EMC and Wipro

Perhaps you saw the announcement today.

EMC and Wipro have signed up to a pretty extensive agreeement. 

It's all there (or will be soon) --

• Technology enablement -- making sure that Wipro is fully enabled EMC technology
• Solution development -- identifying a few promising areas where we jointly invest and jointly sell.
• Go to market -- figuring out how to line up Wipro's value proposition and EMC's value proposition in chosen markets.

But press releases never tell the story behind the story.   And, as usual, there's more than meets the eye.

First, You Might Need An Update on Wipro

Ask most people in the US about Wipro, and -- unless they've had direct recent experience -- they've probably got an old picture.  They're probably thinking outsourcing, or offshoring, or perhaps contract work.  And they're probably thinking "lower cost labor".

That's an old picture.

Wipro has grown into a technology services powerhouse that is an industry force to be reckoned with.  And they're hungry to invest in the new areas of IT services that are high growth and highly differentiated.

It's become less about "cost-effective labor" and much more about "really smart people".  They're much bigger, and much more diverse than most people realize.

Second, You Might Need An Update On EMC

At a high level, we've built a pretty compelling stack around information infrastructure.  And, with all those new technologies and new capabilities, there's a huge gap in high-quality technical skills to deliver all these new capabilities.

I saw a marketing chart the other day that called it a $60B opportunity (technology and services). 

I don't know if that's the right number, but I'm sure it's pretty big today, and can only get bigger.  I think it's much bigger market opportunity than SOA, as an example. 

There's no way EMC can ramp to do all the technology services ourselves.  Nor, from a strategy perspective, should we even try.

So we're going to need technology services partners.  Partners with proven track records and demonstrated competence.  Partners with global scale and broad depth.  Partners who see the same opportunity we do, and are willing to invest along with us.

And Last, You Might Need An Update on IT Skills Portfolios

I'm sure it's no surprise that good IT skills are getting harder to come by. 

And more and more IT organizations are taking a look at their skills portfolio, and making the strategic decisions around what skills will be core, and which ones will be context.

I see more and more IT organizations moving towards becoming better business partners.  More and more smart people who are lining up behind business units and initiatives, and fewer and fewer investments in technology specialists.

So, who's going to fill the gap in corporate IT?  If IT is focused on the business, who can cover the all the specialized technology angles?

That's precisely the skills gap that Wipro seems to be targeting, so I think that customers win.

Put it all together, and I think you'll see more and more technology services firms invest headlong into information infrastructure.  Hopefully, they'll do it with EMC.

Welcome, Wipro -- we look forward to working with you!

Comments

[prashant]

Chuck,

Hi, I wanted to understand how do you perceive this relationship has progressed between Wipro and EMC over the last 2 years?

Regards