IBM to Attack $300 Billion SMB Market with Partners
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

IBM is known as a leader in computing aimed at big companies, but it has always had products aimed at mom-and-pop shops, like the machines that come out of Rochester, Minnesota, for instance. But IBM's focus has often been fuzzy in the small and midsized business (SMB) market, much to the detriment of the channel partners who help push IBM's products in this space. But now, under a new $500 million program called SMB Advantage, IBM is getting focused to help partners attack this $300-billion-a-year opportunity. READ MORE >

Server Shipments Up in 2002, But Pricing Pressure Intense
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Analysts at Gartner's Dataquest market research unit have released preliminary unit-shipment statistics for the server market for all of 2002, and the good news is that companies actually bought more servers--good news if you are an IT supplier, not necessarily if you are a system administrator. While improved shipments are a good sign, Dataquest says that pricing pressures remained intense as the year ended. This is good news for server shoppers, but not so good for IT vendors, which need to show revenue and profit growth. READ MORE >

Domino and WebSphere Wedding Date Draws Nearer
by Dan Burger

Firing arrows at what is clearly a Microsoft target, new Lotus chief Ambuj Goyal used the Lotusphere 2003 trade show to direct attention to his division's aim at infrastructure through open standards. Almost in the same breath, Goyal advised the Domino developer community to expect tools that will integrate "next generation " applications based on a common standards-based programming model and single, open architecture. For Lotus to be on target and in sync with IBM, its newest software will become integrated components that emphasize customer choice of operating system. READ MORE >

Admin Alert: An Easy Way to Import OS/400 Data into Excel
by Joe Hertvik

Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet is one of the most successful and least appreciated of the company's tools. Excel is the premiere spreadsheet solution, literally eliminating its competitors (even Lotus), and it's an invaluable tool for representing information in several different formats. And when you want to import OS/400 information into Excel spreadsheets, IBM provides another valuable tool in the Client Access Express Data Transfer Excel Add-in. READ MORE >

As I See It: The View from the Ivy
by Victor Rozek

Harvard Business Review is not an inexpensive magazine. But what it lacks in economy it makes up for in surety. The same class of folks who populated the halls of Enron, and gave us energy derivatives, charge $16.95 to share their latest theories on business and management practices. They range from the self evident to the monumentally impractical, but all are presented with ivy-league gravity, backed by studies, confirmed by statistics, and garnished with colorful charts. READ MORE >

But Wait, There's More. . .

Get the Latest OS/400 PTF Guides, Big Changes . . . Microsoft Extends Support for Windows NT 4.0 by One Year . . . IBM, AMD Stand Behind UnitedLinux . . . Farabi Partners with RSA Security for Authentication Integration . . . SSA GT Reports 76 Percent Revenue Growth, Increases FY03 Projections . . . OpenMFG Launches Partner Program to Resell Open-Source ERP . . . READ MORE >

Reader Feedback and Insights

We value your feedback and your insights into the OS/400 market. Feel free to send a letter to the editor. We will consider your letter a candidate for the reader feedback column associated with this newsletter, but we will contact you before we make your email public. READ MORE >