Data Center

EMEA’s Race to Change

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Organisations are putting aside the retrenchment of the recession years and once again looking to IT to underpin the transformation and growth ambitions of their businesses. This is the clear takeaway from research conducted at EMC’s EMEA Forums in late 2012. More than 6,500 business and IT management professionals from 22 countries were surveyed to determine how businesses are changing in today’s economic climate.

There are a few key parts to this survey that are telling of where the industry is headed. One of these reflects the complete change in the transformation of IT within the businesses that they support. Traditionally, IT has been a cost centre and a way of providing more automation to the business. That is changing fundamentally. We are still trying to drive out cost from our business but the change is that IT is becoming the fundamental change agent for agility, business operations and customer experience. This was borne out of the survey and features prominently in the conversations I have with CIOs and CFOs across EMEA every day.

To remain competitive, there is a race to change and the challenges of the new IT environment lie in three key subject areas:

  1. Standardisation – Organisations must standardise more than they ever have before, which changes many business processes as well as how  IT is viewed
  2. Virtualisation – Traditionally a server-based subject, organisations must now virtualise storage, network and applications completely so that business applications are separated from their physical infrastructure
  3. Automation – Businesses cannot continue in an environment which is overwhelmingly manual. Processes must be automated, and at scale, so that IT resources can spend more time innovating and adding value back to the business.

Investment in innovative technologies will enable organisations in EMEA to create disruptive business models and that will help ensure that the region can remain competitive on a global scale.

For more from Adrian on the results of the survey, watch his full interview below.

About the Author: Adrian McDonald

Adrian McDonald is the EMEA President of Dell EMC. Adrian is responsible for the company’s overall revenue generation, management and business strategy in the region. As part of Dell Technologies, Adrian helps businesses understand and implement their own digital transformation, critically from a commercial as well as a technology perspective. In his role, Adrian has daily interactions with senior business leaders across EMEA and sees digital transformation as a top priority in helping companies win in the digital age. Adrian’s unique insight has led him to identify an evolution happening within the role of the CEO. This focuses on the CEO’s understanding and awareness of technology’s influence to ensure their business stays relevant and competitive in the fourth industrial revolution. This new type of CEO Adrian calls the ‘Connected CEO’ who strives for profit and revenue growth but now with technology and digital channels at the heart of this growth. Based at DELL EMC’s headquarters in London, Adrian has held the role of EMEA president since 2012. Whilst leading the business, Adrian has brought a relentless focus on innovation, notably with the introduction of a successful services and solutions-led agenda which continues to underpin the company’s drive for market-share capture. Since joining EMC in 1988, Adrian has held a variety of US-based, international and global positions at EMC including Senior Vice-President & General Manager for EMC’s business in the UK and then overseeing EMC’s EMEA-North region before becoming EMEA president in 2012. Adrian holds a BA Honours degree in History and Politics from Warwick University and is an alumni of Columbia Business School. He continues to be strong long-term supporter of the Princes Trust, sits on the EMEA Women in Action board and chairs the global MOSAIC board which advocates and promotes equality for minorities and cultural diversity.