Featured article by Doug Sekus, Softchoice
It’s clear that any company, regardless of industry, is reliant on – or stands to improve its business through – the use of technology. Concepts like Big Data, Cloud and the Internet of Everything are relatively new pieces of the technology puzzle, but are quickly becoming vital to modern consumers and the businesses that serve them.
Before organizations are truly able to make the most of what the tech world has to offer, they must first establish an IT infrastructure that’s strong enough to support these innovations. A number of industries, from pizza delivery to pro football, are starting to realize how the right infrastructure can have a transformative impact on internal operations and client interactions.
Consider these examples:
Retail
Analysts are confident that the in-store retail experience of the future is one embedded in technology, from browsing to the point of sale. Interactive digital displays, facial recognition and tracking technologies are a handful of the tools brick-and-mortar stores are tinkering with to compete against the almighty ecommerce world. As the virtual and physical sides of retail collide, those with the best IT infrastructure earn a major advantage.
Auto
The auto industry is ripe for consumer-driven innovation, as evidenced by in-car integration of Bluetooth technologies and Pandora. Many of these developments have been positioned as luxury add-ons, until recently. Tesla, no stranger to grabbing headlines, is pushing auto technology forward with its recently unveiled “over the air” car support. Without the hassle of a trip to the service center, the manufacturer can isolate and resolve potentially recall-inducing issues such as faulty charger plugs or even suspension settings in vehicles.
Restaurants
To keep up with customers’ burgeoning demands, the food business must (literally) deliver the kind of innovation popping up in the rest of the B2C world. Whether that means integrating technology into the dining experience (as Pizza Hut hopes to do someday with table-top tablet menus) or expanding their online presence and delivery options, restaurants will be pressed to use IT in a way that complements, not detracts from, mealtime.
Professional Football
Stadiums around the world have been pushing for better connectivity to amplify the fan experience, but the NFL is eyeing a number of new possibilities to benefit players and the game itself. For instance, new wearable GPS monitors offer coaches the ability to track players’ exertion and conditioning levels (hopefully, reducing overall injuries). Infrastructure will also be a key part of the league’s new guidelines that allow the officiating department to consult with referees on specific calls, with better fiber optics needed to make decisions and review plays in real time.
Despite the innovative ways some leading organizations are using technology to get closer to the customer, most businesses lack the IT infrastructure to compete with them.
According to our latest study, The Virtual Space Race: How IT with The Right Stuff Creates a Competitive Advantage, front office managers believe that IT spends too much time on support issues and not enough on innovation—a clear disconnect from what we’ve seen in the examples above.
IT managers agree: maintenance issues eat up the majority of their time, preventing them from focusing on the strategic and security initiatives they’d rather lead. Sixty-five percent of those same IT managers admit their colleagues view them as nothing more than a help desk, and 55 percent think they’re seen as office IT “gatekeepers” over technology “enablers.”
Something needs to change
The first step toward IT innovation is establishing a more agile, efficient IT infrastructure, one that allows IT departments to launch new processes and programs faster, and respond quicker to both employee and client needs – a win-win for overall business growth.
There are four main components to making sure your IT environment has “the right stuff:”
1. Standardize and centralize infrastructure that supports software-defined solutions
2. Virtualize your data center wherever possible
3. Automate datacenter apps with scripts and policies
4. Connect your cloud infrastructure to ensure easier management under one system
With efficient IT infrastructure, IT managers can spend less time on maintenance and more time on strategic projects that help grow the business and engage customers in new and innovative ways – whether it’s fixing cars from the cloud or a better way to order pizza.
