By Siobhan Kennedy
In a bid to focus on business problems rather than simply pushing products, IBM Corp has realigned its software group, setting up four new units and moving its networking and Java product lines into different divisions.
Although Armonk, New Jersey-based IBM didn’t make any formal announcements, a spokesperson for the company told ComputerWire it has introduced four new software divisions within the Software Group and disbanded its Network Computing Software Division (NCSD), which previously housed its Java products. In addition, Big Blue has set up a new division in the group’s Solutions and Strategy unit called Solutions and Integration.
According to the spokesperson, the four new solution groups – transformation and integration, leveraging information, organizational effectiveness and managing technology – are designed to reposition the company’s key software technologies around business problems, as opposed to pushing individual products in isolation, as was the strategy in the past.
The segments will focus not on marketing our products, but on the problems that those offerings help people solve, she said. She added that IBM had been planning the restructuring since the October/November timeframe, when the company settled on the names of the new divisions internally. This week’s news, she said, was about naming the heads of those groups and communicating the message to its customers. But how effectively that will happen is another question. IBM is famous for its communication skills – or lack of – so the fact that it has rolled out these changes without so much as a press release doesn’t bode well for customers, however good the intentions may be.
The transformation and integration group now includes all IBM’s middleware products, including its Websphere application server and MQ Series integration software, and will be headed John Swainson. Leveraging Information, run by Janet Perna, will include all Big Blue’s database, data warehousing, business intelligence and content software products. Organizational effectiveness is the new name for IBM’s current Lotus division and will be headed by Jeff Papows while technology management – the existing Tivoli systems management group – will be run by Jan Lindelow. As a result of the reshuffle, all four heads of division will now report directly to CEO Lou Gerstner.
In addition, the spokesperson said the latter group will include IBM’s own SecureWay Security and Metadirectory product lines and will be managed by Carl Kessler, whose new title is general manager, Tivoli SecureWay. The SecureWay connect products – including host integration and web-to-host offerings – will be rolled into the transformation and integration division, IBM said.
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The new systems and integration (S&I) division will be led by Paul Loftus, reporting to Steve Mills, general manager of IBM’s Solutions and Strategy unit (also part of the Software Group). The spokesperson said the division will include IBM’s Java organization (under Rod Smith) and ebusiness operating systems solutions, including OS2 (under John Soyring).
