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Fresh Details Emerge on IBM Initiatives

Analysis of News Events
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It is a pity that many of us who write about the IT industry have the attention spans of hyperactive toddlers. As we rush off to cover the next announcement from the thirteenth vendor that called us today, a story we covered a week or a month ago quietly turns into something that is bigger than today's latest headline. With that thought in mind, this article revisits two topics from my previous articles that are turning into significant stories for 2007. Keep reading, as you will probably be discussing these stories with your colleagues for months to come.

VIP Takes the System i Back to the Future

In late January, I mentioned that one of IBM's key strategies for building the System i business this year will be the Vertical Industry Program (VIP). Under VIP, IBM and selected Business Partners are working together to create packaged solutions for targeted sub-industries. IBM's goal is to reach 80 sub-industries with solutions that are specialized for them.

Since my last report, more information has emerged about the VIP program that indicates it could be the start of something big for the System i. According to IBM sources, VIP is a strategic effort to resurrect the marketing and sales model that made the AS/400 a tremendous success in the 1980s. In that model, IBM has recruited over 150 partners for the VIP program and plans to expand that number to over 200 partners by the middle of this year. The typical VIP partner will take responsibility for 300 to 500 prospective customers in a specific sub-industry and in an area that can be driven across in less than a day. For instance, KMR Systems is covering the New York metropolitan area with its system for trade unions. Another VIP partner, HarrisData, is targeting its ERP suite at furniture makers in North Carolina and metal fabricators in Chicago.

While the VIP strategy is about acting locally, it is also about thinking globally. Over time, IBM wants to take many of the local programs and replicate them in other territories. To understand how this could work, consider the "casino in a box" solution that IBM, Agilysys, Bally Technologies, InfoGenesis, and Infor created for casino management. Taken together, the team has gained an industry-leading presence in the Las Vegas area. It is now marketing its joint solution across the United States as well as in major gaming centers in Macau, the United Kingdom, and India.

The more I look at the VIP program, the more I think that it could be particularly successful at getting the System i back into companies with fewer than 100 employees. These are the same businesses that the AS/400 began losing to Windows servers a decade ago. While such companies may not make a big contribution to IBM revenues over the short term, they could have a significant long-term impact on sales and on the overall viability of the System i. However, the VIP initiative will only succeed if IBM provides its partners with sustained marketing support and aggressively priced hardware. For the sake of the System i, let us hope that Big Blue delivers on both fronts.

The Great WDSC Debate Widens

When I examined IBM's announcement of WebSphere Development Studio Client (WDSC) 7.0 two weeks ago, it was unclear how many readers would care about the latest release of the tool set. Apparently, many of you have passionate feelings about the subject. A number of readers left comments in which they chastised IBM for deprecating CODE/400 and putting some much-wanted features of WDSC 7.0 into the Advanced Edition of the development environment, a product that costs $3,480 per seat.

While it is dangerous to say that a group of programmers agrees about any subject, there appears to be a loose consensus building about what IBM should do with WDSC. Most developers seem to agree that IBM should move two components from the Advanced Edition into the standard edition that everyone under software maintenance gets for free. These are the Remote Systems Explorer Screen Designer and the Application Diagram Component, a tool that lets users visualize ILE RPG and ILE COBOL applications and better understand their structure. In addition, many developers want WDSC standard edition to include a replacement for Report Layout Utility (RLU). I have also noticed on the MC Press discussion forums that many people are calling for a Web-based equivalent to WDSC that they could log into from any workstation. That would eliminate one of the biggest obstacles that developers face to adopting modern tools: the expense of having to upgrade their workstations to run them.

I hope that IBM is listening to the rising tide of constructive criticism and changing its development tools roadmap accordingly. If the vendor was to deliver on the above requests, I believe that a significant number of developers would jump from CODE/400 and the SEU/PDM toolset to WDSC. That would go a long way toward helping developers modernize their applications and keeping the System i relevant.

Do you have a point of view about WDSC that you want to share? If so, please leave your comments here. Then, consider posting those same comments on the new blog that IBM's WDSC development team has created to communicate with their users. If anybody can do an effective job of carrying your message to the right decision-makers at IBM, these guys can do it. Let's help them make WDSC a tool set that is a viable option for us all.

(Editor's note: For more about WDSC 7, see Joe Pluta's article in this issue.)

Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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