Continuing the conversation with vendors, regarding IT and the economy, The Tech Herald recently spoke with NEI. NEI is a company that, while unfamiliar to some IT professionals, offers technology and services use every day. Jeff Hudgins, vice president of marketing for NEI, explains how poor economic conditions have affected purchasing, and how companies are looking to get more for their investments.
IT and the economy – NEI (IMG: J.Anderson)
So what is NEI? In short, if you're a customer of Bradford Networks, Imprivata, Intellitactics, ITT, NetWitness, Vircom, or Sophos, then you are using NEI technology. This is because each of the aforementioned companies relies on NEI in their appliances to manage service updates, patches, deployment, and more. NEI is an OEM partner to dozens of companies, and each client has something unique.
During RSA, we met with NEI and discovered more about its business practice. The first step in the NEI process is to learn everything about a client and to see what it's expecting. Once that process is complete, NEI can then customize a solution that does exactly what the client wants, while still leaving the option open for growth. A perfect example of this is an NAC appliance that needs service updates as required by a contract. The NAC vendor would push those updates to its customers using NEI’s technology.
The Tech Herald (TTH): Has the economy and the fear over the economy impacted your business at all?
Jeff Hudgins (JH): Yes, the poor economic conditions have, of course, impacted business decisions related to technology purchases. Customers today are saying their number one priority is to reduce operating costs followed by streamlining and improving business and IT processes. Application developers are interested in more closely linking IT and business strategies and focused on delivering projects for business growth and improving IT service delivery.
TTH: If it has, what are five initiatives you implemented to help manage the impact?
JH: NEI has secured its base of current customers by differentiating its value-add services. We work with our customers to help them leverage their strengths by building on NEI capabilities. By utilizing our Smart Services* (platform management and update services), customers are better able to scale their products to meet specific market needs and focus on innovating and engineering their application; not its form factor, delivery mechanisms, interoperability, backbone OS, or updates and patches. This is enabling customers to thrive against their competitors, reduce OPEX and increase their opportunity pipeline.
TTH: Has the economy impacted your vertical markets?
JH: Yes, all vertical markets are looking to transform fixed costs to variable, reduce life cycle costs and convert service revenues. Compliance and governance markets are expanding cautiously, as is security. Carrier and enterprise communications are beginning to sign contracts and we expect that to continue through 2009. We’re also seeing the medical market looking to standardize platforms for their tech solutions. Another area we’re seeing some growth in is the managed solutions market where enterprises are exhibiting interest.
TTH: How are your customers looking at security and how are you helping them lower costs while still giving them what they are looking for?
JH: Security remains a top priority among enterprises, which is making our ISV customers take a security-first attitude. NEI is helping our ISVs to lock down the entire solution, hardening the appliance that hosts the application, limiting the OS attack surface in order to reduce total cost of ownership and OPEX. This is creating a more highly managed (restricted access) ecosystem, and extending services that build new streams of revenue.
Learn more about NEI by visiting its official Web site.
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