A few days ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a round table discussion about simplifying IT and the benefits it can bring to organisations worldwide. Together with members of the specialised press and Nicolas Laarman, vice president of Atari’s worldwide management information systems, we exchanged views on the current expectations of CIOs, concentrating on how IT is no longer just a cost centre, but a key business enabler, creating strategic advantages for each organisation — especially critical in the current economic environment. CIOs and IT managers must move with the times and help their clients through the changes to come.
Our discussion made it clear that today CIOs are expected to do more with less. They must create faster, more-efficient IT environments with fewer financial resources. Research shows that many organisations spend 70 percent of their IT budget on maintenance alone, with only 30 percent left for innovation on new projects. CIOs are forced to find new, economical solutions to maintain systems, allowing them to redistribute the remaining finances on other projects. According to Christian Lakomski, director of IT simplification for Dell France, Dell’s objective is to help CIOs eliminate all preventable complexity linked to operations and maintenance.
Dell helps organisations identify their strong and weak points and works with them to establish improved solutions that can be used over the long term. Despite recent IDC figures stating a five percent decrease in server sales in 2009, we believe that technologies such as virtualisation are a real groundswell opportunity that is only just starting to prove its strengths.
It was inspiring to hear Nicolas Laarman describe how Atari was able to streamline their operations through virtualisation.
According to Nicolas, Atari chose to work with Dell for five reasons:
- The extensive availability of a team of experts;
- A tailor-made project plan;
- The step-by-step follow through of the project;
- Dell’s strong quality to price ratio and, finally;
- The integrated training of in-house teams regarding project up-keep and maintenance.
Atari was both appreciative of Dell’s effectiveness and the large network of strong partner relationships, which enabled Atari to profit from the new measures of cost control. Atari’s case is a perfect example of a company that took advantage of Dell’s commitment to helping organisations simplify and save by removing excess cost and complexity in order to continue innovating within the IT industry.
For another example of successful simplification and saving in IT, you can read MedNetwoRx’s customer perspective here.
