'We'll see more and more CEOs recognizing that IT as a strategic business tools' 

                                                                                         -Stacy J Smith,
CIO-Intel
                        

Stacy J Smith is
vice-president of Finance and Enterprise Services, and chief information officer
of Intel Corporation. In this role, he is jointly responsible for leading
Intel's global Information Services and Technology Group (ISTG). The ISTG's
mission is to deliver critical information capabilities needed to keep Intel
running and meet its growth requirements. It provides business applications,
productivity solutions, voice and data networking, data center operations, and
custom information solutions to more than 75,000 Intel employees spread across
50 countries. ISTG also provides scientific computing capabilities for more than
17,000 Intel engineers worldwide, and supports global manufacturing operations.
In this exclusive interview to Srikanth G of Dataquest,
Smith talks in depth about the IT engine powering the behemoth.

What is the role of CIOs and CTOs at Intel?

At Intel the CIOs manage a global team of more than 9,500 people in more than 27
countries, to deliver critical information solutions needed to keep Intel
running and growing. In 2005 we deployed 37,000 additional laptops making 80% of
our workforce mobile, and installed 325 wireless access points for a total of
4,685 worldwide, in more than 220 buildings.

We also play a key role in
testing and giving feed back on the needs of the enterprise to our platform
groups, to help improve product design. Our goal is to become one of Intel's
core competitive capabilities by delivering outstanding business value from the
industry's best information solutions.  Our
CTOs, on the other hand, are part of our platform groups and are responsible for
evaluating  our platform
technologies for external markets.

What will you say about IT inside Intel?

Intel is a global company and, keeping in line with this, Intel's IT is a
global asset. In 2005 we deployed solutions for more than 100,000 employees
across 124 sites in more than 50 countries and regions, as well as a supply
chain management involving more than 2,200 suppliers and 300,000 direct
customers globally.  Solutions ranged from Wi-Max trials in our assembly and test
sites in Asia to migrating one of our largest legacy ERP systems, order
management, to Intel Itanium based servers. The move consolidated 44 servers to
15, increased performance, and significantly reduced our TCO. All of our
solutions aim to focus on improving our responsiveness to Intel's business
needs and increasing employee productivity.

Does Intel have an operational model
whereby CIOs from facilities across the world report to you centrally?

Intel has a hybrid management structure; a combination of central and geo based
teams that are organized by function and location. They all eventually report
into the CIOs.

What would be Intel's key focus areas for
IT during 2006?

Intel will continue to develop and deploy technologies in line with the
platformization strategy. Intel believes that the integrated platform approach
best provides end-users with the features, functions and capabilities they
require-delivering far more value than the sum of the individual parts.
A platform is an integrated set of proven technologies designed and
tested together to provide people and businesses with improved communications
and computing capabilities to meet their specific needs. The technologies
include things such as processors, chipsets, networking silicon and software.
Intel's first platform introduction was in 2003 with Intel Centrino  mobile technology.

A key part of Intel's
platform strategy involves the development of several technologies that improve
processor efficiency and allow computer users to take advantage of
multi-tasking, security, reliability, manageability, and wireless computing
capabilities. Understanding how people actually use technology and then driving
the power of Moore's Law to deliver increased capabilities means
end-users-whether at home, work or elsewhere-will derive greater benefits
and increased usefulness from technology. Multi-core processors-with their
workload flexibility and performance headroom-will also play a central role in
Intel's platform strategy by enabling increased capabilities and the power for
end-users to do more with their computers.

How is Intel managing the mobile
enterprise? Since Intel has been strongly advocating WLAN, how important is
Wi-Fi for Intel's internal functions?

Intel is working on many fronts to accelerate the availability and awareness of
broadband wireless Internet access, be it Wi-Fi or WiMAX to provide high-speed,
last-mile broadband connectivity to homes and businesses and for mobile wireless
networks. Today, mobility is a part of the daily work practice at Intel. More
than 80% of our workforce is equipped with laptops, a significant increase from
66% in 2003. More than 90% of Intel buildings are unwired. We believe that
mobility is a key part of the future for a productive and profitable
organization. We have also demonstrated capital expenditure savings of over 40%.

As a CIO, what according to you will be the
IT trends to watch for in 2006? 

I have a couple of thoughts on this. We'll see more and more CEOs and
CFOs recognizing that IT departments are not cost centres. They can be strategic
business tools that can generate business value for the organization (last year
Intel IT delivered $1.7 bn in business value). We will continue to see how the
mobility revolution is transforming the enterprise as more and more companies
embrace technology to improve efficiency. Lastly, we will see a ramp up in the
digital office where platform technologies, software and services will propel
new usage models for large and small businesses that will increase their
agility, connectivity and protection. I see four business user models: seamless
collaboration, embedded IT, information assistance and pervasive connectivity.