EMC is bullish about the recession, saying that when the upturn comes, the content management firm and its partners will be ready for it.
John O'Melia, EMC VP of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) content management and archiving division, outlined the economic downturn's impact on EMC, during a keynote address at the EMC Momentum 2009 conference, in Athens, this week.
“The past 12 months have presented us with a challenging business environment,” said O'Melia, “Spending on business applications is being reviewed and challenged like never before, and businesses are looking for a clear return on investment.
“It forces us to get closer to our customers and how to derive value for them. We've started to align more of our resources to key verticals, and we are working closer with key systems integrators and partners to provide true business solutions that can be deployed quickly with less risk.”
Boosting agility
O'Melia said EMC is confident going forward into 2010 and will focus on projects which drive innovation and dramatically reduce costs.
He added that EMC will focus on public sector projects, such as healthcare, and connecting government departments across silos to deliver cost savings and ultimately improve services to citizens by removing manual processes.
Dimitris Mavroyiannis, group CIO of Eurobank EFG, said: “The financial industry has gone through a major shock and we've lived through unprecedented times.
“We witnessed a lot of financial institutions collapsing. The worst part is over and we are now trying to analyse what really happened. We are going to experience a far tighter regulatory environment.”
He added that the economic crisis has created a good opportunity for organisations to consolidate their infrastructure and applications. He said companies that do this now will be ready for when the upturn comes.
“The organisations that exhibited agility, flexibility and cost containment are the big winners today. The economic recession made us all focus on acquiring new customers, as well as retaining the existing customer base.”
He explained that collaboration and information sharing across business units are key to improving efficiency and productivity. “Businesses and, in particular, financial institutions need to prepare themselves to have a common infrastructure and data layer so that applications can talk to one another.”
He added: “It's not about product; it's about architecture, designing what you want and the business processes you are trying to implement. Get real business sponsorship, start small and deliver value. Be persistent, demonstrate stamina and go for it.”
According to Gartner, by 2012, 25% of the information that users work on will be created in real-time when they need it.
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