IT must do more and better with less and faster

Transformation process will follow three phases: renovation, consolidation and service availability

What is the biggest challenge / dilemma of a company? The answer is not linear, nor is no single, absolute truth. There are several possible approaches that will always depend on the circumstances of the organization and the overall market context within which it operates. Although it can, circumstantially, not be at the top of the hierarchy of priorities, there is a challenge that is permanent for those who have to sell something to the market: get get the message of what sells, that is: be realized and that this perception result in recognition and purchase by the customer (B2B or B2C).

The challenge increases considerably if we add, even circumstantially, an unfavorable and uncertain economic and business environment and, structurally, a business model strongly based on indirect sale (for partners), with objectives, priorities and own trading strategies and not always coincident. The setting relates to what happens with Intel.

The manufacturer lives in this ongoing challenge virtually since its inception in 1968. But only in 1994 that was fully aware of the scope of its business model, when the “comma crisis” – Pentium chip programming error – forced manufacturer looking at consumers and the “go over” the partners, manufacturers or computer vendors, to be confronted directly by customers and consumers about the error and have to fix it almost immediately.

At the time, the economy was growing and companies (and consumers) were predisposed to join the latest technological novelty, devaluing the factors of price and return on investment (ROI). At the time, economic growth and rising corporate profits accommodated almost all IT investments, technology area was the “star” of the corporate functions and it was believed that value alone.

Past 20 years, Intel has a much more complex challenge, especially on the side of customers and businesses. The situation now is quite different. The financial and economic crisis, anemic or no economic growth and the experience of the IT business results of the previous two decades, short of reasonable or unreasonable – up go there know if unrealistic promises and were created stratospheric expectations were made of “vendors” for iT and those for business – created a huge pressure on organizations iT budgets. Today, what is asked IT to do more and is even better, with less and faster.

“Next Big Think” already exists

Paradoxically, this scenario is already for the chipmaker a reality. The company argues that the maturity and effective and real capacity technology, especially in the field of infrastructure, are not only a productivity tool and competitiveness, but also a way to accelerate and transform the business itself. What, to be true, first occurring in IT history in organizations.

For Intel, we witness a process of conjugation in time and space of millions and millions of data at a rate never seen, with a parallel capacity development communication (networking), processing, data management and analysis never before seen (servers), and odd storage capacities (storage), in different ways and with different competitive and commercial response by safeguarding security. The combination of these trends is what usually referred to as “the next big thing.”

The manufacturer claims this vision and approach to IT, because it is itself a reflection of this transformation, a concrete example of this vision, and has an offer that is at the heart of this process. But, unlike 20 years ago, the center of innovation is no longer only on the chip.

This process of innovation and transformation also integrates software, able to read and analyze data from different sources, channels and platforms (the head, mobility and social networks) – hence it is the largest investor of Cloudera, a company that leads the technology Hadoop data integration, acquired in April 2014 – and has to incorporate security in an integrated manner. Also McAfee purchase, in August 2010, is part of this vision of technological developments.

“Model” of evangelization

No sell directly to the end customer (in this case B2B), as is that Intel sells its view that “the next big thing” is already among us? Offering the “what” (vision), why (purpose), the “how” (processing methodology “) and the” what (his offer). This process of evangelization is to “sell” your vision directly to companies trying to position itself as a “trust advisor” and relying on partners.

As recently said Alexandre Santos, Business Manager of the company for the Portuguese market, “Intel does not sell anything directly to you. Are the partners who do. But the work of evangelization, which is permanent, and the explanation of the use, potential and benefits that technology can now give customers is our responsibility. On the other hand, we have an obligation to help clients make informed decisions on buying technology, especially knowing how they can benefit from it. “

This process of “sale” is also to “offer” a methodology of transformation, a process that will take two to four years, based on three main messages: the IT area will increase performance, improve ROI and without disruption of service provided to the business by IT.

Add that accession to change the infrastructure will allow the CIO resume or recover the reins of IT in the organization, maintain or develop its importance, restore or enhance its role – including the department of information systems – and even anticipate the challenges posed by the generation Y, who are coming to the organizations and be more participatory and indispensable with the business and can enter the realm of value and be an asset.

There is another argument in favor of this change: according to analysts, 90% of the data that exist today were produced in the last two years and this is a growing trend with the growth of mobility and social networks. Take advantage of this data for business is only possible with a new infrastructure, because the value of big data will always be on tend to hotel availability. Furthermore, companies must first begin this transformation process will, in principle, competitive advantage over the market, Intel’s vision.

Implementation Strategy

This methodology in phases, with a duration of two to four years, varies depending on the technological maturity level of the organization (the infrastructure), business profile, investment capacity and of course the objectives and results to be achieved, safeguarding always three things that can not fail: performance, value and not disruption.

Moreover, this transformation process will follow the second Intel, three phases: renewal, consolidation and service availability. The renewal of the data center infrastructure is to increase the operational efficiency, thus improving performance.

According to Intel, and studies that it carries out, the current infrastructure is old and is mostly inefficient and expensive. About 32% of the servers have more than four years. But more importantly, represent only 4% of capacity and consume 65% of energy consumption. This means that 74% of the capacity is concentrated in the operation and maintenance (OPEX) and only 26% in CAPEX. With this methodology it is possible to ensure Intel immediately reduce by about 40% storage costs, simultaneously with the reduction processing of the response time, that may range from four hours to minutes.

The consolidation (or upgrading) passes optimize existing systems and start betting on cloud public, private or hybrid already on the market.

The third phase consists of the provision of services to Line of Business (LOB) by information systems departments, transforming the infrastructure in service to create business opportunities to customers, such as those based on Big Data, and also serving LOB.

The CIO, the business and the infrastructure

The question of the role of the LOB and its relationship with the CIO, is another of Intel’s vision and speech of the key components to convince IT managers to do, as soon as this process of transformation, following the proposed methodology. Intel says that CIOs today are under great pressure as a result of two strong movements that are happening in parallel within companies, different, but highly challenging.

On the one hand, there is a significant increase in domestic demand for IT by the LOB you want, because you need, almost immediate solutions in real time. And only find them and has no response from the side of the CIO / DSI, who seek to give you that answer. On the other hand, CIOs are being challenged by the company’s management to form an integral part of the business and be able to offer new visions and business transformation opportunities from the technology.

This double threat, if the CIO be paralyzed or resist, closing in their trenches (OPEX), will not decrease, on the contrary, so there is only one way: to be able to take the lead in this process, turning the double threat into an opportunity. How? Taking advantage of the disruptive potential IT today provide that, beginning with the change of the infrastructure.

The question now is whether CIOs and IT responsible or not to join this challenge of “vendors”. And, if so, whether they have the capacity, resources and support to explain and implement. The accept that we live in a period when the IT industry offers is even disruptive and can help the CIO not only to survive as, in parallel, to “take it” to the level of CAPEX as a first priority and greater share of the IT budget, is also to accept that this is a challenge that the industry will come out only successful if it can work together and articulated, starting in the vision that reveals, in the speech he makes and the message it conveys.

If so, Intel can pioneer the blaze this path and to evangelize the market, but runs the risk, alone or almost be enough to take you to the final destination.

Full article: http://cio.com.br/

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