“To me, you’re not just Systems Engineers—you are Speaking Engineers. I’ve got plenty of engineers working on great products. However, I need you to speak to customers and earn their trust in our technology.” That was Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, talking to a room full of technical profes…
If I had to formulate in one sentence what my job and that of my teammates is, I’d say something like:
“To show our customers the business value of Oracle’s Engineered Systems”
Because at the end of the day, customers pay real money only if there’s some real value they see in a solution.
And that is the problem most people in IT struggle with: How is what you do in IT related to your company’s total value chain?
Most of the time, people, both those working in IT and those selling and supporting into IT departments are consumed with functions and features, tech specs, standards and other tech stuff. Worse yet: Some people look at Oracle’s Engineered Systems like Exadata and Exalogic and they only see a bunch of servers in a rack, because all they know is components, servers, tech stuff.
This is dangerous terrain: Because if you can’t show the business value of your IT to your company, you’re going to be put on the list of cost centers to be squeezed, and budget cuts are never a good motivator for your job.
So what is the value of IT to the business? Or more specifically, what is the value of Engineered Systems for our customers’ businesses?
A while ago, we tried defining ebooks, and figure out what they are, and what they aren’t. Now, let’s have a look at some success factors, or barriers, business implications and the (un)necessity of DRM.