Techaisle Blog

End-to-End Solutions Company
Convincing conference, unified messaging from all executives, substantial customer success stories including SMBs, considerable partner alliance conversations, convergence showcase, expanding geographic footprint, emerging technologies, mid-market design point, and end-to-end solutions story. What can I say?

At the recently held Dell Annual Analyst Conference, in Austin, the centerpiece of messaging was Dell’s relentless pursuit to be an end-to-end IT solutions provider and a trusted partner. Michael Dell in his conversation with the analysts proved that Dell has changed the conversation from product to services.

“Many new change vectors are going on - Data centers are becoming server centric/compute centric, networking is being combined with computing and storage and security are becoming one – Dell has the ability to understand where the puck is going”, said Michael Dell. To that extent Dell is busy building products and solutions from which customers can capture value.

Dell has made 20 acquisitions since 2008 to build a solutions delivery capability. Its R&D, which is increasingly being focused on storage, server, security and networking convergence went up by 40 percent in the last year alone.  A key aspect of the strategy is to develop converged solutions that include storage, security, servers and wrapping it all together with services and deliver end user solutions that help customers compute in environments with pervasive data access.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since his return as CEO, Michael Dell has steadily moved Dell into new areas for higher growth and profitability. Although Dell’s revenue has remained within a narrow margin, growing by only 1.5% from 2008 to 2012, its net income after taxes has grown by 18.5% within the same time period. Dell today has greater diversity in its solution offerings and broader geographic footprint. Both storage and security are higher margin products and with the acquisition of EqualLogic, Compellent and recently SonicWall, Dell’s margin story continues to improve.

Dell’s end-to-end solutions story is also beginning to look complete with portfolio having evolved from PCs and servers to services. Dell’s software portfolio is not where it should be but Dell is building out its capabilities for on premise software, cloud applications and software embedded in hardware. Consistent with the overall theme it wants to offer software solutions that are easier to buy, easier to use and easier to extract value.



 

 

Even the channels organization is perfectly aligned and focused on continuing to grow its PartnerDirect program that was started five years ago and is now approximately US$14 billion business for Dell. The channel’s organization headed by Greg Davis is continuing to make its rules of engagement very partner friendly and empowering and training its channels to provide value to their customers. Greg is ensuring that there is consistent
channel engagement across both mature and emerging markets with deal registration, compensation neutrality and executive priority. With over 135,000 training modules delivered in the last year alone it aims to provide simplicity, enablement and a strategy to win datacenters together. To take advantage of new social media networking platforms, Dell has also launched a new social media training program for its channel partners. The training program, developed based on Dell’s own experiences, provides its channel partners access to a number of useful social media tools and tips, including links to all of PartnerDirect’s social media platforms, a Q&A forum, registrations for both a live virtual training session and on-demand refresher courses.

Executing on its vision
Dell’s vision is being driven by five key market dynamics:

1. Emerging markets growth


2. Consumerization of IT


3. Explosion of data


4. Alternative computing platforms


5. Corporate IT complexity

Dell has not only been able to integrate the businesses it has acquired but also has successfully scaled them. Dell Boomi, a middleware for cloud, originally acquired for its ability to bring cloud integration to SMBs, is equally at home in large enterprises. A  recent example is OneWorld Alliance which has implemented a new information technology (IT) hub based on Dell Boomi AtomSphere cloud integration, designed to substantially reduce complexity, cost and time involved in linking new member airlines into the alliance.

SMBs' "CIO in a box"
Whenever an IT vendor presents customer stories I look for sincerity in the customer’s dialog and contribution of the IT vendor to customer’s success. Current Motor, an Ann Arbor, Michigan based SMB stole the show and my heart. With only 12 employees it uses full end-to-end solutions from Dell in the most interesting yet fundamental ways. Remember that it is only a small business; nevertheless Dell put a team together to bring to fruition integration with salesforce.com and digital dashboard enablement of Electric Scooters six months sooner than expected. Solutions used – mobility, cloud, hardware, software, services. As Laura Flanagan, Executive Chairman, Current Motor put it, “Dell is her CIO in a box.” And it all started with Laura approaching Dell with a business pain point. The result -- sincerity in dialog and value-add by Dell.

As Dave Johnson, SVP, Corporate Strategy said in his presentation, the “heart of the customer is the CIO.” No worries, SMBs, if you do not have a CIO, Dell can play that role for you.

Next Steps for Dell

• The entire Dell team has to work harder to get its messaging and capabilities heard by its current and potential customers because I feel Dell’s end-to-end
  solutions story has not yet reached the crescendo it deserves


• By focusing on mid-market design point Dell should not forget that small businesses have different needs and the last thing they want is a scaled-down version of product meant for mid-market businesses. Other IT vendors have tried in the past with zero to limited success


• Dell should formulate and articulate its mobile strategy beyond its planned introduction of tablets and smartphones, especially for the SMB segment that are adopting mobility solutions faster than enterprises


• Technology pain points have now overtaken business pain points for SMBs. Dell can be that unique IT Vendor that helps SMBs sort out and identify relevant technology options (cloud, mobility, infrastructure, managed services, virtualization, social media, business intelligence, marketing automation) by becoming a trusted advisor and business consultant

Anurag Agrawal
Techaisle

The Big Data Analytics' promise: enable “data monetization” through timelier, more accurate, more complete, more granular, more frequent decisions. So, what exactly are the types of business problems big data analytics likely to solve? For this one may need a mini-MBA in Big Data Use Cases.

First let’s define what makes data Big.

Big Data, Little Data
We live in a world of data: transactions, feedback and real-time interaction with customers, partners, suppliers, and employees. In addition to brick, click and mobile transactions, the new variable in the mix is Human generated data – explosive growth of blogs/reviews/messages/emails/pictures. Social graphs such as product recommendations based on circle of friends, jobs you may like, products you have looked at, people who are your contacts etc. also create “second order” data that can be mined for sentiment analytics on products or companies or fact discovery.

Another new variable is computer generated data. Computers generate data as byproduct of interacting with people or with other devices. More the interactions, more is the data and this data comes in a variety of formats from semi-structured log files to unstructured binaries. This “exhaust fumes” of data can be extremely valuable. It can be used to understand and track application or service behavior so that one can find patterns, errors or sub-optimal user experience. One can mine it for statistical patterns and correlations to generate insights.

However, if one listen to the hype, companies can harness this information learn faster, make better decisions, and stay one step ahead of their competitors. Unfortunately, harnessing big data (and separating the signal-from-noise) is trickier than it looks. It takes a lot of skill and superb understanding of use cases.

Big Data Use Cases
The key to exploiting Big Data Analytics is focusing on a compelling business opportunity as defined by a use case — What (What exactly are we trying to do?). Use cases are emerging in a variety of industries that illustrate different core competencies around analytics.

E-tailing/E-Commerce – Online Retailing Use Cases

• Recommendation engines


• Cross-channel analytics


• Event analytics


• Right offer at the right time

Retail/Consumer Use Cases

• Merchandizing and market basket analysis


• Campaign management and customer loyalty programs


• Supply-chain management and analytics


• Event- and behavior-based targeting


• Market and consumer segmentations

Financial Services Use Cases

• Compliance and regulatory reporting


• Risk analysis and management


• Fraud detection and security analytics


• CRM and customer loyalty programs


• Credit risk, scoring and analysis


• High speed Arbitrage trading


• Trade surveillance


• Abnormal trading pattern analysis

Web & Digital Media Services Use Cases

• Large-scale clickstream analytics


• Ad targeting, analysis, forecasting and optimization


• Abuse and click-fraud prevention


• Social graph analysis and profile segmentation


• Campaign management and loyalty programs

New Applications

• Sentiment Analytics


• Mashups – Mobile User Location + Precision Targeting


• Machine-generated data, the exhaust fumes of the Web

Health & Life Sciences Use Cases

• Health Insurance fraud detection


• Campaign and sales program optimization


• Brand management


• Patient care quality and program analysis


• Supply-chain management


• Drug discovery and development analysis

Telecommunications Use Cases

• Revenue assurance and price optimization


• Customer churn prevention


• Campaign management and customer loyalty


• Call Detail Record (CDR) analysis


• Network performance and optimization


• Mobile User Location analysis

So, What’s the Big Deal?

The big deal is that if analytics is done well there is room for margin expansion and additional profit.

Shirish Netke
(Republished with permission)

On March 29^th, 2012, Dell announced a new Cloud Services and Solutions Certification program for its channel partners that want to transition to cloud-based business model. This program specifies additional sales and technical training required for the new certification and is initially directed at channel partners who already have a certain level of infrastructure-related skills and sell Dell’s enterprise products.

Dell’s Cloud Services & Solutions Certification is comprised of three primary pillars in providing cloud services and solutions:

• Cloud Builder – for channel partners that can provide services to design and develop a cloud infrastructure for their customers. This is typically suitable for VARs.


• Cloud Provider – for channels that have the capabilities or want to acquire skill-sets to operate a cloud networking operating center (NOC) enabled with Dell technology to provide cloud services. These include:  Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS).  This is typically suitable for SaaS ISVs, Service providers.


• Cloud Service Enabler – for those channel partners that want to act as aggregators or brokers identifying, securing and integrating the appropriate set of cloud technologies and services from multiple sources and operating the resulting cloud for their customers through a set of managed services. This is typically suitable for MSPs & Systems Integrators.

Techaisle believes that Dell’s new channel program is a step in the right direction. Techaisle’s research has shown that businesses are looking for advice and guidance from their channel partners on the use of cloud services & solutions. In addition, Techaisle’s channel research has also shown that many channel partners who want to offer cloud-based offerings to their business clients, themselves need help and support from their vendors. The new training requirements will ensure that channel partners have the required cloud-related skills to be the best in business. Dell is also making it easy
for partners to demonstrate their infrastructure-related skills by accepting their membership in channel programs of recognized vendors in technology areas of security, networking and virtualization. In addition to getting preferred pricing, Dell’s Cloud Partners will also have access to financing from Dell as well as support engagement from Dell Direct Sales and Services.

A key feature of Dell’s program is the recognition that channel partners vary greatly in their size, skills and resources. The program allows partners to transition to the cloud computing model in a manner they feel is best suited for them – be it as a cloud builder, cloud provider or as an cloud service enabler (aggregator). The program also allows partners to supplement Dell’s technology with their own technology services, giving them significant flexibility to offer Dell-based cloud offerings without having to write-off up their investment in their existing services.

Dell has steadily evolved its channel strategy over the last five years and this new certification represents an important step in that evolution. Given this steady evolution, Dell’s channel partners can expect Dell to further fine-tune channel’s role in the cloud, develop additional support programs and also expand its cloud-based offerings for the channel.

Anurag Agrawal
Techaisle

I used to watch with interest, the commercials of Neat, a scanning and digital filing solution. My interest turned to amazement when we actually installed one in our office. It is a perfect product for SMBs to transform expense receipts, business cards and all types of documents (legal, purchase orders, invoices, brochures and many other types) into an organized digital filing system.

For a small business, a paperless office is sometimes more a dream than a reality. Paper documents are being handled daily by these businesses, whether it is a healthcare provider, a CPA, a legal professional, a retailer or a manufacturing unit or another industry. These paper documents have a way of mysteriously vanishing when one requires them the most and that is because no matter how meticulously they are filed physically, paper documents are not searchable.

With the increase in mobility and work from anywhere, anytime culture, employees within SMBs have become more frequent travelers and telecommuters. Especially with traveling sales and customer support personnel there is a manifold increase in paper documents. Each traveling employee generates many different receipts which in most businesses have to be meticulously filed with accounting/finance departments.   Neat, with its two different products, NeatDesk and NeatReceipts, helps a small business organize its paper clutter efficiently, effectively and seamlessly.  Above all, there is no learning required.

Using Neat, small businesses can:

• Scan expense receipts – Neat product automatically parses, identifies the information and populates the items and amounts in the right fields. The expense reports can be emailed or exported into a reporting system

 

• Simplify tax preparation – scanned items and amounts from receipts can be assigned tax categories allowing for creation of pdf tax reports

 

• Develop a contact database – scan business cards and export to outlook or other contact management solutions

 

• Manage documents – invoices, purchase orders, legal signed paperwork and other documents can be easily scanned and filed into appropriate folders

 

• Search across documents – and when the time comes to look for a paper, Neat makes it really simple to search across documents

Information, after all, is critical for making informed, timely, relevant and strategic business decisions to drive growth and achieve overall business success. And Neat aids in that objective by screening and digitizing information for the small business professional. Neat calls it “information activation”.

NeatDesk sits quietly in a corner of an office desk, elegantly, ready to perform its task with one touch operation – scan or scan to pdf. It has three different feed-trays with do not allow for any confusion or paper mess - one for receipts, second for business cards and third for all other documents. The intelligence of the solution lies in Neat’s software which has been built to recognize type of document and content on the document. A rare feat indeed.

However, if this is not exciting enough, Neat is busy rolling out its NeatCloud and NeatMobile offerings. When available in Spring, the two offerings will allow small businesses to:

• Backup and sync their scanned documents securely to the cloud

 

• Access their documents from anywhere using any device

 

• Share files and folders with workgroups or departments

NeatDesk is priced at US$399.95 and NeatReceipts is priced at US$199.95 and believe me they are worth the money.

Neat is a neat product. Try it.

Anurag Agrawal
Techaisle