Adrian Howard
General Manager FMS
What does your role at LAKE involve?
I head up the Financial Management business within LAKE so I'm responsible for sales and service delivery within that business unit. I look after the sales and marketing team as well as the teams that are responsible for implementation, support and training.
How long have you been with LAKE and what did you do before you joined?
I joined LAKE in 2003 and before coming to LAKE I had a similar role at another SunSystems reseller, where I worked for 13 years - so altogether I have more than 30 years' experience in the Information Technology sector in general and with SunSystems in particular. Prior to that I was a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young.
What do you enjoy most about the work you do?
I enjoy lots of things, but I'll pick out the two most important to me. Firstly, I love working with the team here at LAKE. I find the whole experience very rewarding - particularly when we get the chance to help young members of staff grow into new roles and take on more responsibility.
I also love meeting new customers, listening to their requirements and helping them plan ambitious projects to drive their businesses forward. It is so rewarding to see customer success first hand - especially if I've played a small part in helping to engineer the project in the first place.
If you had to pick out three achievements or pieces of work that you're particularly proud of from your time at LAKE, what would they be?
Firstly, I'm proud of the way we have embraced the cloud opportunity and led the way in promoting and implementing SunSystems Cloud. I was honoured to receive Infor's “SaaS Partner of the Year” award at their 2024 partner conference in London with my colleague Ruth Bentley.
Secondly, I'm proud of helping to develop a culture within the business that is focused on quality rather than quantity. Customer service, hard work, and commitment are really important to me personally, and it's gratifying to see these priorities reflected back at me everywhere I look in the business.
And finally, I'm extremely proud of all the successful customer projects we've delivered over the years. Customers who join us invariably stay with us and help to grow our business because of the quality of the products and services we sell and the lasting impact of the projects we deliver together.
What does your background, experience and knowledge mean for customers?
The key decision-makers at our customers are typically Finance Directors or CFOs, and I'm not so different, being a finance professional and a businessperson myself. This similarity of background means I have a natural empathy with the customer and an understanding of what they might want from a new system - whether it be streamlined transaction processing or predictive analytics or both. I understand their domain because I'm an accountant and because I've been working with these systems for decades. I use my experience to help a customer envision a way through their challenges and a roadmap to a more successful future for themselves.
What excites you most when you think about LAKE's future plans and the future of business systems in general?
For me it's all about cloud, and building a case for the implementation of AI in finance. It's so exciting to be helping customers leverage cloud and AI technologies to automate processes, remove manual effort, integrate systems, improve reporting, and generally drive better outcomes for their businesses.
What do you do when you're not working?
I live on a small farm in Yorkshire where we keep horses, pigs, ducks and chickens, as well as a small gang of cats and dogs. Taking care of them and spending time with my grandchildren keeps me active and happy.
What is one item on your bucket list?
I'd really like to jump out of an aeroplane. I'd like to feel the risk of the jump and the exhilaration of the descent (once the parachute had opened, of course!)
What would your specialist Mastermind subject be?
I've spent a lot of years caring for horses alongside my career in IT, so I'd back myself to do pretty well if I was faced with questions on the care of horses.
