Focussed ICT

Getronics aligns its services around the needs of the individual

As one of the largest IT companies in Belgium, Getronics has decided to buck the industry trend and go against the ‘jack of all trades’ way of thinking. Their new strategy: focussing on specific areas and doing those to the best of their ability. Executive Vice President and General Manager BeLux, Jean-Claude Vandenbosch explains the thinking behind this new strategy.

Behind the scenes

With worldwide revenues to the tune of € 2.2 billion in 2008, Getronics is the largest ICT service-provider in the Benelux region and indeed a world leader in this sector. As experts in Workspace Services, Connectivity, Datacenter Services and Consulting, the company is an information enabler; providing their clients’ employees the needed infrastructure with secure access to data from any location at any time.

Since late 2007, Getronics has been a part of KPN, the main telecom services provider in the Netherlands. The merger gave Getronics more financial strength, stability and innovation capability. Also, it served as a launch pad for a revitalised strategy that plays into some of the key trends defining the world economy and the changing ‘world of work.’ As Jean-Claude Vandenbosch, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Getronics Belgium and Luxembourg, explains, this is no accident.

So how exactly would you summarise these trends?

Well firstly there’s the obvious one – globalisation. While this is indeed not a new trend (it’s been going on for over a century), it’s clearly entrenched. Currently at the heart of this trend is the internet – the great equaliser. Today we compete with IT companies everywhere, and this exposes a simple truth: you can’t do everything. Better to focus on a few core competencies, and do those better than anyone else.

Another key trend is individualism and the new forms of social interaction. The ‘digital natives’ entering the workforce today are a particularly demanding generation—from an IT manager’s perspective, that is—in the way they integrate technologies in their lifestyles and individuality. With a work force that’s this individualised and so connected in the ether, offering a highly standardised and restrictive communication infrastructure falls way below expectations. ICT will increasingly be driven by the specific demands of these people. While this poses a security & support nightmare for IT managers to be sure, it’s very much in line with the way society is changing – and we need to change with it.

Ecological awareness is another important megatrend. ICT is responding in two ways. On the one hand ICT is a key enabler for energy efficiency, translating into what some call the ‘new world of work.’ With video conferencing and working from home (or indeed anywhere) the order of the day, substantial energy savings can be achieved with people not needing to travel as frequently and not needing heated (or cooled) office space. Secondly, ICT is becoming greener itself, with the emergence of more energy efficient servers and data centres.

It’s through these types of trends that we see the ICT sector developing and evolving. Obviously there are other trends too, some more specific to our sector, like virtualisation and its impact on licensing business models, convergence between telecom and IT, the shift toward software as a service, etc. The point is that we have thought long and hard about the factors that will determine how our market will evolve in the years and decades ahead.

How does this translate to your own business?

These trends to a large degree define our mission and vision. Clearly ICT services will be driven increasingly by the personal demands of our customers’ employees. We see ourselves as a personal performance enabler, delivering the tools and information that employees need to drive their business forward. Simply put, we make sure the individual’s ‘workspace’, be it physical or virtual, functions optimally; that it addresses her or his needs. Obviously it is about being connected anywhere and anytime, but also it is about answering to the increasing need for individuality. Not everybody wants the same Smartphone. People are going to start wanting to take their personal laptops to work. Our job is to make sure everything keeps working, seamlessly, securely.

While focussing necessarily means that some of our past services fall by the wayside (like application development), it also means we can hone in on the specific requirements of the individual, which is the essence of our three main activities.

Jean-Claude Vandenbosch, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Getronics Belgium and Luxembourg

So what exactly are the three main activities your company is focussing on?

Basically we are centred on the individual, and the different types of services they require. Firstly, in their workspaces we are concentrating on unified communication – ensuring that any and all devices the employee might use to communicate or do business with are supported. People need workspaces that give them constant and reliable access to relevant information and individuals across the enterprise. In order to meet this demand, Getronics has formulated the ‘Future-Ready Workspace™’, a single physical and virtual environment giving access to any and all applications needed by the individual to effectively conduct business.

Secondly, and part and parcel with our first activity, is the emphasis on connectivity. Here we focus on making the offsite collaboration and information integration a reality. Basically this is about the ‘any time, any place, any device’ level of connectivity.

Thirdly we look after the heart of the knowledge based enterprise: data and information. Through the utilisation of our data centres, our clients do not need to worry about maintaining costly technology—while we take care of the security and flexibility of the data.

How does this work in practice?

Our ‘go to market’ model is all about getting to grips with the real and specific needs of our clients, which we do via consulting – defining the problem and developing a strategy to surmount it. With this aim achieved, our sourcing and project teams can move in and start building and deploying the solution. This isn’t just a ‘fire and forget’ scenario; from here on in we look at managing the process (via service level agreements) – making sure that the clients’ employees experience a seamless virtual to physical working environment via our Future-Ready Workspace™ model.

Obviously we also work with partners. We always have, especially at the level of technology (such as Microsoft, Cisco, Dell and many other specialised technology players) but today we also work with companies who you could consider to be our competitors. Since we do not offer everything anymore, we increasingly work with complimentary suppliers.

Where to from here?

Looking ahead we’re acutely aware that people are our core asset, hence this is where our investment lies. Through trust, teamwork and a clear set of values and principles we’re passionate about using our ‘can do’ attitude to be the best at our core activities. It is this focus, this drive to be the absolute best in a set of clearly defined services, in which we stand out from most of the generic competition out there.

The whole point too is to listen more to our customers; to focus on their needs. This means looking at financial (cost-cutting and improved return on capital) and business (improved competitive advantages and increased productivity) requirements. In addition to this, we also need to address flexibility, workforce (support teams and access to information) as well as social and ecological needs. This is especially true as the soft boundary between work and personal life becomes increasingly blurred.

On everyone’s minds right now is the financial crisis, and we’re reacting to this: We’re doing cost-cutting workshops for our customers and prospects – brainstorming ways of cutting ICT costs in the short term but also with an eye on the future.