System iNetwork

Sounds like the old days of IBM when we had 'Data Processing" and "Office Products" calling on us. If you were a 360-20 or System III, System 36/38 you were part of the "Office Products" division, if you were 370 or above you were part of the "Data Processing" division. And they were very forceful trying to move you to their platform. I remember when we ordered our System III-15D and both were calling on me . . . finally got all in same room and we hashed it out . . . stayed with the 15D and then System 38.

I have mixed feelings. On one hand it seems like the risk is increased for the i to not get proper attention. I also don't know if it makes sense to split groups based on size of systems — seems to me that a number of customers have both sizes of systems (we do). I also could really care less about what the System p supposedly has to offer — while the hardware is similar, the system sizes similar, customer sizes are similar, the business customers preference and the underlying intent of each area is dramatically different. Not knocking the p (this time) but the value proposition to each OS is dramatically different.

The only good thing I can see in this is that Mark Shearer is on top of all of this — I think he is the only executive at IBM that gets the System i and its customers. Heaven forbid when there is a change and it's some poobah from the p series.

I read an email on the subject this morning and as of right now I'm not enthused by any stretch. It just seems like a step to water down the business benefits of the System i. Can anyone say eServer?!?

Actually, Darrel had it close. It was the NAD and NSD divisions, NAD being "National Accounts Division" and NSD being "National Sales Division", which was the little accounts.

And yes, Darrel was right, the System 3-15-D was about the tipping point. It was back then an attempt to reduce the # of faces an account would see from IBM. All of a sudden, DP guys were supposed to sell typewriters and copiers, and vice versa. It was nuts. It probably still is. Most of the product goes through partners anyhow. The move may just cut a bunch of jobs at IBM, however. I liken it to inventorying the deck chairs on the Titanic. Some customers will scramble to make sure they are covered by the "big guys", and the rest will continue to deal with their partner(s).

The "old" IBM had Office Products Division (copiers and Selectric typewriters) General Systems Division (GSD) had the S/3 and DPD, the Data Processing Division handled what is commonly called Main Frames.

IBM is great at selling System i upgrades, but I think they leave it to the business partners to sell new System i installations, pretty much.

Am I wrong on this?

Brad Jensen
www.laservaultbackup.com
Series i tapeless backup

It would appear that no one at IBM ever majored in history. You have to remember history to predict the future and this reorganization is definitely a replay of the history. How well I remember the days when IBM decided to reorganize before and get rid of the GSD group. Who did they give the s/38 sales to - the main frame group, who really did give a "hoot" for that product because it didn't pay the sales people as well. Who sold the s/38 - yes, you have got it, the s/38 customers. Look at the sales history just before "SilverLake" went into GA.

I agree with the historians. As usual, they are great in launching new technologies but they totally get it wrong when marketing jumps in. Then you better keep your pockets closed. Want to see an IBM-salesrep frustrated? Just ask him: "Any NEW placements done the last 12/24/36/48 months?"

It'd be nice if they just finsihed with all of this mucking around with the platform and hived it off into a separate company. Another pointless "realignment" of internal IBM resources that customers care nothing about. We care about what it does, how well it does it and what it costs to do it. Get the message out IBM, then empower your partners to do the selling and sit back collecting the revenue as more people discover this hidden gem of the IT industry. Enough fiddling, please. Cut Silverlake loose.

IBM needs to quickly assure the partners and clients that the new changes will not affect existing initiatives. For example, the System i group has been making great progress with the Academic Initiatives the past few years. How will the new changes affect the System i Academic Initiatives?

The dust needs to settle quickly to prevent the uncertainties from affecting the great progress made in many System i initiatives.

The System i (SilverLake, AS/400) is the best system on the market by far for most small to mediam size organizations. I have used it since its introduction to the market and have experienced the IBM reorganzations many times while still relying on the same business partner for upgrades. Thank god for dependable business partners!

No viruses, secure, dependable, excellent performace, Reasonable Total Cost of Ownership and easy to use from all perspectives. New Customers should be lining up at IBM's door. When will IBM management understand what they have and do something about it?

Ouch! While I don't like to be pessimistic, I don't see much good coming out of this reorganization for System i lovers. Whenever IBM has tried to lump technology and sales together to attack a particular set of potential customers (i.e. SMB), the p and x guys always have a huge numerical advantage and speak much louder than the i folks.

Have you ever asked an IBM AIX salesperson about the System i? "The system what???"

Organizing based upon customer set will put all the p and x sales force out front, while the i folks may get an honorable mention but will loose out to the "More Modern" UNIX???? Is that an oxymoron?

This is very concerning to me. I hope I am wrong.

Dan

Given that sales of AS/400 - iSeries - System i's have been on the decline at a rate of roughly 20% year over year since the record year 1998 - with the exception of a small spike in 2005 due to Power5, one wonders when this trend will end and we will see a solid rebound that lasts a couple of years. Will we ever see that rebound? Will we see jobs come back to this system? Will we see ISV's come back to the native iSeries instead of running to the Microsoft's (rpg for the) .NET framework? Will we?

Given the last organizational shakeup which only spells dillution for the IBM System i folk within the new group as Dan points out, one really starts to think "do we hear a dead toll ringing for System i?"

When will IBM ever get it straigth. The marketing department is very bad when if comes to getting the word out about a very good product (System i). Well, I was hoping this trip around they were going to do more in the marketing area for the System i, but I guess not . . . this is very dissapointing. I wonder with all the attention on the new academics for the System i, is it headed for death.

From what I've read the past three or four years, a number of us saw this move coming. It seems like a good decision from both a logistics and internal business viewpoint. AS/400 (i5) and AIX have common architectural roots and both use the Power chip.

To me, the problem seems one of market positioning. If IBM plays the numbers well, OS/400 will be a big winner; if not, then the best partners can't prevent the loss of a great OS.

AS/400 (i5) has evolved into a multi-OS/multi-function system that, properly used, can save customers huge amounts of money. Few customers or developers appear to understand how to take advantage of the available integration. How can business partners take advantage this integration and educate others so that the i5 revenue recovers?

Actually, IBM's move does make sense if you look at it from their viewpoint. Think about IBM's shareholders and the stockmarket. No shareholder likes to hear that product divisions a, b, c etc are doing very well while division i, the black sheep, is always the one with the bad quarter report. Shareholders might get worried something bad is afoot. So what to do to get rid of that anxiety? Easy, mash division a, b, c etc and the 'i' together and voila, the new group in the organizational structure is once more producing rock solid steady growing figures. Shareholders happy, everything growing, no more black sheeps.

Great isn't it?

The great news is: Mark Shearer is still at the forefront on System i! It appears that what Frank Soltis told us about 5 years ago is happening. I'm going to hold judgement on the organization until we see more about how this will actually play out, i.e., "who" is doing the planning and development for i5OS. Am also interested in "which" executive players provide support to COMMON.

So, with this seemingly retro style move, maybe we'll get the AS/400 name back.

Yes, it is great news that Mark Shearer is at the helm of this reorg announcement. Agree with others commenting here that he appears to get the System i value proposition plus the importance and need for continued emphasis on the education initiatives in the System i space. POWER6 and IP telephony will no doubt ramp up the financials for Q4. Let's give Mark and this admittedly retro reorg idea some space and see how it works.

NAD,GSD,DP,S/W Div etc. Get a 2 wheel luggage carrier, put a 520 on it with a laptop take it into a shop and show 'em how even a green screen with a menu can run an application. Let them try signing in w/o knowing the password; let them try 'executing' a file; let them back up a library on a built in tape in 3-4 minutes; show them a simple query.... Oh that's right, the plan3 reps are gone. Sometimes we make things so complex for the real small shops; i.e. Web Hosting; MQ series.... My suspicion is many would just like a simple way to keep the doors open, with one person managing the system, maintaining apps; writing new apps; supporting PC's and LAN... so much for my job description.

Yes, I understand the price point; too costly for new account rep and too many apps to know... nostalgia 1130; 1401/S32/34/36/38;AS400...Ex IBM;current customer...

NAD,GSD,DP,S/W Div etc. Get a 2 wheel luggage carrier, put a 520 on it with a laptop take it into a shop and show 'em how even a green screen with a menu can run an application. Let them try signing in w/o knowing the password; let them try 'executing' a file; let them back up a library on a built in tape in 3-4 minutes; Show them a simple query... Oh that's right the plan3 reps are gone. Sometimes we make things so complex for the real small shops; i.e. Web Hosting; MQ series.. My suspicion is many would just like a simple way to keep the doors open, with one person managing the system, maintaining apps; writing new apps; supporting PC's and LAN... so much for my job description.

Yes I understand the price point; too costly for new account rep and too many apps to know... nostalgia 1130; 1401/S32/34/36/38;AS400...Ex IBM;current customer...

The System i group has one of the most loyal customer bases. COMMON is a clear indication of that. System i Academic Initiative is also one of the strong suits. How these will be affected by the reorg is an unknown and that is worrisome to many. These foundations have served System i well for many years and these pillars need to be strengthened and not weakened by the reorg.