Evette Thorp: Leading the way in technology

Practice Lead, ISS Services

Evette Thorp is up front: “My career has been fantastic.”

Her current role as Insight’s Practice Lead of NZ Services involves managing the NZ Services team while also building Insight New Zealand’s services business. In two years she has taken it from zero to a business that enjoyed 60 percent growth in its last year.

But IT wasn’t even on Evette’s radar when she left school. She expected to work in an office doing some sort of admin role, like a PA.  Sure enough, she was employed as an Office Junior, but it happened to be at Datacom which ended up being her launchpad into the world of IT. Unbeknownst to her at the the time, this office junior role was the start of a career which has provided a her world of opportunities, travel, lifelong connections and has enabled her to work with great organisations and deftly move from skillset to skillset.

At Datacom, her enthusiasm to take on additional work and learn, saw her taking on tasks from three different departments – Procurement, Accounts and the Service Desk– all while still working on Reception. Unsurprisingly, there came a time when all three departments offered her roles, so she had to make the tough decision to choose which path to take, knowing it may ultimately shape her career for years to come. Her decision to join the Procurement team would be a pivotal point and ultimately led to her to becoming one of New Zealand’s top licensing solutions sales specialists at Spark.

Insight came calling in 2012, looking for an Account Manager who, not only knew licensing back to front, but also had the chops to engage with the C-Level teams within some of NZ’s largest businesses. In her new role Evette, once again, grew her part of the business exponentially, becoming an integral part of the team, winning awards and smashing targets. After coming on board 10 years ago, she’s held several positions at Insight, including Licensing Solutions Sales Specialist which included running License Optmisation engagements for some of the largest clients across ANZ, and then most recently, her move into management in 2020. She freely admits this shift was ‘a big learning curve’ once again.

“I’ve had a very successful role as a salesperson. My first year at Insight, in less than a year I achieved over 150% of my quota and brought on 30 new agreements – which was unheard of.”

Her success has seen her win numerous awards, including Rookie of the Year, and Circle of Excellence, and attend Presidents Club multiple times.

“Now I’ve progressed into a management role, not selling what I know and love, which is licensing, but instead helping shape a services business which is where the business needs to pivot.”

“My role is not only people management, but how do I take our solutions to market, what does the market need, what can we develop and put together and how can our people sell it.”

While Evette has chosen to pursue a career path in leadership, she says she also had plenty of opportunities to pursue a more technical path.

“There is no harm in just embedding yourself in the industry, because you can change paths so easily.”

“I found my niche getting outcomes for clients, and that’s still essentially what I do today.”