Intel - In Conversation
In Conversation with … Gordon Graylish, vice president of Intel EMEA and deputy general manager for the region
Q: Despite the challenging economic environment, Intel is advising businesses to continue investing in IT. Why would businesses do this – especially when they’re short of money?
A: Nobody buys computers because they want to spend money. Companies invest in their IT infrastructure because it will reduce costs, increase efficiencies or create great opportunities. That logic applies even more so in the current environment.
In 2000, a unit of computing would cost you about one dollar. Today that same unit would cost you a penny. For a company with a three to five year old IT infrastructure, it’s more inefficient, power hungry, expensive to manage and requires many more licenses than what’s available today. That’s why so many companies are investing in things like virtualisation. It enables them to simplify their environment, reduce management time, reduce licenses, reduce the physical space and reduce power consumption - the savings are enormous. Not investing is really not in their best interests. By the way, we follow our own advice. We analysed our own server environment and calculate it would have COST us $19 million to delay a refresh.
Q: How is Intel taking this ‘IT refresh’ campaign to market?
A: We’ve learned over the years that theoretical savings have limited attractiveness. So we’ve used both Intel IT and our close customer relationships to deliver really robust proof points that demonstrate the benefits of our technologies. We then work with our OEMs and resellers to ensure that they have these proof points. We combine these with simple, easy to understand tools that allow enterprises, small businesses and consumers to assess what the impact on them will be.
Q: You say that companies should see the recession as an opportunity – why?
A: Whether it’s your personal finances or your company’s, when things are going well it’s difficult to challenge the status quo. As a result, things often end up getting inefficient. In tough times like this, you have permission to question the way things are done. This provides a wonderful opportunity to make tough decisions and do things differently. Lots of innovation can be borne out of a recession.
Vice President of Intel EMEA & Deputy General Manager for the region
Q: Many governments across Europe have implemented initiatives that encourage IT investment as a means to stimulate economic growth? What’s your view on this?
A: All the European governments want to build skills and capacity within their countries to encourage innovation. They understand this is critical to their future success. Structuring these programmes is very complex, but some governments are doing it really successfully. Intel shares these best practices between countries.
The Spanish government recently announced that ICT will be the core of their recovery strategy and that all 10 year olds will receive computers. The Turkish government has just implemented programmes aimed at smaller businesses. They’re giving low cost loans for IT purchases and are helping small businesses to get online and do their taxes and banking much more efficiently.
In France they’ve invested in helping the elderly understand how to use the computers. The result is that Internet access amongst 65-70 years olds is higher than the rest of the population. Internet access equals less isolation, which is clearly one of the biggest threats amongst our elderly.
All these examples illustrate that governments have got the idea, but they do sometimes struggle with the implementation. Intel helps to show the way with best practice.