'Stove-piped, not joined-up' blue-chip vendors 'frustrating' to work with, says CIO

Large vendors are too rigid to work with if you're an SME, claims Genting Casinos UK's Chris Ashworth

Traditional blue-chip technology vendors cause problems in the way that they deliver products and are too rigid about their pricing strategies, especially if you don't represent a large customer.

That's what Chris Ashworth, IT director at Genting Casinos UK told Computing during a recent interview.

"When you work with some of the blue-chip vendors, they're very stove-piped and not joined up in the way they deliver and that causes problems. We've had to use vendors like that as part of our delivery chain and it's been a frustrating experience," he explained.

Ashworth contrasted the relationship with blue-chip vendors with the one Genting has with big data, analytics and business intelligence provider Tibco which "have understood us and shaped their offering for us," he said, before describing the impact of the deal.

"We wouldn't have been able to deliver this customer journey without it, it's as simple as that," Ashworth explained. "The benefit is immeasurable and we're going to be realising it for years to come."

Genting Casinos UK decided to opt for Tibco software because they viewed the vendor to be a good cultural fit.

"We felt because we're an SME, Tibco valued us and you could see they valued our relationship," Ashworth said of the decision to partner with the supplier, describing Tibco's approach as "less formal and less rigid than the competition".

The "flexible" nature of Tibco's price-point when compared with competitors was also appealing to Genting.

"They saw the value in our organisation but also saw our size and that we can only ever invest in a certain amount into IT, while the competition was much more rigid with their prices," Ashworth said.

In a wide-ranging interview, Ashworth also described how Genting wants to take advantage of big data and analytics, but wants to avoid 'spooking people with Minority Report technology.'

"We want to make sure that whatever we're doing it's not for the sake of gathering data, we're doing it to enhance the customer journey. We don't want it to be pervasive, we want to be enhancing what we do," he said.