IBM’s PureSystems: Delivering Benefits But Key Challenge Remains

On 11 July, 2012, Saugatuck attended participated in a briefing hosted by Laura Voglino, VP of Routes Transformation, in IBM’s Systems and Technology Group. The focus of the briefing was on IBM’s progress in securing independent application solution providers as business partners for their PureSystems family of offerings.

Saugatuck perceives IBM’s efforts to aggressively pursue business partners as both tactically and strategically well-reasoned. However, the messages of both IBM and their business partner Innovation Group (provider of the Innovation Insurer offering), prompted this analyst to consider both the benefits IBM’s PureSystems are delivering and the challenge that still remains.

On the benefits, Saugatuck views PureSystems as delivering on IBM’s stated design intentions of significantly reducing technical installation/implementation times for new application solutions. In fact, Saugatuck sees IBM’s PureSystems as having a double impact for software solution providers:

First, software providers are finding significant reductions in the time and effort required to install and test their offerings. This reduces their investment in supporting the new IBM systems and facilitates rapid and lower cost delivery of their offerings on those systems
Second, software providers are discovering that PureApplication Patterns can lead to substantial reductions in the time and effort required for the technical aspects of installing their offerings for customers. These can reduce the time and skill levels required to support customer installations and accelerate “productive use” revenue from customers.

However, on the challenge, Saugatuck perceives that customers may miss the key factor about solutions offered on IBM’s PureSystems: the technical aspects of implementing a solution can be far outweighed by organizational and business process impacts required to adopt the solution. Even dramatic reductions in the technical aspects of implementing a new solution may have only minor impact on the overall timeline of adopting the solution.

As a consequence, Saugatuck urges customers to:

Thoroughly identify all aspects of adopting a new solution and evaluate vendor services for assistance in both the technical implementation aspects and in the organizational and business process transformations required;
Press solution providers to pass along (via reduced fees) some of the savings derived from improved technical installation/implementation efforts on a PureSystems platform; and
Negotiate with solution providers for an acceptable period for organizational and business process changes prior to requiring payment for “productive use” of the offering.

For a more detailed assessment of IBM’s PureSystems Patterns, please see Saugatuck Strategic Perspective, 1074CLS, IBM PureSystems Patterns: Highlighting Shift from Maintenance to Development, 24May2012.

Charlie Burns is a Vice President for Saugatuck Technology, focusing on enterprise software, business/IT services, and IT systems technologies and management. With over 35 years of experience in the Information Technology arena, Charlie is an established expert in IT product and marketing management, and in IT user issues and requirements.
After 26 years with IBM, where he held positions in sales, product development and large systems product marketing, Charlie left to become Research Director at Gartner Group in 1993. In 1998 he joined Giga Information Group as Research VP. At both Gartner and Giga, he focused on large systems and the business practices of the major large systems vendors. In 2000, Charlie rejoined Gartner in a relationship management role responsible for two of its largest vendor clients.
Charlie received a BS in Computer Engineering from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio. Over the years, he attended a variety of IBM technical and research training programs, becoming an adjunct professor focusing on product management issues.

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