The Dozen 2002IBM Corp.Armonk, NYIBM has a vision. It knows how to run its business, satisfy customers and partners, and keep investors happy in the present, which enables the company to fund massive research and development efforts for the future. It knows how to stoke the ambitions of its developers by connecting R&D to commercial product implementations — and then through patents, guard the firm's intellectual capital like the bricks of Fort Knox. And when "software becomes service" entered the IT industry's lexicon as the paradigm for the 21st Century, IBM was already there to compete for the role of premier infrastructure solutions provider. IBM may be the closest we have to a "category killer" in the IT business, potentially marginalizing the likes of Oracle, and someday, even Microsoft. IBM's "sum" would be nothing if the "parts" weren't exemplary. Led by DB2 Universal Database (UDB) and WebSphere Application Server, IBM software has never competed more strongly. From the "Shark" systems down to the midrange Fast T700, IBM's resurgent storage products are major headaches for once-mighty market leaders. And in hardware, the company is reaping the benefits of R&D for its mainframe, Unix, and pervasive platforms. However, it is IBM's ability to design, build, and manage the parts into whole solutions that positions it as the IT industry's most formidable and influential player. Contributing around 40 percent of the company's revenue, Global Services has become perhaps the most important "market" for IBM's product divisions — and their partners, and sometimes their competitors. After being ignored for many years, IBM now has the attention of leading ISVs, including PeopleSoft Inc., SAP AG, and Siebel Systems Inc. Technical merits of IBM's products aside, it certainly can't hurt that ISVs are desperate to reach Global Services' roster of customers. LOWER TCO, INCREASE BUSINESSThe preeminence of Global Services keeps IBM focused on solving business problems, rather than pursuing technology as an end in itself. While some of its competitors figured the dot-com party would go on indefinitely, IBM saw the day coming when businesses would want to drive down IT costs. IBM's investment in self-managing systems is already bearing fruit. But business acumen also explains IBM's strong interest in Linux and open-source computing. How will customers keep TCO in line as they try to deploy huge server farms and clustered databases? Linux could be a big part of the solution — and a good way of moving the axis of software into value-added services, IBM's strength. This isn't to say that IBM has lost its passion for technology: IBM has plenty of that. But to serve the needs of intelligent enterprises, passion needs a business context. IBM's execution makes it Number One in this year's Dozen. MAJOR MOVES IN 2001· Acquired Informix Software's database products for $1 billion · Introduced WebSphere 4.0, featuring higher transaction performance · Released eServer p690, featuring "self-healing" technology based on IBM Research Project eLiza, for high-end Unix and Java server implementations CLASSIC CUSTOMERS· Bekins HomeDirectUSA developed a Web-based shipping and tracking system with WebSphere, VisualAge, DB2, and IMS · Experian Automotive Information Services deployed DB2 UDB EEE for AIX to create National Vehicle Database - a data warehouse with more than 15 billion rows of data
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