• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Custom Tailored Solutions for the Crisis Prone

    June 22, 2009 Dan Burger

    Industry leaders like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Oracle are not what you would call vertically challenged. Their sales and marketing strategies are big on vertical industries, and they make the most of selling hardware, software, and services that are customized for specific congregations based on similar business intentions and geographies.

    You might remember a few years ago when IBM introduced the Vertical Industry Program to its System i independent software vendor community. VIP was designed to solve precise customer needs by teaming software vendors, resellers, and system integration experts in a plan aimed at improving integration and implementation–two open wounds that handicap many organizations. Greasing the wheels, in terms of partner collaboration, were expanded efforts in marketing and sales. The VIP was hailed as a great new undertaking, perhaps because it began on the AIX side where it was not ingrained.

    The idea of combining partners’ expertise in particular industries, which was a strength for the System i from the days when IBM called it the AS/400, was determined to be an unconditional success. In less than a year it was credited with significantly increasing the number of new clients choosing the System i and exceeding financial targets. (It should be noted that IBM didn’t give out the number of new clients or exactly how the financial targets were ciphered.) But the VIP became the cornerstone channel program for the System i in 2007. Some say it needed to be reinstated because IBM had lost its way since the AS/400 hey days. And, in short order, Big Blue implemented the VIP across all its server platforms as well as its systems storage business.

    After reading the most recent version of the ICM Crisis Report, a annual accounting of business crises that tracks 16 categories that match up with vertical industries, it caused me to wonder how IBM’s VIP was fairing in industries identified as being most affected by crisis. The top five industries in the ICM report were banking, food, securities and investments, petroleum, and insurance. Each of these is considered to be in the sweet spot for IBM i sales. (You can read the full ICM report, in a PDF document, here.)

    From the beginning of its VIP, IBM has been guarded about specific details of any particular industry targets. But it seems likely that verticals with high rankings on the crisis report would coincide with fertile fields for IBM i workloads.

    Are industries in crisis more inclined to turn to IT solutions to pry them out from between the rocks and the hard places they have gotten themselves into? There’s a good case to made that the VIP could help. IBM’s chairman and CEO, Sam Palmisano, is practically the poster boy for IT to the rescue. (See the article Infrastructure Business Monopoly in last week’s edition of The Four Hundred.)

    It seems that a back to basics and best of breed approach would work well with companies in crisis mode. Hallmarks of the IBM i–things like cost of ownership, integration, ease of use, and high security–should take on greater significance. This might not show up in increased sales for the IBM i, but the concept of innovating and integrating on the ISV side offers an up side that strengthens the i community.

    RELATED STORIES

    IBM Expands VIP to All Systems for Precision Sales

    System i VIP Initiative Boosts Sales, Says IBM

    IBM and ISVs Launch VIP Program to Reinvigorate System i5 Sales



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 18, Number 24 -- June 22, 2009

    Sponsored by
    VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Trying to balance stability and agility in your IBM i environment?

    Join this webinar and explore Visual LANSA 16 – our enhanced professional low-code platform designed to help organizations running on IBM i evolve seamlessly for what’s next.

    🎙️VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Break Monolithic IBM i Applications and Unlock New Value

    Explore modernization without rewriting. Decouple monolithic applications and extend their value through integration with modern services, web frameworks, and cloud technologies.

    🗓️ July 10, 2025

    ⏰ 9 AM – 10 AM CDT (4 PM to 5 PM CEST)

    See the webinar schedule in your time zone

    Register to join the webinar now

    What to Expect

    • Get to know Visual LANSA 16, its core features, latest enhancements, and use cases
    • Understand how you can transition to a MACH-aligned architecture to enable faster innovation
    • Discover native REST APIs, WebView2 support, cloud-ready Azure licensing, and more to help transform and scale your IBM i applications

    Read more about V16 here.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Admin Alert: A Simple Save While Active Backup Program IBM to Offer Free EGL Tool for Web 2.0

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 18 Issue: 24

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • AS/400: Still Kicking After 21 Years
    • Power Systems i Weather Report: Partly Cloudy Soon
    • IBM i Manifest Takes Root in Japan
    • Help Wanted: AS/400 Advocate
    • COMMON Europe: Doing the Math on Top i Concerns
    • : A Community of Common Interest
    • IDC Forecasts Server Sales Declines Until 2011; Blame X64 Boxes
    • Big Blue Offers U.S. Companies U.S.-Only Support
    • IBM Office Suite Takes a Whack at Microsoft Licensing Albatross
    • Custom Tailored Solutions for the Crisis Prone

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • With Power11, Power Systems “Go To Eleven”
    • With Subscription Price, IBM i P20 And P30 Tiers Get Bigger Bundles
    • Izzi Buys CNX, Eyes Valence Port To System Z
    • IBM i Shops “Attacking” Security Concerns, Study Shows
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 26
    • Liam Allan Shares What’s Coming Next With Code For IBM i
    • From Stable To Scalable: Visual LANSA 16 Powers IBM i Growth – Launching July 8
    • VS Code Will Be The Heart Of The Modern IBM i Platform
    • The AS/400: A 37-Year-Old Dog That Loves To Learn New Tricks
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 25

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle