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Collaboration Breeds Innovation at ZSL
5:36 PM EDT Mon. Jun. 16, 2008
ZSL functions in a very collaborative manner.
Yes. From 2003 onward we've worked on Get IT Together, primarily with [other] VARs and ISVs in the North American and European market. Our formula is to collaborate with the right partner, and work with them to bring products and services to market. We've looked at solution providers that went out from the dot com bust and that had expertise that we could tap. Those who were smart and understood they couldn't offer complete solutions -- we determined we could collaborate with them. We looked at application developers, for example, and asked ourselves, "What could we do with that?" At times, there were similar economic challenges to those that exist today. We extended more into Europe in 2004. We are using such a collaborative approach today. One-third of our revenue is generated through collaboration.
So you can focus on what you do best, and your partner can tackle other aspects of a project where it has expertise.
We can focus then on our core competency, which is technology: mobile, IT optimization, integration, wireless issues among others. Among our partners, they have expertise in manufacturing and retail segments, and they needed technical expertise. We kept the engagement open to the VAR partner, and we work closely with IBM, MS, but we offer vendor neutrality to our partner. That allows us to grow our business cost effectively.
We look at technologies such as WiMax or RFID, and see how those technologies can help in solving business problems out there. We also help our partners or end users to show proof of concept.
Sounds like you try to foster innovation.
Through our R&D labs, which we call our "IDEA" lab -- Innovative Development of Enterprise Applications -- we bring business solutions to using various technologies, such as wireless, unified communications, etc. We have different competencies inside the lab, each focusing on a different technology.
Recently, we were developing an enterprise 2.2 computing framework, for a midsize to large enterprise. During a "lunch and learn" discussion, senior management made it clear: one, make it support biz growth and two, show innovation. Every business is looking at bringing out new products and reaching new markets and how to use innovative technology to grow biz. The IDEA concept helps align those innovative technologies with business gain. CIOs must show value to the business. They want to make sure that rolling out technology pays off in short term.
IDEA develops prototypes and proofs of concept. It also helps partners to demonstrate the value of their claims. With the Enterprise 2.2 project, the goal was to show how the network could help serve customers more effectively. [We] put together the framework, including all that was needed to help the enterprise capture information and then manage it.
What are you hearing about "green" initiatives?
We did engage our partners to develop a solution for a consumer electronic product, in an effort to determine how could it be recycled more effectively. Sooner or later, we see how this could be coming. We are hearing more about "green" in last few months. But there's not a big push from CIOs at this point. They are talking about consolidation, which can relate to a "green initiative." They need to see how it could make business sense. We have to see if CIOs can get budgets; for CEOs it's more of a PR initiative. It's a good opportunity going forward to push other features, like telecommuting, and unified communications. There's a lot of opportunity for integration for solution providers.
