at Rhodes 24, Tower 42
25 Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1HQ
Thursday 16th February 2012
Global Technology Outlook
Rashik Parmar, IBM Chief Technology Office – North East Europe
IBM is, of course, in the technology business. We invent it, sell it, integrate it and maintain it. And we’ve been doing this for nearly 100 years. So it’s not surprising that we care deeply about how technology is changing and where future opportunities lie.
As such, it would be easy to assume that the Global Technology Outlook (GTO) is nothing more than an elaborate tool that IBM uses to inform its corporate and product strategies. But the GTO goes far beyond the typical product development exercise.
The GTO takes an unflinching look at trends that are well outside of IBM’s own offerings and expertise, some of which may even threaten entire IBM product lines. It uses history as a guide and takes a long-term view, looking out five or ten years further than most industry experts. It endeavours to understand the cultural and business contexts in which new technology will be used. The GTO solicits ample outside counsel from around the world when making its predictions. And unlike any other corporate strategy exercise, the GTO shares the results with clients, academics and even competitors.
The Business Case for Cloud
Chris Tiernan – Grosvenor Consultancy Services LLP
There has been much debate about security and data protection issues relating to Cloud solutions but rarely voiced are the many other management challenges which need to be tackled in developing business cases and plans to move into the Cloud.The table below compares traditional outsourcing with Cloud solutions and it is quite clear that there is much to be taken into account
| Traditional Outsourcing | Cloud |
| Transfer of assets & contracts | No assets or contracts transfer |
| Transfer of staff | No staff transfer |
| Medium to long term contracts | Short term contracts |
| Face to face contact with users | Service portal |
| Detailed service level agreements | Basic service level agreements |
| High expenditures | Subscription based |
| Desire to create partnership | Utility |
This means there are new areas to be tackled when considering strategy and departmental organisation, defining requirements, going to the market, negotiating contracts, future IT budgeting, dealing with HR issues, like career paths, and existing supplier contracts, transferring services to and the management of Cloud services providers. There are also many good management practices which have taken years to instil in our teams which must not be cast aside. The real challenge with Cloud is not the technology, it is knowing which good practices from the past we need to retain and which to change. All of these come together in making the business case.
