TALKING
business
‘‘
For decades now, IT giants have got
away with playing hardball with
customers. They have had customers
locked into their wares because it has been
the devil’s job to untether business processes
from suppliers’ closed systems.
Some of the biggest names have survived
(and yes, prospered) by pursuing tough,
even combative relationships, safe in the
knowledge that it’s hard for those companies
to move away from the core platforms that
underpin corporate operations.
Today, as companies dust themselves off
and prepare to blink into the light of the
Brave New World of our post-COVID-19
future, we need far better buyer/seller
relationships in order to survive and prosper.
Nobody is immune to change. For the past
several months at Nutanix we have had to
alter how we talk to customers, becoming
even more of a listening company as CIOs
and CFOs tell us about sudden declines
in revenues, urgent support needs and a
kaleidoscope of other factors that are miles
away from business as usual.
We’re no longer hopping on flights but on
Zoom calls and we’re hearing alarming
stories from valued customers telling us they
are struggling.
The pandemic has created a business
environment that makes the banking crisis
of 2007–2008 look like a cakewalk. In Italy,
world-famous car marques such as Ferrari
and Fiat paused production. In Spain,
Inditex, owner of ubiquitous apparel brands
such as Zara and Massimo Dutti, shut stores
and switched some production to medical
supplies such as masks and scrubs.
In the UK, sporting super-brands such as
Premier League football shuddered to a halt
leaving us starved of action.
Behind each of these stories lies a huge
amount of headache and heartache. With
revenues screeching to a halt, companies
need to familiarise themselves with an
utterly novel set of circumstances and work
out what to do with their people, operating
models and channels to market.
For a fortunate few companies that are
cloud-centric, there has been an uptick:
Andrew Brinded, Vice President and Sales
Chief Operating Officer, Nutanix
“
THE PANDEMIC
HAS CREATED
A BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT
THAT MAKES THE
BANKING CRISIS
OF 2007–2008
LOOK LIKE A
CAKEWALK.
Amazon and other online retailers; meal
delivery services such as Deliveroo, Uber
Eats, Holland’s Takeaway.com and Spain’s
Glovo; the UK’s pure-play online grocer
Ocado; Zoom and other videoconferencing
services, of course.
What these companies have in common is
a heavy investment in cloud infrastructure,
but the need to scale their systems suddenly
to cope with spikes in demand has many
significant challenges in its own right. But for
many others, the result of COVID-19 will be
closed businesses and a battle for survival.
For most, the return to normality will be
measured in years rather than months.
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