Re: XPS to IDS - a positive note for all from the road

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I'm not sure I read the same things you did Kevin, and a lot of the statements were so vague as to be able to be interpreted differently depending on who's reading the information. A company with the scale of IBM can say really say whatever it wants to make whatever the numbers are, mean whatever they want them to mean. I did notice a lot of chatter about how professional services and acquisitions contributed to the increase in sales. It actually left me wanting to ask more questions than providing any real answers. Also did you catch the stuff about emerging markets and economies? It's tragic that Informix went from being an ideal opportunity for SMB markets to now being held hostage by people who are only interested in developing business in countries and markets that are "developing", read "third-world", where the money making opportunities really work for a company like IBM and its offshoring obsession. See if you can dig up some real numbers relevant to Informix, now THAT would be interesting. Kevin Cherkauer wrote: > From the latest IBM quarterly report summary here: > > http://biz.yahoo.com/e/080729/ibm10-q.html > > The following calculates the gross profits (in millions) for software versus > other major areas of IBM sales for the six months ending June 20, 2008, done > by multiplying the reported revenue times the gross margin: > > Software: 8,784.9 = 10,421 * 0.843 > GTS: 6,229.8 = 19,777 * 0.315 > GBS: 2,544.6 = 10,018 * 0.254 > Systems: 3,574.3 = 9,431 * 0.379 > Financing: 672.2 = 1,266 * 0.531 > > Of the big five revenue areas, software delivers the largest absolute > profits, as well as the largest relative profits. Software profits are more > than double those from hardware (Systems above). They are larger than those > from either services wing (GTS or GBS). They are even larger than BOTH > services wings added together (GTS + GBS = 8,774.4). > > So your statement that, "Maybe IBM should get out of the software business > altogether because they don't seem to be very good at it," does not seem to > hold a lot of water -- or any water at all. > > -- > Kevin Cherkauer > Software Engineer > IBM Informix Dynamic Server -- Database Kernel > >

Couple of comments: * IBM may be able to make many things up. But assuming it doesn't print money (Printing division is sold) it has to come from somewhere. So if you think IBM is propping up software then some other areas must have a really stellar time (in secret) * Growth in the US market in databases is limited to existing customers buying more ot more expensive stuff. So what vendors need to do is: a) Upsell b) cross-sell c) Hijack competitors accounts (which in IBM secret lingo (all is revealed ;-) is called "whitespace") a) and b) get you those high single digit numbers c) is one tough nut to crack. Teaching your GF drive stick is nothing compared to the pain of moving an application from X to Y. Now, in those "third world countries" growth is a lot higher. Instead of whitespace you can actually sell into the "green field". All you have to do is win the bids and deliver on your promises. Much easier than flipping a competitor's customer. Cheers Serge -- Serge Rielau DB2 Solutions Development IBM Toronto Lab