--- On Fri, 12/4/09, Thompson, Steve <steve_thomp...@stercomm.com> wrote: ------------------SNIP-------------------------------------------- As IBM sales suffer, now's the time to buy a new mainframe http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/120409-ibm-mainframe.html
from above ... But the economy and other factors have cut into IBM mainframe hardware revenue, and IBM's sales team may be feeling some anxiety. IBM System z mainframe revenue decreased 26% year-over-year in the third quarter, and dropped 39% in the second quarter. <SNIP> Now if IBM Sales people were incentivized to sell z/Series and not other platforms at the expense of "mainframes" (churning the market is what I would have called it) you might see a big turn around. But when they could sell more regattas and software that was worth more $$$ to them, and z/Series had been pushed off on the Tier 1 (after yanking the rug from Tier 2 and prohibiting them anything other than MP/3000...) entities, IBM's hardware revenues were doing quite well. Now that self-generated wave is gone. So IBM needs to come up with a new reason for mainframe sales and convince their customers that all those bus-centric machines are baaaaaddddddd. Just my opinion. Regards, Steve Thompson Steve: Of course you are correct. More to the point when IBM slashed SE's in the 1990's and then the sales force late 1990's(?). They got were they are now which is on the slope to out of businessville. What may have precipitated this is when IBM slashed school funding. But in my mind it is a combination of all three (take your pick of the real reason). IBM essentially cut off their feet and their neck is hanging by the noose. The sales force at IBM are now 1-800 people who really do not know the business's they are trying to sell to. The 1-800 people are order takers not sales types. IBM is also getting themselves set up to loose the basic's of business "know your customers". IBM is loosing (no make that hemorrhaging) people and that will hurt the customers in the short and long term. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
