In the past, IBM has repeatably claimed that they were not a player in the business application market, with the likes of SAP, Oracle, Lawson, etc., but rather was focused on delivering solutions, leveraging where possible their middleware stack and database software servers through the largest IT services business in the world. The business application stack, it was said, was a different business, requiring a different business structure and focus...
The acquisition of MRO (enterprise asset management (EAM) application software vendor) two years ago raised a few eyebrows... then came the acquisition of Cognos earlier this year, which made IBM a stronger player in BI and some associated business applications.
Now IBM has announced a comprehensive Talent Management software suite, based on Cognos, as well as Saba and SuccessFactors, in order to provide an integrated solution offering:
- Workforce analytics
- e-recruitment
- Performance management
- Learning
- Succession planning
- Compensation and rewards
- Workforce deployment and scheduling
- Employee portal, collaboration and social networking
Beyond this move into Talent Management, IBM has also renewed its efforts in the office application space with Symphony and its office desktop virtualization approach, clearly targeted at Microsoft.
While IBM is now clearly feeling the competition from SAP's movement into middleware and even database software in the small business space, combined with the always aggressive competition coming from traditional rivals Oracle and Microsoft... Will there be implications for IBM's IT Services business? Will they perhaps become more aggressive in pushing beyond the traditional blue stack into IBM business applications? While it's true IBM is not offering core ERP and business applications to the same extent of their competitors, perhaps IBM is looking to build more of a surround strategy, offering applications that are underserved on the market, but reliant on other IBM software and services.
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