Anita Joseph, Editor, caught up with Jean-Guillaume (JG) Pons, Senior Vice-President of DELL Client Solutions Group (CSG), EMEA, to discuss the changing work landscape, the evolution of the Dell Client Solutions portfolio and the company’s plans for the region.
What’s your take on the changing work scenario?
Digital Transformation and workforce transformation were already underway before the pandemic. All customer conversations were focused on how to perform better from a workforce transformation point of view, when COVID hit. From then on, everything sped up and things that would normally take years, got done fast. The market grew significantly, and everyone wished to accelerate their digital transformation goals since work became remote/hybrid.
We’re now in that phase where we see a lot of growth in the market. Transformation is still underway, and companies have completely accepted the need to digitalise their workforce. The conversation between customers and/or partners are centered around how to enable organisations to be more flexible in the long term, how to integrate hybrid work into the whole organisational and operational structure, IT & digitisation strategy, how to ensure security, help employees be more productive and at the same time, increase their satisfaction levels. Another important question is how to attract and retain talent and provide the right tools to drive employee experience.
Ultimately, work culture is all about productivity and outcomes. So now how is Dell’s client solutions portfolio evolving to keep up with this whole trend?
What’s interesting is that we did not change our strategy. Our strategy is working and we’re continuing to work on that strategy. There are three key aspects here: One, we got the end user at the center of everything we do- from a product innovation standpoint, or even from a product evolution standpoint.
Customers are of different kinds: we’ve got customers who do field work, others who develop applications, customers who are on the go and travelling all the time, and so on. So, keeping the customer at the center is something we’ve been doing and continue to do. We also carry out plenty of surveys and make sure we reach out to and interact with our customers. We then use all these insights to chart our roadmaps and our deployment. So, the customer is first and foremost.
The second one is around collaboration, which was always important but became even more so post the pandemic. The question here is: how do you drive a full ecosystem ensuring collaboration and productivity? And it’s not just devices, which are of course, important, but also about the ecosystem around the device-how you integrate everything and ensure seamless collaboration. This is another key focus area for us.
Thirdly, we shifted our innovation piece. For instance, we launched the Dell Optimizer software application that intelligently optimises the performance of systems by using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. It understands a user’s behavior when they use the device and helps them be more productive.
Along with remote work, we also see a lot of companies where employees are coming back to the office. So, we’re looking at hot desk solutions. How do you interact when you’re there? How do you create a seamless experience with docking stations, energy, space and collaboration? So that’s the third area we’re focusing on.
How is Dell setting the tone for the hybrid work industry in creating workplaces of the future?
You start from outcomes. You begin with what you want to drive as an organization toattract talent, retain talent, be productive and drive collaboration. You start from the business outcome or the customer’s goals and how we can help them get there. We have a lot of customers we are working with, where we design with them where they want to be, what is the employee experience they want to drive and how to get the required monitoring tools to leverage all of that and drive business outcomes. What’s interesting there is that the conversation is also evolving from casual to serious, where clients are depending on us to help them achieve their business goals.
The Middle East region we know, is evolving and dynamic. What’s Dell’s plan for this region, particularly given the background of its rapid digital transformation and the growth of hybrid work?
This region is extremely important for us-it’s a dynamic one full of opportunities. The economies here are growing fast and the pace of digital transformation is accelerating, particularly in the UAE, Saudi and Egypt. So, we’re working with governments and private companies to make their digital transformation journey seamless and smooth. Again, we’re looking at this from an end-user point of view which is at the heart of everything we do, and then again, we’re leading in most of the areas where we operate in, so yes, this market is huge and very innovation centered. It’s an exciting region to be in.
