Rajesh Janey Sr. Vice President – Global Alliances at Dell believes that the pandemic has helped Dell get closer to its customers and help them adopt remote working models. In this exclusive interview with CIOdialogues he explains how enterprises will transform in the future.
1. The global economy is in the midst of a financial crisis and organizations are bracing themselves for cost-cutting measures and shrinking IT budgets to cope up with the impact of COVID crises. How does this upset your apple-cart? How does Dell Technologies plan to steer itself around such and more potential challenges?
Let me start by saying that the need of the hour is for businesses to be closer than ever to their customers. We all observed that this situation forced businesses to embrace a new model of remote working overnight. Dell has helped customers around the world implement initiatives to serve our customers during these critical times.
Moreover, there is an increased uptake for a variety of solutions pertaining to security. Since Dell technologies offers a holistic portfolio of products, from storage to security to virtualization to PC and much more, we are able to help our customers and partners to navigate through these times in many ways. In fact, we launched a number of new products and solutions this year, as well as introduced a series of financing initiatives, to help customers meet their immediate and long-term IT needs. Finally, our supply chain and services teams are working around the clock to help customers meet their business-critical technology needs.
2. As most enterprises scramble to recast their business models, what do they expect from Dell Technologies? How have conversations with customers changed in terms of business objectives and technology prioritization plan?
We have been helping many customers, from both the public and private sectors using our personal experience with remote work. Dell Technologies launched its Connected Workplace Program to provide flexibility for its workforce, whether they worked remote full-time or had a flexible schedule.
Our experience as a company has put us in a better position to share our customers and partners, helping them to adopt this new work culture with ease.
We have been helping customers across the board, from technology such as remote work solutions to lines of credit to keep the society moving. To aid our valued partners maintain their business continuity, we’ve rolled out a Financial Relief Package. Through this initiative, we are taking actions to provide immediate financial relief to our partners, while helping them build capabilities and pipeline for the future. Additionally, we are supporting our partners through the Working Capital Solutions (WCS) program and we have also introduced new team-based pricing options for solutions providers to make all training more affordable.
3. There is an increased impetus on the cloud, automation, and security as the key areas of enterprise interest. How is Dell Technologies prepping up to capitalize on these opportunities?
It has become evident that digital technologies will play an essential role for business continuity now and in the future. Assessing the current technology footprint or checking whether it is helping or hindering employee work has become a priority for a majority of businesses. As a result, businesses will rapidly pivot towards adoption of digital technologies and simultaneously shift their investment priorities as well.
Given our holistic and comprehensive portfolio of services, spanning from edge to core to cloud, we are confident that we will continue to be the right digital partner for businesses in India as well as globally.
4. How do you see today's enterprise IT customer different from what he or she used to be?
There is a stark difference between an enterprise IT customer of today compared to one in the past. Businesses today realize the importance of investing in technology and the crucial role it will play to safeguard their future. In fact, even conversations with customers have changed tremendously. As compared to the past, where our conversations revolved to picking products in silos, the conversations today are more about devising an overall IT strategy, with emerging technology at the core of all innovation.
5. What do you think enterprises of the future may look like? What role would Dell Technologies play in the new world order?
The data era is upon us and in this new era, the combination of massive amounts of data and unparalleled technology innovation has given enterprises the opportunity to transform into disruptive digital powerhouses. So, as these enterprises prepare themselves to make optimal use of their data capital, they will eventually transform into what is called a ‘Data-First Organization’ in the future.
Currently, the businesses that are on a digital transformation path are realizing that to meet their future data needs they need a new IT approach. We call it a data-first mindset, and this is precisely what we have been recommending to our customers. This mindset would help businesses understand their data patterns and other touchpoints, enabling them to select appropriate IT solutions customized for their everyday needs and prepare their organizations for the future.
