IBM the Next Great Software Company? 132
Diomidis Spinellis writes "A report in this week's Economist discusses IBM's globalization strategy and the company's presence in India. Refreshingly, the article admits that there's more to outsourcing than cheap labor, contrasting IBM's calculated investments with Apple's rapid pull-out from Bangalore. Although the jury is still out on how sluggish multinationals can compete with vigorous tigers, it seems that IBM has a credible strategy for becoming the next great software company, and that outsourcing is only a part of the puzzle."
Re:Interesting (Score:5, Informative)
IBM understands how the maths work (Score:5, Informative)
Re:IBM's Strategy (Score:3, Informative)
So all you know about IBM is that they make Lotus Notes, right (which I'll grant you, it's a pig)? And of course, you've never had any up-close time with MicroSoft's Outlook/Exhange product, so it's just peachy, right?
Let's see - MicroSoft took DOS (a perfectly great system which performed almost exactly as advertised) and turned it into Windows Vista. Hmmm . . . were you saying something about a track record for selling "crummy products"?
Let's see . . . MicroSoft Office . . . seems to me that no version of MicroSoft Office has ever shipped which didn't almost immediately require patching to correct some more-or-less egregious flaw.
As for MicroSoft's partners - I used to be a contractor working to install/configure/integrate MicroSoft products. I personally never saw MicroSoft products "work pretty well on their own" for businesses I went to . . . that's why in 1994 I was worth $5,000.00/week as a consultant - to make those MicroSoft products work "pretty well".
IBM from the Inside (Score:5, Informative)
Re:IBM is in the computer business now? (Score:5, Informative)
Did they grow up? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:IBM's Strategy (Score:5, Informative)
Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange are different products: the first is a "groupware" platform that happens to do mail, the other is a mail server that might be linked to some other Microsoft platforms (notably: sharepoint). The Notes client can be used for accessing "databases" (which are actually a container with semi-structured data and application logic in one), for which IBM provides a "mail database" that is kinda capable of handling mail. Outlook is a superb mail client that does nothing else unless you've got someone willing to create "outlook foms" that link to other MS technologies.
The good about Domino/Notes:
So, it's not a black and white issue, and there are very good reasons why Notes and Domino can be a better choice for a particular situation.
Disclaimer: I know a thing or two about IBM/Lotus technologies (and of Microsoft and Linux, so don't hold that against me ;-)
Re:Software company? (Score:3, Informative)