The IBM Software Name Game

[MCWebsite.Staff]

** This thread discusses the article: The IBM Software Name Game **
** This thread discusses the Content article: The IBM Software Name Game **
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[P.Harkins]

The IBM Software Name Game

** This thread discusses the article: The IBM Software Name Game **
I believe that you have presented this topic and article right on target. In 1982, when I was a Senior Systems engineer for IBM, the IBM CEO abandoned software and programming to be the low-cost high-volume hardware producer. That strategy, among others, cost virtually every IBM systems engineer and marketing rep his or her job ten years later, and almost bankrupted IBM (as Lou Gershner said "We were on the brink") I believe that IBM is, once again, focused on folly with a one and only one approach (Java) to their customers business needs.

[Guest.Visitor]

The IBM Software Name Game

** This thread discusses the article: The IBM Software Name Game **
Most AS/400 shops who have ventured into the world of the IBM IDE have found that just as they get settled in and think they can grow with the tools, IBM starts charging for something that was free (WebSphere 3.5 Standard) or they radically change the tools so that prior exerience with the new way does not help much. In 2000, IBM announced the notion of the 5722-WDS (WebSphere Development Studio) bundling along with the "free" availability of the tools for the WebSphere development Tools for the WorkStation piece. Before the bugs were out, IBM moved to Eclipse with WDSc Version 4.x and as that settled, IBM quickly came out with V5.0, and then V5.1. Now, V5.1.2 is far different in terms of stability and functionality compared to the former versions of all the iterations that I finally thought that the "tools" were about to settle down. After all, it's been four years. Moreover, WSAD and WSSD are not what iSeries (i5 or AS/400) people know the tools as. IBM ships WDSc on the cover with 5722-WDS (NOt WSSD or WSAD and nothing Rational yet)and along with iSeries only function such as WebFacing and WebSphere Studio or whatever it is called today (scratch RPG Web development,) the company ships VARPG and CODE/400 (already subsumed by the Remote Systems Explorer). Then, of course, there is the Advanced Developer packaging which basically means that the WDSc freebie is not the best. Having worked with all these incarnations since 2000 in beta form, the last thing I think we need is a new version. Considering WDSc is a hard install and often does not work without some IBM help after installation, it is a real burden continually installing the IBM iterations and converting the prior work to the new IDE. I am convinced that the reason there is not more of a stink about this from the AS/400 community is most have not started or are just beginning. Most, including myself are happy to use PDM. With IBM moving the platform all the time, it is tough to jump onto something that holds. The WSAD or WSSD tools were not built for AS/400 shops. They are retrofits with AS/400 affinity added because of the foreign nature of the AS/400 compared to Windows and Unix. Thus, unlike PDM, these products as well as the WebSphere server itself, are not integrated into the fabric of the AS/400 and sometimes they are not supported even under the IBM Support Line. For example WebFacing which runs under WDSc should be a server side application but it was force fit to WDSc to give WDSc more value. When you must download your display files to a PC and then copy them back up to the AS/400 after the WebFacing process to load into WebSphere, it is only logical to ask, "Why was the work not done on the AS/400?" Why not permit the CRTDSPF command to create a WebFaced panel and all of the necessary artifacts to run it as an option. Why not add some function to PDM to WebFace a set of display files? Why not? It's no longer IBM's strategy to wait until something is not loved or desired by its customers before the company wants to replace it. IBM wants a revolution in AD while its customers would be happy with a nice evolution. Why would anybody in their right mind give up something that works and saves time to move to an environment that is fraught with installation delays, bugs, and complexity. Why can't IBM deliver function such as WebFacing first to the familiar environment. Then if IBM really wants its developers using Windows machines in client server as IDEs, while its steady eddy customers are enjoying the benefits in the familiar environment, IBM can try to convince its customers that it had done even a better job in the WorkStation environment. Right now, the answer as to why IBM does not do this is simple. Few would be convinced. Everybody knows IBM's problem except IBM. There is no rational marketing or marketing strategy that IBM's customers find appealing but that does not seem to matter. IBM is oblivious to threats on its flanks and proceeds with its strategies to find the new world while the pirates are taking their toll day in and day out. With Gates as the biggest Pirate, one would think that Big Blue would forget about vision for awhile and forget about conquering foreign lands. How about a simple strategy that protects the homeland and bolsters the homeland so it no longer appears neglected. While IBM customers are happy to pay IBM to keep their "legacy" methods in place (Lotus, AS/400, RPG, COBOL, and even PDM) IBM wants to equip its customers with tools they don't want, thereby forcing happy customers to jump to a new IBM ship. Yet, when these customers are motivated to jump, they are not all going to jump IBM's way. Too bad that Lotus is now being treated the same way as IBM's finest business computer (the AS/400 "legacy" system) Why can't IBM correct itself and its arrogance of ignoring its customers pleas for effective marketing. When IBM doesn't sell its products in any discernible way to plain and regular people, IT shops find it difficult to defend IBM and its wares to their executives who ae continually bombarded with Microsoft Exellence marketing messages. Even Nintendo got nailed by Microsoft. (Uses IBM's Power Technology) Microsoft knows how to market and excite people to buy its products, like it or not. IBM ignores customer demands because it knows best. IBM must keep finding new markets and new opportunities because it lets its old markets and old opportunities be taken by Microsoft without a perceptible fight. Microsoft continues to grow in reality and in mindshare. IBM loses on both counts and rather than correct itself it defends its strategies. But, nobody seems to be listening.