ALVAREZ & MARSAL stakeholders . This is reflected in the care and diligence that it puts into internal programmes , like changing out laptops every two years to keep frontline technology fresh .
But that mindset extends to A & M ’ s technology vendors as well . From his Tampa , Florida office , Zung tells us what he looks for in an external partner . He doesn ’ t just want ‘ yes-people ’ that do what ’ s asked of them . “ More times than we want to admit , we ’ re wrong with our internal thinking or sometimes have hidden biases ,” he explains . Instead , he wants vendors that guide A & M towards the right solutions and processes that are fit for growth .
Zung wants to partner with vendors who are upfront and honest about their products and capabilities . He wants them to speak up when A & M is headed in the wrong direction , or when the company is about to make a mistake . This creates long-term relationships built on mutual trust and understanding , rather than short term relationships where the supplier may not raise best practices or focus on long term strategy .
A significant part of his approach has been to establish and grow strategic relationships with key providers such as Arribatec , Camwood , CDW , Cisco , Dell , HP , Insight , Lenovo , Microsoft , NewRocket , ServiceNow , and SHI . The benefits come in many forms but include :
“ You can ’ t just be the smartest IT guy in the room and be a good CIO anymore ”
JEREMY ZUNG CIO , ALVAREZ & MARSAL
• Implementation of managed services
• Migration to cloud services
• Implementing new technologies and capabilities
• Reduced talent costs
• Increased support capacity
• Reduction of duplicative systems / processes
SHI and Cisco have helped A & M navigate through extended supply chain challenges , manage the accelerating nature of technology , manage a growing firm footprint and end-of-life / end-of-support concerns while also working to decrease administrative tasks by leveraging more cloud products . They are trusted providers that are relied upon to help forecast and roadmap audio / video , voice , network and infrastructure services . The tight collaboration between SHI and Cisco allows A & M to recognise and understand emerging services and technologies much earlier than if they had to go it alone .
Another top priority has been to recommit to A & M ’ s ServiceNow ( SNOW ) platform and leverage that investment . Besides SNOW incident and ticketing management , A & M has enabled space reservations , security / operations , and hardware asset management . Zung and team are also in-flight implementing software asset management , migrating multiple back office and client service teams away from legacy email and Excel-based incident ticket management and tracking to SNOW .
“ We view SNOW as a key piece of our technology enabling capabilities and not
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