Michael Dell Talks Business Tech

190970 Resource 102302 102466 102466 1196289147505 1196289147505 Controlled How Big, Smart, Important Companies Buy Technology

You can't make this up, and Michael Dell didn't

<a title="Here it is in all its glory" href="http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2007/11/15/michael-dell-talks-business-tech/">Quoted from a story in the Wall Street Journal, US Edition, from 11/27/2007, B3</a>:<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><hr />Michael Dell says he hears one thing over and over again from the businesses he talks to: Managing information-technology is getting increasingly complex. <div style="PADDING-RIGHT: 8px; FLOAT: left; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 8px; WIDTH: 70px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 8px"><img style="MARGIN: 0px" height="100" alt="dell_blog_20071114232151.jpg" src="http://online.wsj.com/media/dell_blog_20071114232151.jpg" width="70" /> <div style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 11px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Michael Dell </div></div>Part of the problem is the way companies buy and deploy technology. Often, a business leader finds some great software that he just has to buy, the computer company CEO tells the Business Technology Blog. Very little of this software works with the other software that the business uses – Dell tells us that software is generally more complicated than it needs to be – meaning that IT departments have to pay for separate equipment and staff for each one. What’s left of the IT budget goes to consultants “who just stay there until you run out of money,” Dell tells us. <hr />I could not agree more with the statements above concerning both software and services. Too many smart people do not buy IT smartly. Their IT Spend is wasted on too many initiatives that are poorly thought out from the beginning. Software applications are not toys, but too many corporate IT departments look like the rec room 3 days after Christmas morning with discarded, broken stuff scattered about. What are people thinking when they spend so much IT budget and never think about the need for integration? A lack of integration between systems will kill even the most competent IT staff.I just hope that the SME out there is listening to this conversation. It has been going on in company after company for some time and now it is breaking out into the open. I talk to a lot of SMEs who understand the need for integration in their IT solutions. And this does not mean building bridges between disparate applications. It means starting with a single integrated software platform as your foundation. If you must have additional apps then make sure that these can be bridged to the foundation.But there are days when I wonder. It's really too easy to make fun of some of the things that large companies do, but then I talk to SME owners and hear stories about how they plan to interface an accounting system with their e-commerce platform using, of all things, email! Wow, I bet even Dell has not heard that one. So why do smart people do stupid things with IT? Because, as in most things, there are infinite ways to screw it up and one way to get it right. Start by respecting what IT can do for your business. Most of the IT quagmires that I see people getting into start because they think IT is to be tolerated, not exploited to their advantage. We have all had our frustrations with software and hardware, but to think for a moment that, in the big picture, IT is not an incredible boon to your business is just ludicrous. Of course it is. It makes the world go around anymore. IT gives my clients the ability to source product in China, manage worldwide logistics, distribute it from North Dakota to customers across North America and to manage this global business with 5 people in 4 states! That's why I love clients like this with their distributed networks. They are not just getting along with IT, surviving with software. They are exploiting what's possible with IT, succeeding with software. Software: The key differentiator between survival and success. I think so.</blockquote> 9 application/xml false disparate applications distributed network company exploiting IT IT spend IT spend intelligently lack of integration need for integration software differentiators Michael Dell Talks Business Tech He hits the nail on the head about IT Spend http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2007/11/15/michael-dell-talks-business-tech/ Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; YPC 3.2.0; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 tfoydel 76.226.217.69 false true false false true 205861 false false true false false false true 102302 blog blogsite/SightLines/web