Ah, the good old days

By Eduardo Ross

It is very hard to break preconceived notions on any reality around us. As a species, we can sure get set in our ways. Being set in my ways makes it hard for me to deal with IBM's ongoing changes and transformations. In the late 80s IBM was a corporation that derived most of its revenue from hardware sales. I cut my teeth in the midrange community on that IBM business model.

Over the last several years, IBM has gone through a conscious transformation from being a hardware-based company to one based mostly on services. This transformation hasn’t been a secret. For quite a while now IBM has been telling its investors, and anyone else who would listen, that the future was in services. But for those of us who grew up with the old hardware-based IBM, the change is hard to accept because it requires us to change our mindset and perception of IBM. Perhaps making the change even harder to accept is the fact that we also must acknowledge that certain platforms that are so dear to us may no longer play a pivotal role in IBM’s future.

I was reminded of this transformation while reading Jeffrey O’Brien’s article IBM's grand plan to save the planet. O’Brien presents CEO Sam Palmisano’s strategy to put IBM’s best assets to work for IBM and for humanity. By applying the deep research capabilities within the company’s labs and the services arm built over the last decade, IBM can tackle problems that no one else can; problems such as managing a city’s vehicle traffic or tracing the flow of food from production to consumer’s tables. When IBM talks about services don’t think that it means traditional IT services engagements. IBM wants the lucrative services end of the spectrum and that means focusing on projects where there will be low competition. The bet is that IBM’s brainiac researchers give the company the edge it needs over its competitors.

It appears that shifting to services has been a great strategy for IBM and is a good use of the assets it’s accumulated over the years. However, accepting this new phase in IBM leaves one longing for the good ol’ days when the AS/400 was an important part of IBM’s formula for success.

Comments

[used computers]

IBM - we have clients and community. We're client driven, we're focused on business value. Our clients drive us to the worlds that we're in and the work that we do. SL has a critical mass that lends itself to it. our clients will also say, we'd like to go to a much younger demographic, so we can help them elsewhere too.