GE Access's McDermott Says The Game Has Changed

"Woody Hayes [former football coach at Ohio State] was the king of the three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust strategy. Today, offensive sets are more complex with three, four and even five receivers on a wide open field. Now you have to cover the entire field," McDermott told the crowd of partners gathered for GE Access's annual New Frontiers Conference here. "You can't focus on the space between the yard markers. That makes [football] more challenging, more exciting. The same is true in our industry."

McDermott, whose father coached at the University of Dayton for more than two decades, told solution providers that, while business opportunities are plentiful, the game has changed and they have to be willing to adapt to a new marketplace in which customers want to see a clear return on their investment.

"If you want to close big deals, forget about competing on price. You have to show how anything from maintenance to training to financing to spare parts will have an ROI," she said. "Understand how your customers measure ROI. Show how your solution prints money for them."

Server and storage consolidation, for example, can offer ROI in a short period of time. "Customers may have hundreds of underutilized servers sucking up valuable maintenance dollars and license fees," McDermott said. "Just because it's not broke doesn't mean it's not costing money."

In addition, wireless networking can yield an ROI in terms of productivity gains and reduced network infrastructure costs," she said. "It's not surprising that analysts say the market for wireless LANs will increase from $2.3 billion last year to $4.7 billion in 2004. Wireless LANs will rival cellular [networks] for subscribers," she said.

Wireless technology has broken down three significant barriers that translate into effective solutions for end users, McDermott said. First, the technology has evolved to the point where it can be implemented effectively. Second, there are now enough solution provider personnel who have the skills to deploy wireless solutions. Third, wireless security applications are being developed.

Another significant opportunity for solution providers is in markets affected by government regulation, such as health care and financial services, McDermott said, adding that GE Access recently created a separate overlay group focused on government opportunities.

"One of the best things to happen to our industry is government regulation. That's driving demand," she said. "For example, a new California law says that any agencies that have unencrypted data on California residents must disclose every security breach. That's a huge potential windfall for those selling security solutions."

Vulnerability assessment opportunities are expected to double over the next five years, she said. "That might be conservative if federal regulation is passed."