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Preparing for tomorrow(Computer News Middle East Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) At this year’s HP Software Outcomes Executive conference, the technology powerhouse showcased to its CIO community how to prepare for tomorrow by delivering business outcomes now. CNME’s Manda Banda attended the event and brings this report back. As CIOs and IT leaders continue to face the budget squeeze, many IT decision makers are finding it hard to meet business demands with a reduced IT budget. Business leaders on the other hand are looking to IT to help their organisations increase growth, drive productivity, lower IT operational costs and effectively manage risk associated with their company data and information. In order to achieve this, most IT leaders in today’s enterprises have been compelled to consolidate, automate and virtualise their data centre environment. But is this enough given the economic climate and the call on IT leaders to go beyond the traditional ways of cutting IT costs? Just how are IT leaders building better organisations for tomorrow? Steen Lomholt-Thomsen, VP and GM, HP Software and Solutions EMEA region, says becoming a best-in-class IT organisations means that CIOs and IT leaders in general must gain greater control of the IT assets and business in their organisation. He adds that IT shouldn’t be viewed separately from the business. “IT should not be separated from the business because IT is the business,” he notes. “I believe there are more opportunities now for IT and IT organisations within organisations to deliver more value and break through outcomes for their organisation.” Lomholt-Thomsen adds that to achieve greater control and efficiencies CIOs need to automate manual processes, improve ROI by virtualising their IT environments, and drive consolidation across the organisations. “Most of the CIOs we are talking to are asking us they can be assisted to remove IT redundancies in their environments,” he says. “This means reducing operational costs within their IT organisations and using that freed up cash to drive innovation into the business.” Lomholt-Thomsen says one key issue that CIOs have to do in order for them to become best-in-class IT organisation is to reposition their organisations to be more agile and improve their business processes. He adds that gone are the days when IT was seen separately from the business. He says that being agile will not only allow them to respond timely, but also enable them to build organisations that respond swiftly to the changing environment around them. Lomholt-Thomsen adds that to be a best-in-class IT organisation, requires a plan of action that gives them greater control of the IT business. To achieve this, CIOs and the IT organisations they head need to automate all manual processes, improve ROI by virtualising their IT environment and drive consolidation across the entire organisation by using software tools and technologies such as SaaS. Lomholt-Thomsen says given the prevailing economic climate, one of the things that HP Software is doing is to see how companies are spending their cut IT budgets and maximise their existing IT infrastructure. “It’s basically about doing more with less,” he says. Lomholt-Thomsen says HP has developed solutions that help organisations to align their IT with priority areas of their business. The company has solutions in IT management, information management, business intelligence (BI) and communications and media. “We believe through this comprehensive portfolio of products, HP has on offer solutions and services that can help organisations to move towards becoming best-in-class IT organisations,” he says. Lomholt-Thomsen says in addition to these solutions offerings, HP has also develop services that will help them to reduce their IT spend while freeing up the operational maintenance monies for increased innovation within the business. Anton Knolmar, VP Worldwide Marking at HP Software and Solutions agrees and says organisations should take advantage of HP’s software innovations and services if they are to prepare for the economic upturn. “We have unveiled our software services which we believe will assist organisations in MEMA to prepare for the future,” he says. Aside from the growing software portfolio and services, HP has answered a call that many CIOs and enterprise organisations particularly have been making in the Middle East region. That off course is the proof of concept lab or demo centre. Anas Jwaied, VP Regional Sales HP Software and Solutions MEMA, says as HP’s software portfolio continues to strength and as the company cements its position in the region, it was imperative that the company opens a demo and competence innovation lab that will be used as an educational centre for clients and students. “We are delighted to have opened this centre in Turkey as it will address the needs of our clients in the MEMA region,” he says. “We will be working closely with universities in the Middle East ensuring that some of the graduate students work with and test HP software solutions.” Apart from the demo and competence centre, Jwaied points out that the company continues to grow its software portfolio in the region. The growth according to Jwaied can be attributed to HP’s commitment to providing software solutions that are assisting organisations with IT management, information management and most importantly cost optimisation. “The number one challenge for CIOs today is how to reduce their IT maintenance costs while ensuring that they continue to deliver value and drive innovation into the business,” he says. Jwaied says with its range of IT management, information management, BI and communication and media offerings, HP Software is able to give customers tools that assist them in managing not only their capital expenditure but day-to-day operational expenditure as well. He adds that HP’s software business in MEMA has been the best performing in the broader EMEA region. “This growth is testimony to the fact that the initiatives we have unveiled both at channel and enterprise level in this region are gaining acceptance,” he says. “We are delighted to see that our growing software portfolio and services are gaining momentum in the region,” he says. HP reported net revenues of US$117 and US$147 in fiscal year 2007 and 2008 respectively. Jwaied says HP has not only grown its net revenues but also seen its market share grow to 28% in the region. As for the Middle East region, Jwaied points out that as of 1 November 2009, the HP Software organisation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will operate as a separate entity from the rest of the Middle East operations. “We decided to separate the KSA operation from the rest of the countries in the region as it is a growth country for us,” he says. Jwaied says at the centre of this growth has been the relentless effort of channel partners in the region. “We will continue to invest and train our channel partners ensuring that they are better equipped to sell, implement and support our software solutions,” he says. He adds that information management is one of the fast growing software portfolio offering within the HP Software organisation in MEMA. “We will be pushing this aggressively in the channel ensuring that all our channel partners are trained and certified,” he says. According to Jwaied HP Software and Solution will continue to encourage and help its solution provider partners to specialise and develop competencies based on the verticals they target. As IT management and information management is increasingly becoming competitive, it will be interesting to see how HP will stay ahead of its rivals in the region. For now, customers and channel partners can be content that the vendor has comprehensive offering that can address their business and help them to build stronger and efficiently run organisations for the future. (c) 2008 IDG Middle East. All rights reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |