Microsoft promises a helping hand to weather the economic storm
The last thing the owners or top management of a company facing the economic downturn may want to hear is their IT manager asking for more funds to spend on new equipment and services. Staying afloat in the current situation is not easy but software...
The last thing the owners or top management of a company facing the economic downturn may want to hear is their IT manager asking for more funds to spend on new equipment and services. Staying afloat in the current situation is not easy but software giant Microsoft has promised to give a helping hand, even to Maltese companies.
How to save money and still exploit IT investment and look to the future with confidence was the theme of a business breakfast organised by Microsoft Malta to reassure company executives that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Pierre Mallia, Malta's country manager at Microsoft spoke about his company and individual companies building business value together.
Threats and opportunities abound in the current situation and Microsoft sees two types of companies emerging: those who are just cutting cost and those who are investing in innovation.
"For those who are cutting costs we can help you save money," he told the good number of top local IT and business executives who attended the event.
He explained that there are six areas where money can be saved. The biggest are the customisation of software and the training of employees. There are also other costs related to adoption and deployment of software, its maintenance and its licensing. In several of these areas there are savings to be made if Microsoft products and its expertise are used, insisted Mr Mallia.
However, he mentioned another 12 ways a company can save money with Microsoft. Some of these ways are really simple but sometimes such options don't come easily to mind. For example Mr Mallia revealed that many companies buy software and then they don't deploy it fully, missing on its maximum potential. There are also significant savings to be made in travel and communication expenses with so-called "unified communications". There is also a new breed of products that exist online and can replace products installed on computers. These online services can reduce total cost of ownership.
However, for those companies who want to cut costs but are also keen to be innovative despite the economic situation, Microsoft has a lot to offer. Mr Mallia reassured that Microsoft has committed itself to continue to innovate for the long term, spending billions of dollars more in innovation than other companies such as IBM, Intel and Sony.
Microsoft's country manager for Malta explained that the company will continue to invest in the four pillars of innovation, i.e. in the rich client, such as the Windows operating system, web browser and other desktop products; enterprise solutions such as Windows, SQL and SharePoint servers; entertainment and other devices such as Xbox, Zune and Windows Mobile; and the relatively new Software+Services offering with online applications that complement software installed on the computer and online services such as Live Services and Live Search.
"We will listen and seek to understand your business priorities. We will build software for a people-ready business. We will work hard to help you save money. We will help you innovate through this economic situation. Our objective is to earn the right to be your trusted advisor," concluded Mr Mallia.
Eugene Piric and René Kath from Microsoft Central and Easter Europe headquarters spoke admitted that although the challenging economic conditions have created a more challenging situation than most chief information officers have ever experienced, bold companies have the opportunity to emerge stronger. The secret is to invest wisely during a downturn, and thus strengthen the long-term future.
"Our customers are telling us they want to save money, they want to save time, they want to increase productivity and they want help to keep growing their business," they told the audience. Microsoft response to this is that they should be "cutting the fat, not the muscle".
The two executives harped on the need of technologies that work the way people and organisations work and of software that amplifies the impact of everyone in the organization. One way of doing this is to deploy Windows Server Virtualization, which allows the deployment of virtual operating systems besides the host operating system. This system has helped companies such as Banque de Luxembourg and Telefonica 02 to drive down costs, increase efficiency and enables business agility. On the other hand another Microsoft product, the Optimized Desktop, has helped British Telecom and Nato reduce energy consumption and improve efficiency on their thousands of desktop computers.
One of the most interesting features explained at the business breakfast was the so-called "unified communications" where all means of communication are brought together and with a single number an employee can be reached through e-mail, mobile telephony, SMS, fixed-line telephony, fax and instant messaging. A short video clip on this effectively works was shown at the event.
Unified communications has saved Siemens 50 per cent of conferencing costs, it has saved BMW over $300,000 per year in communication costs, and has helped Credit Agricole to reduce travel expenses by up to 20 percent and annual conferencing costs by €150,000. This was possible with the Microsoft's solutions, namely Exchange Server, Office Live Meeting, SharePoint Server 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007.
Joseph Seychell, from Microsoft Services, spoke about the impact of proactive services on IT operations and the business. He spoke about the challenge of managing complex system and the fact that there is no room at all for downtime or failure, as an hour of downtime could cost a brokerage operations company more than US$6 million in lost revenues or eBay more than US$ 225,000. He insisted on the need of proactive rather a reactive approach to IT operations as the latter will have a bigger positive impact on the company.
George Sammut from PricewaterhouseCoopers spoke about sustainable IT cost management and he contended that although IT is seen as a significant cost, it is also a significant tool for the company. He spoke against quick IT spending cuts such as aggressive staff layoffs or stoppage of large projects as these can harm a company in the long-term. Sixty-five per cent of 1,124 CEOs interviewed for PwC's Annual Global CEO Survey (2008) cited technological innovation as an important or critical driver for long term success.
Bethina Fehlisch, Microsoft's area IT manager spoke about the company's successful attempts to lower cost and maximize its IT infrastructure that handles over 144,000 Windows clients, 195,000 Office clients, six data centres, 250,000 computers, 154,000 e-mail users, almost 78 million internal instant messages per month and two million peer-to-peer audio calls per month. She showed how Microsoft made use of virtualisation and unified communications and managed to attain significant costs reduction and increased productivity valued at $50 million. In the case of unified communication the investment paid for itself in just one year.
How to save money and still exploit IT investment and look to the future with confidence was the theme of a business breakfast organised by Microsoft Malta to reassure company executives that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Pierre Mallia, Malta's country manager at Microsoft spoke about his company and individual companies building business value together.
Threats and opportunities abound in the current situation and Microsoft sees two types of companies emerging: those who are just cutting cost and those who are investing in innovation.
"For those who are cutting costs we can help you save money," he told the good number of top local IT and business executives who attended the event.
He explained that there are six areas where money can be saved. The biggest are the customisation of software and the training of employees. There are also other costs related to adoption and deployment of software, its maintenance and its licensing. In several of these areas there are savings to be made if Microsoft products and its expertise are used, insisted Mr Mallia.
However, he mentioned another 12 ways a company can save money with Microsoft. Some of these ways are really simple but sometimes such options don't come easily to mind. For example Mr Mallia revealed that many companies buy software and then they don't deploy it fully, missing on its maximum potential. There are also significant savings to be made in travel and communication expenses with so-called "unified communications". There is also a new breed of products that exist online and can replace products installed on computers. These online services can reduce total cost of ownership.
However, for those companies who want to cut costs but are also keen to be innovative despite the economic situation, Microsoft has a lot to offer. Mr Mallia reassured that Microsoft has committed itself to continue to innovate for the long term, spending billions of dollars more in innovation than other companies such as IBM, Intel and Sony.
Microsoft's country manager for Malta explained that the company will continue to invest in the four pillars of innovation, i.e. in the rich client, such as the Windows operating system, web browser and other desktop products; enterprise solutions such as Windows, SQL and SharePoint servers; entertainment and other devices such as Xbox, Zune and Windows Mobile; and the relatively new Software+Services offering with online applications that complement software installed on the computer and online services such as Live Services and Live Search.
"We will listen and seek to understand your business priorities. We will build software for a people-ready business. We will work hard to help you save money. We will help you innovate through this economic situation. Our objective is to earn the right to be your trusted advisor," concluded Mr Mallia.
Eugene Piric and René Kath from Microsoft Central and Easter Europe headquarters spoke admitted that although the challenging economic conditions have created a more challenging situation than most chief information officers have ever experienced, bold companies have the opportunity to emerge stronger. The secret is to invest wisely during a downturn, and thus strengthen the long-term future.
"Our customers are telling us they want to save money, they want to save time, they want to increase productivity and they want help to keep growing their business," they told the audience. Microsoft response to this is that they should be "cutting the fat, not the muscle".
The two executives harped on the need of technologies that work the way people and organisations work and of software that amplifies the impact of everyone in the organization. One way of doing this is to deploy Windows Server Virtualization, which allows the deployment of virtual operating systems besides the host operating system. This system has helped companies such as Banque de Luxembourg and Telefonica 02 to drive down costs, increase efficiency and enables business agility. On the other hand another Microsoft product, the Optimized Desktop, has helped British Telecom and Nato reduce energy consumption and improve efficiency on their thousands of desktop computers.
One of the most interesting features explained at the business breakfast was the so-called "unified communications" where all means of communication are brought together and with a single number an employee can be reached through e-mail, mobile telephony, SMS, fixed-line telephony, fax and instant messaging. A short video clip on this effectively works was shown at the event.
Unified communications has saved Siemens 50 per cent of conferencing costs, it has saved BMW over $300,000 per year in communication costs, and has helped Credit Agricole to reduce travel expenses by up to 20 percent and annual conferencing costs by €150,000. This was possible with the Microsoft's solutions, namely Exchange Server, Office Live Meeting, SharePoint Server 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007.
Joseph Seychell, from Microsoft Services, spoke about the impact of proactive services on IT operations and the business. He spoke about the challenge of managing complex system and the fact that there is no room at all for downtime or failure, as an hour of downtime could cost a brokerage operations company more than US$6 million in lost revenues or eBay more than US$ 225,000. He insisted on the need of proactive rather a reactive approach to IT operations as the latter will have a bigger positive impact on the company.
George Sammut from PricewaterhouseCoopers spoke about sustainable IT cost management and he contended that although IT is seen as a significant cost, it is also a significant tool for the company. He spoke against quick IT spending cuts such as aggressive staff layoffs or stoppage of large projects as these can harm a company in the long-term. Sixty-five per cent of 1,124 CEOs interviewed for PwC's Annual Global CEO Survey (2008) cited technological innovation as an important or critical driver for long term success.
Bethina Fehlisch, Microsoft's area IT manager spoke about the company's successful attempts to lower cost and maximize its IT infrastructure that handles over 144,000 Windows clients, 195,000 Office clients, six data centres, 250,000 computers, 154,000 e-mail users, almost 78 million internal instant messages per month and two million peer-to-peer audio calls per month. She showed how Microsoft made use of virtualisation and unified communications and managed to attain significant costs reduction and increased productivity valued at $50 million. In the case of unified communication the investment paid for itself in just one year.