The Modern CIO: Building bridges between business and customers.

Once upon a time, the CIO was an unappreciated and largely unknown hero; relegated to the back room and responsible for keeping the lights on without fanfare or recognition. Now, the role has matured to one which is central (and critical) to achieving business goals.

As well as being charged with the responsibilities that come with a seat at the boardroom table, today’s CIO is accountable for building a digital customer-first foundation that can easily evolve to meet changing demands.

How did Customer Experience (CX) become a CIO responsibility?

One of the most telling comments in Forrester’s “The CIO’s Role In The Growth Agenda” report is where they say: One CIO we spoke with told us, “It turns out, I actually own customer experience because I’m responsible for the systems that serve them.”

And with CX being increasingly reliant on technology, the choices the CIO makes now will underpin business growth. They’re important, and far-reaching.

Here’s why.

The case for exceptional CX being the norm, not the exception.

In Forbes’ article from late 2023, “Leading Digital Transformation: Why CIOs Should Keep CX Top Of Mind,” they observe that research has repeatedly shown that keeping customers happy and finding better ways to engage with them is not just crucial for survival but also key to thriving in a challenging economic climate.

Forbes also points to PwC’s Customer Loyalty Executive Survey 2023, where 87% of executives and 51% of consumers in the United States agreed that an online shopping experience can negatively impact loyalty if it’s not as easy or enjoyable as shopping in person.

What is apparent from this, is that CX is critical to growth and loyalty (and profitability) across virtually every aspect of customer interactions – from websites to apps, support to fulfilment, to personalised omnichannel communications based on previous behaviour, preferences, and purchases. And key to this, is your organisation’s ability to collect and meaningfully analyse masses of data – via technology.

Is there more to the CIO role than CX, though?

While important, CX isn’t the be-all and end-all – it’s a two-way bridge. Your technology environment needs to empower your internal stakeholders so they can derive deeper and more valuable insights into the market and make better decisions. From what to sell, when and how, and what next – impacting product development, sales, customer service, marketing, and growth strategies.

And of course, the better the technology, the more ownership and support by your tech teams.

So, circling back around to the original point of this article – today’s CIO plays a critical role in deciding and guiding the use of technology (from your systems of engagement, systems of insight, security, and infrastructure – nothing is exempt) and data.

The decisions you make should enhance how the business interacts with your customers, optimise its processes, and align your business strategies with the needs and high flying CX expectations of your customers – while bringing joy to your stakeholders.

That given, let’s look at how you can ‘make it so.’

The four key strategies to drive a customer-centric tech approach.

1. Be customer aware

Make sure your business is where and what your customers expect it to be with the ability to interact with you how they want to.

While it’s not as simplistic as building it and they will automatically come, failing to build solutions that deliver the high-quality experience your customers expect (from web to mobile apps to self-help) is a sure-fire path to failure in a digital world.

2. Stand united

Your technology model should link your tech and business teams – from marketing, to sales, CX and product, and digital – together, not drive a ‘have/have-not’ wedge between them.

In Forrester’s “The CIO’s Role In The Growth Agenda” report, they say: “In our studies, respondents at enterprises with high levels of alignment across customer-facing functions report 2.4x higher revenue growth than those with some or no alignment. Those same aligned groups benefit from working with IT teams that are 3.7 times more likely to be highly or somewhat aligned with other functions.”

Also consider what new technologies like AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) will bring to the table as part of your drive to improve your business operations and gain a competitive advantage. While you may prefer to develop custom models that work well with your current data sets, keep an eye out for records management application vendors who are incorporating AI directly into their products.

3. Discard complexity

Stop investing in old technology. Make now the time to move on from the cost and complications inherited with legacy systems to consolidate and build better customer facing systems.

Reduce the complexity of your systems of records by ensuring you have a strong ability to retrieve data from your existing systems. This way you can be confident that you can access the data you need in the future – which is especially important if you are in a regulated industry.

For example, in the professional services sector, many organisations are switching to cloud-based records management systems to enable new Business Innovation, and as a result, are shutting down their old on-premise systems. Global Storage customers in this sector trust that their legacy data is secure and recoverable through our range of cloud services, which allows them to move forward and free up old capital and resources.

4. Invest in result

While it’s tempting to adopt one shiny, exciting new solution after another, step back and reconsider. The most important thing about technology is the result, not the way to achieve it.

Keeping this in mind will help you focus on what matters most to the business. For example, Global Storage offers an outcome-based service with strict SLAs that allows our customers to concentrate on innovation within the business. This saves them from getting bogged down in the essential but routine operational tasks and the effort and expense of keeping up with new technology and systems that ultimately add little value to the business.

In summary, building great bridges requires strong foundations – ones that are deep and true to support the weight of change and significant business growth.

Above all, the foundations you lay as CIO should enable fast and complete business recovery following a natural or maliciously contrived disaster.

Contact us to have an obligation-free chat.


Global Storage takes out Veeam VCSP Partner of the Year for ANZ

Veeam recently announced their ANZ Partner Awards to celebrate the success of their channel in 2022. Global Storage were delighted to accept the award for Veeam Cloud and Service Provider (VCSP) of the Year for Australia.

Laura Currie, Channel & Alliances Marketing Manager for ANZ commented on the award.

“Your commitment to ongoing growth and valuable insights into our products and programs have truly set you apart. Your dedication to our partnership and active engagement within the Veeam community have significantly contributed to our mutual success.”

Laura Currie

The partner awards celebrated 13 partners across ANZ for their achievement and activity with Veeam in the previous year.

“In the past year, Veeam has made great progress in helping its ANZ partners build their practices, in order to better serve their customers,” said Gary Mitchell, VP of ANZ at Veeam Software. Gary went on to say that “Veeam’s 100 per cent channel model firmly puts Veeam’s partners at the centre of the ecosystem and we are extremely proud to be working with them to provide customers with the resilience, availability, and business outcomes they need. We are thrilled to be able to celebrate their achievements at this year’s ANZ Partner Awards.”

This reward reflects Global Storage’s ongoing commitment to delivering our innovative and secure Back Up and Disaster Recovery as a Service offering.

As a Platinum Veeam VCSP partner we invest in our people with 6 certified Veeam Technical Sales Professionals forming part of our team. With over two decades of data management experience the Global Storage team is uniquely qualified to help companies of all sizes realise agility, efficiency, and intelligent data management across diverse cloud environments.

Global Storage takes out Veeam VCSP Partner of the Year for ANZ

Source: Veeam celebrates A/NZ channel — ARN (arnnet.com.au)


Written in partnership with Veeam.

VMWare elevates Global Storage to Principal Partner

In further solidifying our relationship with VMWare, Global Storage has recently achieved Cloud Verified and Principal Partner status.

To become a Principal Partner we have demonstrated continued efforts in becoming an expert in VMware solutions and service, and have taken the necessary steps through Master Services Competency (MSC) achievement—or the equivalent—as well as demonstrated a growing company sales performance. Principal partners are the most qualified partners in VMware Partner Connect and with this distinction, they demonstrate a broad range of expertise and the ability to best serve their customers’ needs. 

As a Cloud Verified Partner you know that Global Storage will expertly deliver cloud infrastructure as a service—so your cloud strategy will be flexible and resilient today, tomorrow and for years to come. 

Global Storage is also the first Australian partner to have achieved the VMWare Disaster Recovery as-a-service certification. They are one of only six partners with this certification across Asia Pacific. 

Global Storage achieves Australian first with VMware disaster recovery as-a-service certification

Providing Flexible and Intelligent Cloud Solutions for Data Protection and Business Continuity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –

Global Storage is pleased to announce that they are the first Australian partner to have achieved the VMWare Disaster Recovery as-a-service certification. They are one of only six partners with this certification across Asia Pacific.

Gavin Hoffmann, Director of Sales and Marketing, says ‘This recognition from VMWare really highlights our commitment to providing exceptional disaster recovery services to our clients. We’re thrilled that we can showcase our skills and be the leader in ANZ for the development of these services in partnership with VMWare.’
As digital transformation initiatives and cloud adoption continue to accelerate, the need for business continuity, data protection and management has never been greater. The need to reign in data sprawl and extract business value match the enterprise’s quest for visibility, insight and desire to lower capital expenditures and cloud operating costs.

The new certification allows Global Storage to provide services enabling clients to replicate their data and virtual infrastructure to Global Storage cloud environments. The DRaaS model eliminates costly capital expenses and frees IT from spending valuable time on lengthy planning, acquisition, deployment and management cycles or business continuity.

“We are excited with Global Storage’s introduction of our VMware DRaaS solution to the many new markets served by our partner of many years. The combination of our leading solution and Global Storage’s market deep knowledge and innovative services offer reliable customer solutions and dependable local services backed by local expertise,” said Guy Bartram., Director of Product Marketing at VMware, Inc.

https://cloud.vmware.com/providers/draas-powered

About Global Storage

We go where the data is and deliver a comprehensive suite of enterprise cloud services for computing, backup, disaster recovery, storage, and regulatory compliance. With over two decades of data management experience, the Global Storage team is uniquely qualified to help companies of all sizes realize agility, efficiency and intelligent data management across diverse cloud environments.

Formed in 1997, we have 50+ staff across our branches in Melbourne (head office), Sydney, and Brisbane, and our satellite offices in the US. In 2021, Global Storage achieved ISO 27001 Certification through BSI Global.

Global Storage takes home the NetApp Solution Innovation Award

NetApp recently announced their APAC Partner Excellence Awards for 2021, with Global Storage taking out the Solution Innovation Award for Backup as a Service.

We’re particularly honoured to be the only Australian Partner recognised in the awards.

The partner awards were held virtually to recognise partners that have “demonstrated outstanding commitment” toward customer success and revenue growth.

“We are especially proud to acknowledge our partners’ successes in helping our customers navigate the most challenging period we have ever seen,” NetApp APAC vice president of channel and alliances Wendy Koh said.

This award reflects our work with some major utility providers in Melbourne to deliver data delivery and protection services utilising NetApp technologies. This recent uplift in technology has shortened recovery times while improving ransomware protection whilst enabling our clients to realise efficiencies across their data protection spend.

Outside of this project, Global Storage has consistently delivered revenue growth and net new logos to NetApp through their services.

This is the second NetApp award we’ve won here at Global Storage after taking out New Partner of the Year in 2019

https://www.crn.com.au/news/melbournes-global-storage-scores-at-netapps-apac-partner-awards-567637

Global Storage wins NetApp New Partner of the Year

NetApp held its partner awards in Sydney on November 21 to recognise top-performing partners.

Global Storage is thrilled to announce that we won NetApp New Partner of the Year! This is a testament to the great relationship we’ve built with NetApp in a short space of time and illustrates the value of their technology.

“The high calibre of entries this year is a testament to the commitment of our partners and the continuous collaboration between our business and those who are committed to delivering the data fabric message to the market,” NetApp A/NZ director of channels and alliances, Neville James, said.

“NetApp’s partner network is fundamental to the success of our business, and both finalists and award winners have demonstrated outstanding effort working with customers, providing unique solutions supported by our advanced capabilities.”

NetApp Partner Awards 2019 Austalia and New Zealand Winner New Partner of the Year the Year

https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/668929/netapp-reveals-top-performing-partners-2019/

Announcing the Global Storage Partnership with NetApp

Global Storage are excited to announce their partnership with NetApp Australia Pty. Ltd. The five-year agreement will allow Global Storage to offer Managed Services now in partnership with NetApp using NetApp data management platforms.

“The NetApp partnership will showcase a number of options for storage management to customers wishing to adopt in cloud or on-premise managed services. Primarily we will be focussing on backup, disaster recovery, infrastructure and Office365 managed services, with additional products to follow.”
Gavin Hoffmann, Sales & Marketing Director – Global Storage.

The partnership with NetApp highlights Global Storage’s focus to strengthen its holistic approach to data management and protection. The joint teams will work together to ensure customers have superior options for data management, data protection, analytics, IOT and security.

As customers demand more freedom-of-choice in these areas, and consider the best outcome in terms of cloud, hybrid cloud and on-premise locality, the idea of a universal data management service becomes an ever more important value add to Business and to the protection of business critical data and operations.

NetApp is the data authority for hybrid cloud, providing a full range of hybrid cloud data services that simplify management of applications and data across cloud and on-premises environments to accelerate digital transformation. Together with our partners, we empower global organisations to unleash the full potential of their data to expand customer touch-points, foster greater innovation, and optimise their operations. For more information, visit www.netapp.com. #DataDriven

Get in touch with the Global Storage team now to learn more about how our full suite of data management solutions can help your Business achieve their data management goals.

Veritas honours Global Storage as Growth Partner of the Year

As Queensland drew first State of Origin blood in Sydney last night, Brisbane-based information specialists Intalock was also celebrating, claiming the top honour during the 2016 Veritas Partner Awards.

Veritas Growth Partner of the Year 2016

Honoured during an intimate evening under the Vivid lights, a host of key partners gathered for the inaugural Veritas channel awards, following the company’s split from Symantec earlier this year.

In claiming the Veritas Partner of the Year 2016 award, Intalock was joined on stage by Global Storage, who took out Veritas Growth Partner of the Year 2016, with Dicker Data winning the distribution category.

Recognising the top performing partners who have demonstrated strong business growth during the past 12 months, Datacom, Insight Enterprises, InfoTrust and Insentra also took home awards, while Hitachi Data Systems was recognised as a key alliance partner.

“Veritas has been on a significant journey over the last year,” Veritas Pacific managing director, Louis Tague, said.

“We separated out from Symantec and successfully stood up as an independent company focused solely on information management.

“A substantial part of that successful transition is due to the loyalty, focus and talents of our channel partners.”

Following 10 years operating as a combined entity, Veritas separated from Symantec in February 2016, zoning in on its information management heritage.

As a long-standing partner, Intalock – who claimed both Veritas and Symantec regional partner awards in 2015 – was recognised for its “established revenue based around Veritas offerings”, including a “track record of significant deals won.”

“Over the years we have seen Intalock grow and mature as a business, to the point where they now operate in multiple States and have market leading expertise in all of our key Veritas technology areas,” Tague added.

“Their growth, focus and technical expertise make them a very worthy winner of this top Veritas award”.

With a total of eight awards during the evening, partners ranged from service providers to consulting firm, as well as technology alliances to distribution.

“We’re immensely proud of the vibrant channel partnerships that have evolved around Veritas standing up as an independent company,” Veritas Pacific senior manager of Channels, Janet Docherty, added.

“Some of our channel partners have dealt with us for many years prior to the split, others are brand new partners engaged post-split.

“Some are multi-national companies and others are specialised partners focused on one particular part of the Veritas portfolio. All are essential for a healthy channel landscape.”

  • Veritas Software Licensing Partner of the Year 2016 (Pacific) – Insight Enterprises
  • Veritas Service Provider Partner of the Year 2016 (Pacific) – Datacom
  • Veritas Specialist Partner of the Year 2016 (Pacific) – InfoTrust
  • Veritas Consulting Partner of the Year 2016 (Pacific) – Insentra
  • Veritas Technology Alliance Partner of the Year 2016 (Pacific) – Hitachi Data Systems
  • Veritas Distribution Partner of the Year 2016 (Pacific) – Dicker Data
  • Veritas Growth Partner of the Year 2016 (Pacific) – Global Storage
  • Veritas Partner of the Year 2016 (Pacific) – Intalock

Source:  ARN

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