IBMseen as a Microsoft Windows NT booster
Reuters Story - May 20, 1997 20:27
FINANCIAL BUS ENT US IBM MSFT NOVL CPQ HWP NSCP V%REUTER P%RTR
By Samuel Perry
PALO ALTO, Calif., May 20 (Reuter) - As Microsoft Corp
was showcasing its latest Windows NT technology in New
York Tuesday, the company's high-end operating system was
winning support from an unlikely corner -- International
Business Machines Corp.
IBM executives have begun showing a newfound fondness for
the Windows NT market, refering to it in terms that just months
ago might have been deemed traitorous.
"IBM is providing more software on NT than Microsoft
Corporation," boasts Jocelyne Attal, IBM's vice president of NT
marketing and a former executive of Microsoft networking rival
Novell Inc .
Not only that, but IBM intends to haunt its former close
allies at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters by becoming
the dominant supplier of Windows NT products and services.
Attal said in an interview IBM aims to compete by offering
the broadest range of hardware, software and services for
Windows NT, a dramatic shift for the computer giant.
Big Blue gave Microsoft its first big industry boost when
it struck a deal 25 years ago with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates to
supply the basic operating software for the IBM PC, but had a
falling out in 1991 over Microsoft's Windows system.
The two companies had been collaborating over a next
generation operating system for IBM, known as OS/2, which
Microsoft had been developing for IBM before deciding to throw
its weight behind upgrades of its Windows system instead.
IBM, whose total software business at $13.8 billion is
still nearly 30 percent greater than Microsoft's revenues, is
shaking off its pride and embracing NT, analysts said.
"The political, religious and technological battles between
Microsoft with its NT operating environment and IBM...have
ended," the Aberdeen Group stated in a recent report on IBM's
new NT strategy.
By offering customers end-to-end solutions, Attal said IBM
aims to outflank rivals in hardware and software combined.
Aberdeen Group currently ranks Compaq Computer Corp
as the market leader in NT systems, with roughly 35 percent of
the market, while Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM are vying
for second place with about 16 percent each.
Both Compaq and HP are working closely with Microsoft, but
IBM aims to provide a broader array of offerings.
IBM aims to provide NT-based offerings ranging from
reselling Microsoft NT-based products, including Microsoft's
BackOffice business applications family, to alternatives it can
provide which have had a longer time on the market.
New BackOffice features were among a series of new
developments Microsoft demonstrated Tuesday in New York in its
so-called "Scalability Day," along with new updated products.
Attal said IBM is offering an NT practice with "very
targeted services around the NT platform," including its own
expertise in supporting customers' systems around the clock
with more than 1,200 service personnel around the world.
NT services alone could be a $10 billion business by the
year 2000, the IBM executive said.
IBM's Lotus Development Corp unit, whose workgroup products
compete with Microsoft and Netscape Communications Corp
, is a key product in Big Blue's effort, and shipped
more NT products than any others last quarter.
"Every software we have is available on NT. Every software
we will have will be released on NT," she said.
This includes programs ranging from its DB2
industrial-strength database software to transactional service
software tools. IBM promotes itself as a one-stop shop for NT.
"In order to get what IBM is providing on NT, you have to go
to 20 different vendors right now," Attal said.
To keep up with Microsoft's developments, IBM has around
200 people working in Kirkland, Wash., near Microsoft's main
campus, testing NT hardware and software. But despite the
latter-day conversion to the Windows NT fan club, IBM does not
expect to cozy up to Microsoft any more than it already has to
establish good techical dealings.
"We have to recognize where NT's good and where it won't
sell," said Attal, adding the ability to run complex business
applications which cannot be allowed to fail is, in IBM's view,
"not something you can build overnight."
"I don't think you'll see Bill Gates back on stage with (IBM
CEO) Louis Gerstner any time soon," she added. |
