CIO.com: What If Yoda Ran IBM?
by Volker Weber
The big vendors beat down the doors of large companies to get business, but a small-company CIO gets the brush-off. He wonders how to harness the powers of the Force, and get some big-company expertise to help the little guy.
Comments
Nice title. Stupid premise. The guy wants to rent an elephant to knock down one tree, but that's a job for a couple of guys with a chainsaw and a truck. There no business model for someone to build a worldwide network of teams of guys with chainsaws and trucks, because how is that network going to compete with the independent guys with chainsaws and trucks? In order to offer what the independent guys can't, you have to turn the guys with chainsaws into elephants. It costs way too much to move and feed the elephants. The elephant's keepers understand that it's best to just keep the elephants working in the forest.
Richard, my problem isn't so much that IBM doesn't play in this space, it's how they treat you when you ask. It's happened to me a few times and it's degrading.
@Charles -- ever tried Oracle? ;-)
But yes, I agree. IBM should have a process for referring RFPs for "below the radar screen" business to small, agile BPs who can do the work -- and they should take care to make the customer feel valued in the process.
This kind of arrogance is characteristic in IT-business. I do not trust larger companies any more, having learned that they don't care about my problems. I spent my budget strategically, and prefer small- to mid-sized companies for support - and I do in fact test their social competence first. Are they able to talk and behave like humans, do they understand, do I? If so, they can sell me their servers.
@Bjoern: I would assume you mean services, not servers.That's where social competence and understanding of your business and specific challenges counts, not in commodity hardware.
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