A plea to IBM Marketing with regards to User Group input.

During the recent Common Conference in Minneapolis, I attended the LUG
luncheon, where, again, I was asked for input on how IBM can better sell
iSeries. The following is my offline response to the IBM representative who
attended the meeting and was soliciting input from user group
representatives. This was on the heels one of our local iSeries shops
abandoning the 400 for Unix, which meant the loss of our President and Vice
President of our local user group.
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Dear IBM Rep....

During the Lug Luncheon in Minneapolis, you were soliciting for ideas on how
IBM can better market the iSeries. Forgive me if comments in this email this
sound a bit blunt, or rambling, but rest assured I understand you are only
one person at IBM, and my comments are not directed towards you but towards
the people responsible for marketing (and the lack of it).

First off, at each LUG Luncheon I've attended over the last three years, you
repeat the request for ideas of how to market this system. If IBM doesn't
believe in the system (evidenced by the lack of marketing) how can you
expect your customers to believe in it? That is why customers abandon the
platform. If IBM won't "sell" it, why then would anyone want to buy it?

I'd like to re-iterate the point I made at the luncheon, that in New Orleans
last spring Buell Duncan said that we could expect to see a major marketing
campaign for iSeries. As I said at the luncheon, I saw one ad in
Computerworld, and nothing else. In this light IBM's marketing efforts
haven't changed at all and as I'm sure you've heard at Common in the past,
the slogan, "It's The Marketing". Hopefully you can start a 'squeaky-wheel'
syndrome.

Another point I'd like to submit regarding IBM's marketing strategy, those
'blue bar' TV commercials to me are blatantly arrogant. To me they make your
customers look like a bunch of idiots. It seems that the marketing strategy
is to show a group of corporate people gathered together who point fingers
and/or don't have a clue about what their needs are. And then IBM  tells us
"We Are So Ready for IBM". Why would we want IBM, if we don't know what we
want? Using that logic tells your customers to blindly follow IBM's lead -
why should I be that loyal when IBM isn't even loyal to iSeries? I feel this
sounds like a vague description, but please, IBM needs to focus on reality
and not that 'vision thing'. I know IBM can solve problems, but you need to
sell the steak and not the sizzle. Codernauts? Please - those are cheesier
than Velveeta..... I don't understand for the life of me how a company with
so much talent can use sitcom mentality when so much is at stake.

Now the commercial I'd like to see, in 30 seconds, would be one where the
situation revolves around a system administrator going to the CFO (of a
multinational Fortune 100) on Monday morning to explain that a hard drive
crashed on the server over the weekend. The CFO looks terrified and asks how
long it will take to get the system back up, and whether any data was lost.
The system administrator says "Relax, we're already up." The CFO says "How
can that be?" The system administrator replies "We use iSeries, and the
drives were mirrored, and the system called and reported the problem to IBM
and they were here to replace the drive on Saturday. IBM replaced the drive
and we didn't even need to re-boot." Then during the fade, a voice says, for
more info on the only system that has never had a virus, has never been
hacked, has the scalability of a supercomputer (starting at around $10K),
can do web serving, supports java, support Notes, Domino & Linux, runs NT
natively, supports real programming languages like SQL, Cobol, RPG, C and
has the best database bar none, along with the lowest Overall Total Cost of
Ownership,AND a bunch of users more loyal than Apple users, that can be
backed up with one command to one tape... call 1-800-IBM-SERV (or whatever
the number of the day is). Also, it wouldn't hurt to mention that 90+%? of
Fortune 500 companies use iSeries.

Finally, on a personal note, last Christmas I was laid off as a consultant
for a local IBM business partner. It took me three months to find a position
(for which I was overqualified and underpaid) on the iSeries platform. This
was clearly the result of a shrinking iSeries market. Fortunately, I've
since found a better position, but have heard again of another local iSeries
shop laying off staff this coming Friday. What all of the corporate decision
makers hear is what they hear on the golf course (and they discuss what the
ad's say during the Sunday morning news and weekend sports shows -
especially the golf tournaments - they all watch golf - hint - hint - this
is where the above commercial should be aired, not just once but ad
nauseum). They don't know what an iSeries is and only know that the AS/400
is old technology - why? Because it's not marketed - and without marketing
there is no visibility. After all, if it was new technology, IBM would
surely market it. (That's what those who don't know anything about iSeries
or computers in general tend to think.) That is why the iSeries market is
shrinking.

If IBM won't start marketing specific platforms to the public in general to
get the word out that the iSeries does web serving, does support java, does
support NT, does GUI and Visual Basic, and can be backed up with one command
to one tape, there will be no future for iSeries. It's really that simple,
advertising sells, and if you don't believe that just look at what it's done
for Microsoft. Their (MS) products are junk compared to iSeries. But if IBM
can't see that, it proves my point. If IBM won't even sell its best product
then you need to stop asking the user group for ideas on how to market the
product. You can tell your boss I said so."

Regards, Jerry Kern
IBM Certified AS/400 RPG Developer,
15+ year veteran of the industry,
Past President & Current Director of NWOMUG.

gkern@buckeye-express.com