Former Intel marketer Danielle Watts joins Using Technology Better

Former Intel and Lenovo marketer Danielle Watts has joined Australian bespoke end-user technology training provider Using Technology Better (UTB), which is looking to grow its channel program.

Now UTB’s partner development manager, Watts has extensive experience in the IT channel, including hybrid sales and marketing roles at Intel and Lenovo, primarily focused on the education, health, and aged care sectors. She also spent four years with Telstra Purple as program manager on its NAB account.

UTB was established more than a decade ago by former school teacher Mike Reading. The business has since evolved from its focus on training schools to also working with corporates, including a major retailer, and government, in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.

It provides bespoke training and facilitation programs, including for users of Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Microsoft 365, Canva, Apple Apps for Work and Google Workspace. The company is a Microsoft Training Partner, Apple Learning Specialist, Google Cloud Partner and Google for Education Partner. It can also run security tabletop exercises for C-suite participants.

Partner opportunity

“Moving forward, partnering is our strategic growth approach as we continue to expand across APAC (and further afield) in 2025,” Reading told CRN Australia.

“We have extensively grown our network of trainers across the region and early next year we will be launching our franchise network which will enable us to supply local trainers to the channel.”

Watts talked up UTB’s training as a value-add for channel partners.

“It's also about providing a 360 service - so many companies invest in technology without enabling their people to use it effectively. They aren't getting the best ROI from the products they've been sold.”

Bridging IT and C-suite

UTB’s work is delivered with a “strict no geek speak” policy, focused “less about the tools and more about how your team are using them.”

Large businesses, including those with change facilitators, can fail to address the specifics of “how an executive or an EA uses technology versus someone in HR versus a frontline worker,” Reading said.

Training delivered by IT firms isn’t always effective either.

“Sometimes MSPs or resellers try and use their own internal team and they’ll send an engineer or a sales person who's watched a sales pitch for Microsoft, but it just doesn't land,” Reading said.

“We try and be that bridge between the IT department and HR or the C-suite. Because if you want adoption in the organisation, you've got to have that C-suite buy-in.”

Watts said UTB had seen increased interest in Copilot and Gemini. “It appears there is an uptake of these platforms at the executive level - they need to understand and appreciate what the tool can do for their business before rolling it out at scale.”

“Statistics state that over 80 percent of employees are BYOing some form of open AI into their workplace. There is obvious security risk around this for many companies - managed AI adoption regardless of the platform is a much more secure option.”