NEW YORK — IBM Corp., the company that coined the term e-Business in 1997, has set its
sights on selling middleware to a large, and largely untapped, market
segment: small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The company Tuesday
unveiled a suite of eight platform-agnostic modular solutions, part of the
Start Now family, geared at helping SMBs rapidly transform their businesses
into e-businesses.
“The middleware really supplies the basic functions that make your business
an e-business,” said Mark Hanny, vice president, Software Channel Marketing,
IBM. The new Start Now solutions range from transaction systems to data
management, collaboration and knowledge management and security.
“The key to all of this is to be able to do integration of your existing
applications and extend those applications to the Web,” Hanny said.
To get the solutions to the SMB market, IBM is relying entirely on its IBM
Business Partners.
“Small- and medium-sized businesses want to buy from someone within a 100
mile radius,” Hanny said.
Marc Lautenbach, general manager of Big Blue’s SMB unit, added, “This is not
a market that anyone company can get to by themselves…there are tens of
millions of enterprises around the world that you’re trying to reach.
Business Partners are absolutely integral.”
The business partners are trained and qualified by IBM, and can provide IBM
software, suggested IBM e-Servers and services. The Start Now Solutions
program also includes a complete marketing and enablement program that
provides business partners with a recommendation of software and hardware
configurations, instructions for proposing, implementing and extending a
complete solution, tested implementation scenarios, ISV tools and financing
options.
And the Start Now Solutions are highly scalable, providing a foundation that
will allow SMBs to grow into large enterprises without having to scrap their
infrastructure.
“I looked for the most scaleable middleware that could support thousands of
simultaneous users of database and streaming media functions,” said Bruce
Camber, executive producer and founder of Small Business School, a weekly TV
show that airs on PBS-member stations. “I compared IBM with Cold Fusion,
COM+, and even a few custom-tailored systems. But IBM’s Start Now e-commerce
Solutions addressed my scalability concerns and gave me an affordable entry
point that the other products couldn’t.”
The market
“Mid-market customers are extremely important to IBM,” Hanny said.
Hanny noted that there are 100 million SMBs worldwide today, with an
aggregate IT expenditure topping $50 billion this year. And the market has
considerable headroom for growth — Lautenbach said less than 20 percent of
SMBs currently have commerce enabled applications. Analysts predict that
number will grow to 70 percent by 2003.
“IBM’s Start Now Solutions will give SMB customers a fast, inexpensive and
scalable solution designed to fuel the e-business adoption curve and drive
faster ROI,” Hanny said. “Start Now is a set of solutions and a supporting
program designed for IBM Business Partners by IBM Business Partners, and
includes time-tested recommendations of hardware and software, partner
services and proven implementation scenarios.”
IBM is banking that the new Start Now solutions will enable SMBs to overcome
the obstacles that have until now kept them from “e-enabling” their
businesses.
Lautenbach explained that there are two primary inhibitors to the adoption
of e-business among SMBs: a lack of the necessary skills, and an inability
to point to a return on investments (ROI).
But Big Blue believes these eight solutions will change all that.
“These eight solutions are dead-center where the market is,” Lautenbach
said.
To get around the skills shortage, the solutions are delivered entirely
through IBM’s Business Partners, giving each customer access to personalized
support, and most importantly, the training necessary to mitigate the skills
shortage.
As for ROI, the solutions start at $15,000 and range as high as $55,000 in
price, and IBM boasts that implementation and deployment can be very rapid.
“These solutions can be implemented and deployed very, very quickly — in
some cases, 60 days,” Lautenbach said.
The solutions
The solutions include:
- Start Now Infrastructure Solutions — provides open, standard interfaces
and protocols that allow systems to interoperate and enables users to manage
databases and storage, develop Internet and Intranet presence, set up log on
and registration procedures for customers and suppliers to share information
and data online. The Infrastructure Solutios are based on IBM DB2 Universal
Database, IBM WebSphere e-infrastructure software, Lotus Domino Application
Server R5, Lotus iNotes Client and Lotus Sametime; - Start Now e-commerce Solutions — allows customers to browse catalogs,
fill electronic shopping carts, make secure purchases and specify delivery
instructions. Buyers can get assistance in real-time and purchase in their
own languages and currencies. IBM WebSphere Commerce Suite, V5 is the
enabling technology; - Start Now Customer Relationship Management Solutions — focuses on how
customers interact with business through multiple channels such as the
online store front, direct mail, the call center and the service center. It
provides a blueprint for lowering the walls between the marketing, sales and
service disciplines, connecting them through Web-enabled applications. The
solutions are based on Lotus Application Server R5, Lotus iNotes Client,
Lotus Sametime and Relavis eBusinessStreams; - Start Now Business Intelligence Solutions — helps customers analyze
business data collected in order to build a complete profile of customers
and demographic information. The solutions are based on IBM DB2 Universal
Database V7, IBM DB2 Warehouse Manager V7, IBM Query Management Facility and
DB2 OLAP Starter Kit; - Start Now Collaboration Solutions — enables real-time sharing, teaming
and interaction, giving team members the ability to communicate online with
customers, provide answers to questions, offer assistance, process order
forms, develop and negotiate contracts online and resolve other problems
that occur. The solutions are based on Lotus Sametime Server V2, Lotus
QuickPlace V2 and Lotus Domino Application Server R5; - Start Now Host Integration Solutions — extends existing legacy host
applications and data to the Internet and enables new e-business
applications. The solutions are based on IBM Host Access Package V1 and IBM
WebSphere Host Publisher V2; - Start Now Website Management Solutions — provides the tools to manage
and optimize Web sites by identifying exposures, increasing availability and
delivering enhanced performance. The solution uses Tivoli Web Services
Manager and Tivoli Storage Manager; - Start Now Content Management Solutions — provides a Web-ready portfolio
of integrated software for managing and distributing digital content. The
solution is based on IBM Content Manager Entry Bundle V7 and Content Manager
CommonStore for Domino V7.
