One of those, WITEM (Women in IT Executive Mentoring), is an external programme that was started in 2005 by Dell's managing director ANZ, Joe Kremer, after he identified a "real gap for women in the industry", as Harrigan recalls. The programme has been running since then and marries up a CEO with a key female executive to receive mentoring for 12 months. The programme has been running in Australia and Harrigan says Dell is "looking to expand into New Zealand with it this year". Alongside that, other programmes target females in different levels of the business to help them move further up the hierarchy. The DWEN (Dell Women Entrepreneur Network) targets females in small and medium businesses and brings them together in a think thank where they can share stories and discuss views. Harrigan attended one of the annual events in New Delhi this year. "The energy in the room was palpable, it was very inspiring to see women breaking down the boundaries," she says.
But what are those boundaries? Harrigan says "women can have a great idea but reach a point when, to go from a small to a medium business, they need a framework that multinational companies take for granted". She says women tend to "undervalue" themselves and are "not known for being good at pitching themselves". This programme aims to help with those pitches and mentors women on a number of business key points such as the preparation of business plans.
The company is also launching a new programme this month called "IT is not for geeks" which it will take to schools to encourage teenage girls to choose technology as an area of study. "It's an hour and a half programme on why they should consider technology, to bust the myth that IT is purely technology, to really show that technology is pervasive in every sector of our life today," says Harrigan. Dell is kicking off the programme in Sydney this month and Harrigan says the next step is to start it in New Zealand as well.
On an internal level, the company also runs a number of programmes to help women move up in the chain, including the WISE (Women in Search of Excellence) and the "Taking the stage" programmes, which aim to "give women a voice". In ANZ, Dell has about 30 percent female staff across different areas of the business.