NOW maybe we'll all believe Ed Brill and Alan Lepofsky...
Category IBM/Lotus
... when they say that the brand barriers within IBM are a thing of the past...
A follow up to yesterday's story about IBM refocusing on vertical industry solutions. In Computerworld, there's a story about the reorganization with the following paragraph:
"The company plans to retrain its staff so that more than half of its 13,000 worldwide sales employees focus on industry-specific product sets. It will also shift its marketing and development efforts away from a focus on IBM's five software brands and toward cross-brand application packages tailored for specialized industries, according to company spokesman John Reilly."
This says some very significant things... "Cross-brand application packages". Lotus playing with Websphere playing with DB2 playing with Tivoli.
Here's your glass... half-full or half-empty? Your isolated Lotus-only world is a thing of the past. Does that scare you? It shouldn't. You can now leverage what you know in Notes/Domino, and apply it in even more areas. In addition, you will have a nice transition point to pick up additional knowledge and skills in complementary areas (DB2, Websphere, J2EE, Linux, etc).
The more I read about yesterday's announcement, the more I like it. There will be more information coming forth about this, I'm sure. I'm more convinced than ever that my personal decision to concentrate on IBM technologies was a correct choice with some interesting opportunities for the future.
... when they say that the brand barriers within IBM are a thing of the past...
A follow up to yesterday's story about IBM refocusing on vertical industry solutions. In Computerworld, there's a story about the reorganization with the following paragraph:
"The company plans to retrain its staff so that more than half of its 13,000 worldwide sales employees focus on industry-specific product sets. It will also shift its marketing and development efforts away from a focus on IBM's five software brands and toward cross-brand application packages tailored for specialized industries, according to company spokesman John Reilly."
This says some very significant things... "Cross-brand application packages". Lotus playing with Websphere playing with DB2 playing with Tivoli.
Here's your glass... half-full or half-empty? Your isolated Lotus-only world is a thing of the past. Does that scare you? It shouldn't. You can now leverage what you know in Notes/Domino, and apply it in even more areas. In addition, you will have a nice transition point to pick up additional knowledge and skills in complementary areas (DB2, Websphere, J2EE, Linux, etc).
The more I read about yesterday's announcement, the more I like it. There will be more information coming forth about this, I'm sure. I'm more convinced than ever that my personal decision to concentrate on IBM technologies was a correct choice with some interesting opportunities for the future.
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Comments
1) Lotus sales was merged into IBM sales over two years ago. Lotus has operated just like any other SWG brand as far as sales since then.
2) As of earlier this year, Lotus salespeople reported to regional SWG directors or vice-presidents, not to anyone in the Lotus chain of command. Jim McDade remains the WW Lotus VP of Sales, but the job, like so many at IBM, is one of "matrix management."
Posted by Ed Brill At 20:36:00 On 02/12/2003 | - Website - |
To the extent where the biggest 30+ customers in Europe have a dedicated person who tries to expand usage of ALL IBM products within these companies. Commercial confidence and Ed Brills Violent Tendancies prevent me from spilling more beans.
So yeah - good news, but in my case, slightly old. Possibly, this is more reassuring to those folks who've not seen this system in operation at the Enterprise customer of their choice yet - this is why I'm posting it.
Gerstner did get the Elephant to dance. Sometimes it even dances to the beat. (though not often enough for my poor mashed toes..
---* Bill
Posted by Wild Bill At 17:36:14 On 03/12/2003 | - Website - |
Posted by Bruce Elgort At 13:47:47 On 03/12/2003 | - Website - |
having worked with Lotus Sales, it was crazy that Lotus Sales wasn't merged with IBM sales within the first year. By having two sales teams often visiting customers it often just confused them.
Posted by Carl Tyler At 07:19:30 On 02/12/2003 | - Website - |
Posted by Ed Brill At 18:55:23 On 03/12/2003 | - Website - |