 | Issue: | Latin America 2009 |
| Article no.: | 4 | |
| Topic: | Preparing for the upturn | |
| Author: | Jaime Vallés | |
| Title: | Vice President | |
| Organisation: | Cisco Latin America & Caribbean | |
| PDF size: | 300KB |
About author
Jaime Vallés is Cisco Systems’ Vice President for Latin America; he has over 20 years of Information Technology industry experience. Prior to taking over his role at Cisco, Mr Vallés was President of Sun Microsystems Latin America and, earlier, President of Sun Microsystems Mexico. Mr Vallés experience includes time at IBM of México where he was presented with several awards for his work. Jaime Vallés holds an Electronic Engineering Degree from Universidad Anahuac in México, and speaks fluent Spanish, English and Portuguese.
Article abstract
Latin America is facing the economic crisis better than most parts of the world. Nevertheless, the economic situation is provoking a market transition and providing powerful opportunities for technology investments that enhance global competitiveness, innovation and standard of living. Technology can make the biggest difference in the areas of government; customer relations and services; by facilitating the business ecosystem of partners, channels and supply chain participants; employee support; and by making new business models possible. Broadband Internet connections have the biggest impact.
Full Article
Let us start by acknowledging the situation: we are in a challenging time. We know the economy will recover, but it can often take time to trickle down for us to feel the impact. According to a study from Wharton University, the Latin American region is doing the best job of overcoming the financial crisis. This contrasts with the situation the region faced in previous periods of global tension. So we prefer not to call this an economic downturn, but a market transition and a powerful opportunity for companies that have the leadership and insight to spend wisely. Large U.S. companies, according to recent reports from analyst, have kept their research and development spending as a percentage of sales fairly constant and some are even increasing spending. Leading companies know that after recession comes recovery and they need to be prepared with better products to be at the forefront when the economy rebounds. Particularly in these tough economic times, we believe that companies that use technology to accelerate investments will not only survive but thrive and lead into the future. During this market transition, the question is how to prepare for the upturn. We are convinced that technology is not a differentiator; it is an enabler. Visionary countries understand that technology investments can enhance global competitiveness, innovation and standard of living. Technology has provided developed countries with an enormous boost to their productivity and creativity and, now, this is also happening in Latin America. For Latin America to be more competitive globally, it needs to improve its productivity in all sectors and facilitate changes to culture, management, leadership and collaboration. Academics, global organizations and industry analysts agree: “There is a direct correlation between the use of ICT (information and communication technologies) and positive macroeconomic growth” There are five areas/sectors where we believe technology can make a big difference: First Government – The most important steps Latin American governments and business leaders can take is to concentrate – collectively and collaboratively – on longer-term opportunities such as universal broadband, to transform themselves into knowledge economies. By leveraging the network, countries can have a major and lasting impact, meet economic and social development goals and raise the quality of life of their citizens. Second Customers – Companies realize that a focus on customers is vital, especially during these times. Improving the conversation and connection with customers – through the effective use of tools such as contact centers, CRMs, TelePresence, blogs and wikis – often leads to an increase in sales. Third Ecosystem – One of the ways companies can improve productivity is to be closer to their partners, channels, and all who are part of the supply chain. The only way to do it is through technology. Fourth Employees – Thanks to technology, companies can now be borderless enterprises with employees working from anywhere at any time in a totally flexible work environment. Employees can drive innovation, share knowledge and information using Web 2.0 technologies like Facebook, LinkedIn, wikis, blogs and TelePresence. Technology allows people to solve productivity issues and in doing that, it frees up more time to deliver value. For instance, our employees used our 400 TelePresence units around the world to conduct 120,000 meetings and avoid 25,000 trips, saving more than 250 million dollars in the last year alone. Finally, new Business Models can offer new ways of doing things faster, cheaper and more productively thanks in part to the use of technology. We are convinced that Latin America companies will come out of this market transition stronger. This will require looking with a fresh set of eyes, embracing change, and building a culture that includes business processes, technology, people and innovation with the right leadership. This will be good not only for the companies involved, but for the entire region. During the last year, I’ve spoken daily with many customers all around Latin America, and 60-70 per cent of the CEOs ask me how technology can help them be more productive, do more with less, reduce costs and invest the money saved on other projects. My answer is always the same – save to invest, build your ecosystem and be close to your customers. Significant global demographic, economic and political shifts are occurring that are driven and enabled by technology; now is the time to take advantage of these new opportunities for growth, innovation and talent. Figure 1: Broadband and Economic Growth WEF, “ICT for Economic Growth: A Dynamic Ecosystem Driving the Global Recovery”, August 2009 • According to a recent World Bank Report, “Information and Communications for Development 2009: Extending Reach and Increasing Impact”, a ten percentage-point increase in high speed Internet connections results in a 1.3 percentage points increase in economic growth (year-to-year increase in real per capita GDP). • Other communications technologies such as fixed lines, Mobile and Internet connectivity also have a positive effect on economic growth but broadband has the biggest impact. (see Figure 1) Figure 2
