William M. Zeitler
Senior Vice President and Group Executive
IBM Systems and Technology Group

Dear STG colleague:

This month, we are completing a transformation we began more than a year ago to re-orient our business to the consistent growth and market share gains we achieved in the first five years of this decade. Our first step was to align development around the building blocks of leadership and competitiveness in our industry.  Second, we piloted and began rolling out a new team-based, client-focused coverage model in the field. The early results in both areas have been very encouraging.  

Our plan for achieving sustained growth in 2008 and beyond requires that we accelerate this transformation across STG. The third and final step is to move to a client-centered structure--top to bottom.   

A client-focused model will enable us to extend our enterprise leadership, accelerate our growth in SMB, and exploit new embedded and OEM opportunities outside the traditional IT market. These changes play to our strength in addressing the broad client challenges that drive new opportunity today--like IT complexity, business resilience, and energy efficiency.  

This approach, combined with our deep technical leadership, will put STG in a much stronger position to set the agenda for the next generation data center or for innovative solutions in SMB. And we will be better aligned to deliver a rapid, well orchestrated response across our platforms and partner offerings as new standards and important trends emerge, like cloud computing and data center integration.

As we enter this third phase, we are making the following changes:

Client segments

We are aligning our business end-to-end around four client sets:  

• Enterprise Systems (large enterprise clients) led by Jim Stallings
• Business Systems (small and mid-market accounts) led by Erich Clementi
• Industry Systems (clients in areas like retail, telecommunications, and healthcare, where IT is often embedded in processes beyond the traditional data center) led by Curtis Tearte
• Microelectronics (our pure technology clients--e.g., custom microprocessor and ASICs--who leverage our industry-leading systems, process technology, and ecosystem of alliances) led by Adalio Sanchez

These general managers will be responsible for delivering on STG's revenue and profit plan, and product mix objectives; managing client satisfaction; developing a point of view on key issues in their client segment; establishing and enabling market plays; providing requirements for future systems and technology solutions; and running sales cadences. They will report to me.

Platforms

IBM has never had a more powerful or competitive set of systems and technology offerings in our portfolio--and this year many significant new products will be introduced. We will strengthen and better leverage this portfolio through four platform units:

• Mainframe, led by Anne Altman
• Power Systems (System p, System i and Linux on Power), led by Ross Mauri
• Modular Systems (System x and IBM BladeCenter), led by Rich Hume
• Storage, led by Andy Monshaw

These general managers will be responsible for product competitiveness; program profitability; stack integration of the complete solution; sales support; strategic, market-based portfolio management; ecosystems management; end-to-end quality management and product technical support; and supply, demand, inventory and delivery management. They also will report to me.

Sales team model

Each of the client sets will be supported in the regions and IMTs by integrated sales teams, led by more than 300 Systems Sales Managers, who'll have complete STG product responsibility for a set of clients, aligned with our S&D coverage. These new client-facing roles will have more impact and will be more central to the success of STG. Individuals in these roles will have expanded career opportunities, a richer set of business experiences, and the power to create client value while ensuring IBM's profitability.

Our client-based transformation

We begin with the most powerful expertise and technology in the world. When we are done, we will be the best positioned in the industry to leverage these assets, deliver innovation to clients, and to profitably grow our business. This aligns our organization and processes with IBM's strategy, the growth opportunities in the marketplace, and IBM's values, in particular: Dedication to every client's success.

You can find much more information about our transformation on w3 and you'll continue to hear more at all levels of the organization over the coming weeks and months. We'd also like to hear from you--please post your questions or comments on the STG Blog and we will answer them there.  

As a team, we have always executed best when we have a uniting principle that starts with the client. We are confident that these are the right moves for our business, and, most importantly, for our clients. Thank you for your continued dedication to STG and our company. Together, we will make this happen.