

Which individual has had the most influence on you?
Three Peters. Peter Howgate – my first boss, Peter Gabriel the musician (who was also my boss for a while in the 90’s!) and presently Peter Reed, my personal coach.

How would your business colleagues describe you?
Direct, capable, insightful, innovative, changes his laptop more often than his socks, never knowingly early.

What superpowers would you have?
Like Chuck Norris I lived near power lines as a child. That gave me the powers i have today.

What has been your most embarrassing moment?
There are lots. Spending a whole day at work wearing one black and one brown shoe without noticing. And losing a cheque for £20,000.

What moment in your life has made you feel ‘over the moon’?
The birth of my three children – not all at the same time I hasten to add !

What has been your greatest achievement to date?
In business that would be winning the 1992 DTI Manufacturing Intelligence prize for an AI-based pagination system. I was presented with a £20,000 cheque by the CBI Chairman, 5ft long, which i then promptly left in the back of a taxi. D’Oh.

What is your biggest bugbear at work?
Anybody withholding information for personal gain.

What is your unfulfilled ambition?
To finish the novel i am writing (some chance….)

What is currently on your iPod?
Pretty much everything ever recorded or contemplated. The two JMs (Joni Mitchell / John Martyn), bit of Tom Waits and Max Richter is my current hero. There are also a lot of Nursery Rhymes, Metallica, and Podcasts.

The three things you would take to a Desert Island?
My laptop, an internet connection and my wife.