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By Natasha Lomas, 5 March 2009 14:54

NEWS

The Chinese word for crisis is made up of two characters: danger and opportunity - an observation frequently used to spice up conference keynotes and one seemingly not lost on the head of Alcatel-Lucent.

Speaking at Alcatel-Lucent's 2009 Enterprise Forum in Paris, CEO Ben Verwaayen said the world is facing up to not one but two crises: the current financial turbulence and the ongoing threat of climate change.

However such a scenario should be viewed by the business world as a "unique opportunity" to reshape companies and processes and build a new digitally enabled future, according to Verwaayen.

"What is the thing that [the economic and the climate crises] have in common? It's that the solution - at least a major part of the solution - is right in front of us. It's the digital economy. The knowledge-based economy," he told delegates.

"A low carbon economy is based on knowledge and it's based on the capability of people to find like-minded people wherever they are and work together in real-time," Verwaayen added.

A shift towards all-IP networks and software as a service lies at the heart of this new world order, according to the Alcatel-Lucent CEO.

Analyst house Gartner's senior VP of research, Peter Sondergaard, speaking at the same event, said inaction is not an option in the current economic climate - and any business putting its head in the sand waiting for the storm to blow over will simply "suffocate".

IT chiefs should instead step up and cash-in the credibility they have built up within the business to push for investment in a "forward-thinking" technology strategy - preparing to capitalise on the post-crisis world, he added.

"You can't just get caught up in cutting costs and running the business because you'll run yourself into the ground and you'll run your business into the ground," Sondergaard warned. "It is important for you that you use that [credibility] now to move towards transforming the business."

Technologies that Gartner predicts will be reshaping businesses and business processes in a few years include next-gen Bluetooth and wireless techs, new display technologies, location and contextual information, and the mobile web and widgets.

"As you look at cost optimising [your technology] infrastructure keep in mind that these technologies build the future for your company," he said. "What [you need to be] building is a 'sensitory' infrastructure to allow you to better utilise the assets - the physical assets and the human assets - that you have in your organisation to make you a viable competitor organisation over the next five to 10 years. "

Gartner predicts there will be 7.3 billion networked devices worldwide by 2012, along with almost 300 million subscribers of location-based services.

Companies must "start to look at moving from services to application or software-based services", said Sondergaard. "The global market of what we would call context-based computing and communications… is probably by that stage going to be $250bn and so the point here is: are you ready?"