Digital Transformation

Pivotal’s software factory at heart of a disruptive world

• 0

• Posted by Martin Veitch

• on November 13 2017

Some technology companies are so well known that they become iconic: think Apple for design excellence, Microsoft for personal productivity or Google for search. Others are also hugely influential but rarely appear on brand index reports because they operate in the engine room, making the picks and shovels without which modern gold-rushes couldn’t take place.

One such company is Pivotal which helps companies insert some Silicon Valley mojo through its programmers and methodologies. The name might not mean much to the person in the street but the company is the go-to brand for large organisations that are being disrupted by pesky start-ups or otherwise feel the need to improve their software approaches. Ask HSBC, Sainsbury’s, BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen or Allianz – they’re all customers of this modern software factory that rents out its people and processes to some of the world’s biggest brands.

“The world is flat and technology and software have proven that,” says Leo Spiegel, Pivotal’s SVP for corporate strategy when we spoke by phone recently. He’s echoing Thomas L. Friedman’s view that the modern economy is global and unfair advantages no longer exist, so pressure is placed on incumbents and those that used to have unfair advantages based on where they were from or inertia in markets.

“All of these industries have been challenged by cloud-native companies and they all have the same issue,” Spiegel concludes.

Pivotal’s role is to catalyse some fresh thinking and talent and, Spiegel says, new processes and the right people. That said, he concedes that some customers can still make rookie errors in a world where digitisation and new development models can still deliver shocks. There can sometimes be a “frozen middle” when it doesn’t work it, he says. “People at the top are saying ‘we must become digital’ and there are people at the bottom who desperately want to do the right thing and innovate, but you have this middle layer. They’re afraid and feel they’re not up to speed, and that they’re going to lose their jobs.”

To continue reading...

Please login or register to view your article. If you do not have or do not remember your password, please click on the “Forgotten your password?” link at the bottom.
If you do not yet have a password but are an existing user, please use the “Forgotten your password?

Email Address :

Password :

Forgotten your password?

Remember me

Register