Technology Helps Intel Corporation Cut Costs And Create More Jobs

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Intel was able to lower its IT cost per employee from $13,500 in 2014 to $13,000 in 2015 with the help of technology efficiency efforts and key hires. On Monday, Intel CIO Kimberly Stevenson released the findings of an annual IT report, saying that the chip maker used technologies such as software-defined networking and the cloud and hired the right people, and this helped in cost reductions.

More flexibility for Intel

In 2015, Intel added 254 new employees to its global IT staff, after which its total employee size was 6,319. The chip maker operated on an IT budget of $1.36 billion in 2015.

Speaking to CIO Journal, Stevenson said, “I will not create any innovation if I have no people. All the good stuff comes from their work.”

It means that she needed to hire more data scientists to apply analytics to Intel’s business. The chip maker is rapidly growing its business intelligence and analytics skills. Also Stevenson is recruiting IT employees with a background in software as a service.

“They may not be developing those applications but they need to figure out how to exploit it and map it to our business processes,” the executive said.

The report also details other areas that work closely with IT, such as sales, marketing and manufacturing, for the purpose of increasing revenue and identifying areas in which the company can save both time and money. For instance, IT worked with the sales and marketing group to create predictive analytics, which Intel refers to as the SMART application. Such application make use of advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities to recommend strategies that allow sales teams and resellers to target the right customers with the right products.

Big savings with the right approach

Also it is now possible for Intel to model different scenarios and help decrease wafer production time with the help of advanced analytics and long-range planning. Such capabilities could help lower Intel’s spending by about $100 million through 2017.

Stevenson has been able to achieve new capabilities and automate department areas. The chip maker transitioned its data center networks to software-defined networking equipment in 2014, and this transition from proprietary equipment to commodity servers helped it save 50%.

“The big value, though, was getting a consistent topology of our network and visibility into that network,” Stevenson said.

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