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May 27, 2008

Making Management Understand the Value of System i

COMMON Europe's Top Concerns 2008 survey has revealed the latest Golden Concern: making management understand the value of System i. A Golden Concern is basically a free-text spot on the survey where respondents can enter any key concerns that weren't listed as pre-populated choices. COMMON Europe just wrapped up its annual Congress 2008 event in Barcelona and released the survey data.

For other top issues, the survey showed that "improve IT security and continuity" and "satisfy internal customers" are the topmost concerns for worldwide System i users. For the first time this year, COMMON Europe extended its multilingual survey for global participation, and 370 people responded from all corners of the globe.

The top concerns were followed by "do fast application development to fulfill business needs," "keep the skills current for the existing staff," and "treat data security and confidentiality as business risks." Surprisingly, COMMON Europe noted, "Virtualise servers" and "Reply with efficacy to ever growing storage needs" came in at 13 and 15 in a list of 15.

The second-most-cited Golden Concern, by the way, was "native graphical user interface (or modernize application)."

IBM's Power Systems Announcements (and Customer Plans)

Customer responses to the recent IBM announcement were:

  • Migrate in 2008 to IBM i 6.1: 43% yes, 37% no, 20% unspecified
  • Migrate in 2008 to Power 6 processors: 23% yes, 55% no, 22% unspecified
  • Migrate in 2008 to Blades with IBM i 6.1: 6% yes, 69% no, 25% unspecified

COMMON Europe uses the Top Concerns survey to understand its member priorities and to influence IBM and its Business Partners.

"IBM looks forward to the feedback from the i community through Top Concerns and especially the requirements from the COMMON Europe and Americas customer advisory councils that help shape our future products," noted Mark Shearer, vice president of marketing for IBM Business Systems, in his keynote speech at the COMMON Europe Congress in Barcelona.

"Feedback from previous surveys has strongly influenced our IBM strategy for the new Power Systems platform," he added.

Posted by cmaxcer at May 27, 2008 9:50 AM

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Comments

In the Management Information Systems (MIS) classes, one golden rule that we constantly stress to the students is that management support is vital in any information systems development projects. Ultimately, business executives are the ones running the business, controlling the budget, and evaluating the IS/IT personnel and projects. To enhance the sales of IBM i and to brighten the future of IBM i (and Power Systems), business executives and managers need to be exposed to and educated in the values of IBM i (and Power Systems).

Posted by: Keng Siau at May 29, 2008 12:35 AM

I could not agree more with their top two Golden Concerns.

Posted by: lujate at May 29, 2008 7:57 AM

I have to say that I am really excited that these two Golden Concerns, which have been mentioned countless times on this website and at other occasions, are now explicitly stated and "empirically verified."

Now, the key is what are we going to do about them? Knowing the problems is one thing. Resolving the issues is another.

Are we going to pad on each other's back and say "Well done! We know that all along. Let's go for a drink."? Or are we going to get together as a community to turn these two Golden Concerns into two Golden Opportunities?

Posted by: Keng Siau at May 29, 2008 7:17 PM

Their? Our? Who? We?

I just wanted to point out that U.S and Europe (specially Western Europe) are in the same boat. Economy and interests are more than similar and that's how so called Golden Concerns are similar too.

I see ourselves on this playground as one IBMi family without differentiating the ppl or even the concerns based on the nationality/continent.

Even though I am racistic about the fact that IBM prices seem to be equavalent in U.S (in dollars) and Europe (in euros) even though 1 dollar is not 1 euro ;)

BTW.. Greetings to all in our IBMi family from Finland.

Posted by: Chimera at May 29, 2008 11:50 PM

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