Congratulations to Beth Jacob, CIO of Target Technology Services (TTS), the IT arm of Target Corporation and Jim DiMarzio, CIO of Mazda North American Operations. Dell recently nominated both Beth and Jim for the Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders award, and just this month it was announced that both Dell customers made it and are officially in the top 100 class of honorees.
Beth has received this honor as a true industry leader that has lead Target’s IT division through extremely important transitions over the years, including a recent innovative cloud initiative. Beth and her team go above and beyond in their efforts to ensure the evolution of Target’s advances in technology. Beth organizes regular meetings with Dell leaders to discuss and stay up-to-date on the latest trends and develop plans for innovation implementation. Focused on global resource planning end enterprise architecture, Target has leveraged Dell’s partnership to see increased efficiency in both areas.
Building an IT infrastructure that not only enables a company to stay ahead of competitors but also frees up time for an IT team to work on more strategic initiatives, that move the business forward, is not an easy task. Jim received the Premier 100 honor for doing just that and leading his IT team through a major virtualization effort that allowed his IT team to be more flexible, agile and quick to respond to business needs. Mazda, the manufacturer of cars that “zoom-zoom,” needed an IT infrastructure equipped to keep up with that mentality. By implementing Dell Compellent storage and Dell PowerEdge servers, Jim’s team has seen a performance improvement of up to 400 percent, reduced backup times from 16 hours to six hours, a cut in annual spending for physical servers by 60 percent and much more.
The biggest challenge that all companies face is staying ahead of the competition. As Jim states, “our Dell Compellent system gives us the competitive advantage we need to come up with innovative new applications that work in mobile environments and be first to market.” The ability to make the right technology decisions and knowing what the business needs makes Jim a well deserving recipient of the coveted Computerworld honor.
Each year, since 2000 Computerworld has recognized leaders for their exceptional technology leadership, innovative solutions to business challenges and effective management of IT strategies. Computerworld will recognize Beth, Jim and their peers in the February 27, 2012 issue of Computerworld and live during the Premier 100 IT Leaders Conference taking place next March.
Congratulations again to Beth Jacob and Jim DiMarzio! We’re proud to have you as our customers!