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How Juniper Networks and New Era Technology are collaborating to drive the next wave of transformation innovation

Digital transformation will continue to dominate the discussion around technology spending in the enterprise. However, while the appetite for transformation is overwhelming, uncertainty over how to successfully deliver it means that transformation remains a channel-driven play; customers rely heavily on the expertise and guidance of their partners to avoid the pitfalls of a transformation agenda.

Transformation challenges and opportunities: the budgets are there but the capabilities are not

As EY’s Global Vice Chair – Transformation, Hank Prybylski, noted: “essentially, 2020 became 2025 on the digital acceleration timeline. The good news: much of the foundational work that is critical for successful digital transformation efforts has already started taking root.”

Despite the pandemic pushing transformation agendas ahead by five years (if not more), it remains a priority across many enterprises. Gartner noted that 89 per cent of board directors think digital is embedded in all business growth strategies.

And yet, challenges remain. That same Gartner report found that only 35 per cent of board directors have achieved or are on track to achieve their digital transformation goals.

The budgets will be there for digital transformation initiatives – Gartner predicts that IT spending will increase by 5.1 per cent, globally, in 2023. Within that there will be a 7.9 per cent increase in spending on services, which are critical to transformation. However, much of the focus of spending on transformation is in finding efficiencies, so individual transformation budgets can be constrained.

Furthermore, the chronic IT skills shortage, globally, is not expected to start easing until 2023. For now, organisations are looking to their partners both to deliver services and help to manage costs. 

New Era Technology is an example of how organisations are helping to achieve transformation while cutting through the challenges they face. A global solutions provider with 14,500 customers worldwide, New Era Technology provides technical expertise in architecting and delivering the transformation agenda. New Era Technology supports their customers through in-depth consulting to articulate the value of transformation across their customer’s organisation, and provide insights into how to continue to evolve to the changing needs of the business.

According to Toby Underwood, Sales Director, North East at New Era Technology, the appetite for transformation is there, but in many cases, businesses are unsure of the pathway that will get them there.

“A lot of businesses had to adapt the office structure into a more widespread platform that could be accessed by people anywhere. That uncovered challenges when people realised that, for example, their accounting package and database applications didn’t work as well due to latency and other issues,” Toby said.

“Then, securing those platforms is just as important as their availability. Where everyone used to access the platform from inside a contained office environment, they might now be anywhere in the world at any point in time.”

Working with Juniper to support successful digital transformation pathways

New Era Technology has a long-standing relationship with Juniper Networks to help deliver technology solutions that underpin successful transformation initiatives. Sam Ring, New Era Solutions Architect in Australia, highlighted one recent example, where a customer – a major hardware supplier - was struggling with a multi-vendor network and wireless environment across its national footprint.

This led to operational administration challenges, with ongoing management and remediation tackled as a reactive approach as opposed to being proactive.

To address this challenge, New Era Technology implemented Juniper’s solutions powered by Mist AI that would provide a holistic network infrastructure with an end-to-end management suite. The initial rollout comprised of some 200 access points and switches over 6 months, with the efficiency and results of the deployment having an immediate positive impact on the business.

Juniper was selected by the business for their class-leading enterprise-grade network solutions and ease of administration and management across sites nationally. With the successful implementation of the Juniper’s AI-driven solutions, the company was able to achieve a stable, easy-to-manage network infrastructure environment that delivered a reliable and predictable line of business applications.

This in turn has become the foundation of the enterprise’s ongoing transformation strategy. “The need for automation and deep insights into today's core distributed networking means that the Juniper portfolio has become key for us in delivering these outcomes for clients,” Sam said. “Across mid-market, local government and education, these kinds of solutions have become absolutely pivotal to delivery of the end user experience.”

New Era Technology is a global services leader. With more than 4,000 employees worldwide, the company specialises in collaboration & UC, data networking, security, cloud, managed and professional services. The company aims to be a long-term partner to each of its clients, in both optimising value and minimising risk.

As author Bernard Marr wrote in a recent article, accelerating digital transformation needs to be the priority for organisations. In doing so, businesses can best prepare themselves for other priorities, including challenges with inflation and supply chains, enhance sustainability credentials, deliver a more immersive customer experience, and address the talent challenge. With a large and credentialed partner, such as New Era Technology, working with leading vendors like Juniper, organisations will be able to deliver on the transformation agenda and prepare for the years ahead.

Find out more about Juniper Networks partner program here, and you can contact New Era Technology here