Home » Blogs » Industry Bits

Industry Bits

Bytes from System iNEWS editors

«Previous Main Next »

July 23, 2008

Can Outsourcing Save the i?

So, if any of you didn't happen to listen to the Q2 financials last week from IBM, you really missed out. To sum it up, IBM is kicking butt and taking names.

Overall revenue growth was up 13%, with major improvements in mainframes (up 32%) and System p revenues (up 29%). Although System i revenues were way down, that's to be expected with the convergence of the two lines and promotion of the new "Power Equation" instead.

One bit of revenue growth that stood out (at least for me) from the results, which were presented by Mark Loughridge, IBM’s Senior VP and CFO:

"Our Strategic Outsourcing revenue was up 13 percent. Driven by prior year signings and continued growth in our base accounts.

"Business Transformation Outsourcing was up 29 percent as reported. We had double-digit revenue growth in the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. And our BPO Daksh business continued to grow at double-digits."

So I ask you this: With outsourcing playing a major role in IBM's growth this quarter, and Power Systems looking strong for the future, is it possible that outsourcing could be the savior of the i?

Certainly some vendors, including MKS and their Integrity suite and Federated Service Architecture, which helps teams on opposite sides of the globe communicate and work in sync, seem to be following that logic.

--Erin Bradford, systems management & availability editor

Posted by rsanders at July 23, 2008 10:28 AM

«Previous Main Next »
Comments

Outsourcing will save the System i?

I don't think so, particularly if you think that the business will be performed by IBM Global Services, also known as "I've Been Milked and Got Suckered".

Posted by: sjl at July 23, 2008 1:10 PM

Outsourcing could be the saviour of i, but I have a feeling it is an attempt made too late.
If you go and visit any outsourcing shop and quiz any 10 consultants if they know what is System i, the answer would be negative. The most promising answer could be: "It is a mainframe!!!"

This has hurt the i in 2 ways:

  1. Lack of sufficient skilled manpower on System i - a big deterrent for new development on System i
  2. Little knowledge of benefits of System i platform and i OS among outsourcing consultants results in the platform/OS being ignored altogether as a technology option.

I am not sure if there is any focussed attempt at addressing the above 2 issues, and if so is that sufficient.

Posted by: Narayanan R at July 24, 2008 12:27 AM

What IBM don't tell you is that their staff morale is low as no salary increase were made to a large part of the IBM population. No wonder that their profits soared; no doubt the top bods got their bonuses. If IBM had a union, their throw away attitude to their staff would not of been tolerated. IBM have no concern if staff are happy or not -- all they are interested in is their bottom line.

Posted by: Nick Hall at July 24, 2008 3:05 AM

Outsourcing will save the System i?

Not in my experience. I work as a freelance consultant mainly on the System i in the European mainland. Most companies outsource System i-based IT for either of these 2 reasons:

1) To aid with, advise, or execute independently, the migration from one or more applications from the i platform to a new platform. The new platform is in 70% of cases either Oracle or SAP based applications. Windows (with sql server) is a minority less 15% of migration assignments, but remarkable enough, it's share is rising rapidly.

2) to support legacy system i applications for a longer period until the business makes a final decision on the new system. The longer period may extend over several years. The main motivation is to free in-house personel from these mundane tasks and to train them in the new environment.

Conclusion: will Outsourcing save the System i?
Answer: doubt it very much.

Posted by: ugeerts at July 24, 2008 11:07 AM

Post a comment




Remember Me?

(you may use HTML tags for style)

Acceptable Use Policy

Blog Feed

January 2009
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Blog Policy

We welcome your comments and opinions and encourage lively debate on the issues. However, Penton Media reserves the right to delete or move any content that it may determine, in its sole discretion, violates or may violate its Terms of Use or is otherwise unacceptable. For more information, see Penton Media's Terms of Use.

ProVIP Sponsors