Out with NT, In with AS/400!

> AS/400 finding more markets
>   By BRAD HOWARTH
>
>   29sep98
>
>   IBM is casting aside notions that its AS/400 platform is out of place in
>   today's computing environment, with figures bettering market growth
>   against Unix and NT-based competitors.
>
>   Revenue for the AS/400 server range had grown by 30 per cent this
>   year, outstripping IDC figures that put total growth in the multi-user
>   server market at 7.4 per cent.
>
>   IBM's manager for business servers David Russell said 70 per cent of
>   revenue still came from traditional AS/400-based ERP vendors such as
>   Intentia, SSA, JD Edwards and JBA.
>
>   Growth had accelerated in newer AS/400 application areas such as Web
>   serving and Lotus Domino hosting.
>
>   Mr Russell said since IBM announced native AS/400 support for Domino
>   in February, Lotus and its business partners had shown strong interest
>   in its 2500-strong customer base.
>
>   "We've had a lot of Lotus business partners come through IBM and
>   through our staging centre to test their applications on the AS/400," Mr
>   Russell said.
>
>   Business was also growing rapidly in non-traditional markets such as
>   banking and finance, with all four major banks and numerous financial
>   services companies joining the ranks.
>
>   Mr Russell said the market now made up 25 per cent of revenue,
>   compared with an historical average of 5 per cent.
>
>   One example of the AS/400's new customer set was home loan
>   mortgage brokerage Mortgage Choice, which had migrated its core
>   financial application off a Windows NT-based server environment.
>
>   "That's an example of how we're picking up new business that's not
>   even related to the ERP space, which two or three years ago would
>   have been typically unheard of," Mr Russell said.
>
>   According to Mortgage Choice's information systems manager Roy
>   Hessey they run its 240-user Lotus Domino application on Windows NT,
>   but annual growth of more than 1000 per cent had forced them to look
>   for a more robust solution.
>
>   Mr Hessey said the AS/400 was selected on the basis of being a
>   low-maintenance platform, but he also found it to have very low
>   ownership costs.
>
>   He said it was also timely that IBM announced native Domino support at
>   the time Mortgage Choice was surveying the market, and had been
>   impressed by the AS/400's performance.
>
>   "Cost of ownership was a big factor. We looked at Unix and all the
>   different platforms and it came out well ahead," he said.
>
>   Mr Russell said Mortgage Choice was typical of the new breed of
>   AS/400 users, who were looking for a reliable solution that would not
>   require a large support staff. He estimated that potentially 40 per cent
>   of server customers fell into this category.
>
>   "If you look at the value proposition of the AS/400, it's been successful
>   because the integration of the database and the communication
>   package is done by IBM," Mr Russell said.
>
>   More information: http://www.as400.ibm.com/australia
>
--
Jim
http://www.netcom.com/~jimwelsh/welcome/welcome.html
mailto:jimwelsh@ix.netcom.com


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