IBM is transforming its operational focus and priorities in line with changing global computing trends, says Maurice Blackwood, IBM systems and technology group director for South Africa.
"The world has moved from the era of systems of record, to one of systems of engagement," he notes. Mobile, social, analytics and cloud are reinventing the way enterprises engage with customers. Customers now demand instant information and personalised experiences, and meeting these needs means enterprises need to unlock new value from the data in their mainframes.
"Our clients are now buying IT in different ways; and they are looking to optimise their resources," he says.
Blackwood says that South Africa closely follows global technology trends in many areas, including banking, but falls behind in others, such as the use of virtualisation by the public sector to connect rural areas. However, he says South African organisations are seeing a need to transform, in line with global enterprises, and that those that do not do so will be left behind.
IBM is investing heavily in transforming its own operational focus, priorities and behaviours to meet the changing demands of its customers, says Blackwood.
"Our customers are buying differently, so we have to engage differently. We have to be more agile. We are remixing our portfolio to reflect our core strategy and we're moving to higher value spaces, going to new markets, becoming more productive and growing our role as trusted advisors," he says.
With growing competition in key technology areas such as social, mobile, analytics and cloud, IBM is focusing its massive R&D spend in these areas, and leading the field in innovation. "At our core, IBM is a research company," he adds. The company is moving to a service-oriented customer engagement strategy, automating and expanding its global data centres at a cost of $1.2 billion, and cutting back its hardware business. In addition, IBM is making huge investments in bolstering its big data and analytics capabilities, spending over $17 billion in the acquisition of some 30 big data and analytics companies, around $6 billion to bolster its cloud competencies, as well as investing over $1 billion on flash storage research and development and $1 billion for its Watson supercomputer group.
The investments are in line with a forward-looking CAMSS (Cloud, Analytics, Mobile, Social and Security) strategy, intended to grow IBM into the future and meet new market demands. "Our ability to capture the analytics market alone is a $20-billion opportunity for us," says Blackwood. With its overarching transformation strategy, IBM expects to dramatically shift its ecosystem and drive new business value for customers.
"Our focus is to enable companies; to enable systems of engagement," says Blackwood.
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