Natasa Sekulic, sales manager at IBM - Our solutions help wiser company management

Natasa Sekulic

Sekulic has been with IBM since 2003 and after taking a position in Belgrade, she was the main operational manager for Southeastern Europe and Romania. In her interview for eKapija, she is speaking about the company plans, chances which will be provided for young experts in Serbia, transformations IBM is going through, significant projects and on the fact how much Serbian market (does not) differ from other countries they operate in as well as about the challenges which new position brings.

- In 103 years of existence, IBM has always been capable of recognizing every new move and trend in the world and to adapt and transform in order to keep the pace up with it, Today, in the era of cognitive computing, IBM is also undergoing a serious transformation. From a technological company, we are becoming a partner in development of our users – Sekulic says for eKapija.

Investments in strategic sectors

A year behind us has shown a direction IBM is planning to take. This giant is slowly withdrawing from some sectors while it is planning to invest more in some other sectors.

IBM will put its efforts into three main segments - big data and analytics, cloud, as well as user experience.

- In cloud, for instance, we generated an incredible growth of 69% and one of our most important investments in that field is the acquisition of SoftLayer totaling USD1,2 billion. For sure we will continue investing in this sector.

Last year, within IBM, Watson group was set up totaling some billion dollars.

- On the other hand, IBM is leaving some fields which are less attractive for us and is investing in some other sectors. It is not a secret that one part of server business, i.e. the acquisition of our server division by Lenovo, is separating. We want to invest these funds into what we think the future is– in business analytics, in development of Watson, in solutions which help users be smarter and faster.

IBM will continue investing in systems which help users to get an answer to the question of why something happened in their company, what they can do now about that and potential future scenario.

- Our solutions help that managers do not have to make decisions any longer based on experience, feeling, forecasts but they get a specific calculation with respect to consequences of a specific decisions. They help wiser management of the company. Every company has its “buried treasure” - data on users, their habits, interest, activities, etc. This information generates itself. It is only necessary t structure them and analyze them in a specific manner – our collocutor says.

- You have to consider every user separately, to adapt the offer. "One size fits all" is no longer working. Customers’ habits are changing today with an incredible influence of Internet, social networks, etc. The group of solutions IBM is promoting now is related to modern way of doing business and trade.

Practice for the young in IBM

Last year was very good and fruitful in Serbia as well, our collocutor says.

- Last year was very successful when it comes to profit rise. We generated that success thanks to strategic decisions and the fact that IBM locally, in a way, started transforming earlier than at the global level. Our growth in Serbia came mostly from untraditional sources and it is not growth in hardware sector but services and software. If there were not for that we would have had an average year and with it was fantastic. We expect 2014 to be excellent as well.

Apart from core business in a so-called telco sector and business with all operators in Serbia, in the upcoming period, IBM expects a lot from cooperation with the Government and state-owned companies.

Last year, IBM developed so-called. CTO study (Cost Take Out), which, in line with different criteria, compares our state administration with their colleagues from developed countries – Germany, Denmark, etc. The Study points out at not only what should change but the course of action, technological priorities, priority investments, etc. The focus was on ministries of internal affairs, finance and justice. The Study is a good starting point for further activities of the state.

IBM Croatia with another 20 companies has recently signed a bill of right which obliges that it will help employment of the young in the upcoming period. IBM in Serbia has similar plans, our collocutor says, adding that they have been working with the youth so far as well and that they will pay more attention to this in the next period.

IBM in Belgrade has 80 people and what they point out as our collocutor says is the fact that they are trying more often to “take” the job from the colleagues from other regions.

- Some 20% people from our team in Serbia is working for wider region. It helps both to them, companies and entire country because experience and knowledge transfer is precious. For instance, our colleague from Serbia last year reached to the position of IBM Fellow. It is the title which 9 people most in the entire IBM which has some 400.000 people gets.

Sales Manager at IBM reminds that she witnesses how experience sharing is important.

Still, she points out that the environment in Serbia does not differ a lot from neighboring countries.

For the end, our collocutor reminds that in the previous year, IBM was very active when it comes to social responsibility in Serbia and points out that they will continue this way in 2014.