James Governor reports from IBM's Software Group event. Steve Mills explains why IBM is comfortable not owing any applications because it can make 5X in "halo" sales?
If I had been at the event, I would have asked - why then does IBM own any software at all - Websphere, Tivoli, DB2 etc? Why not just focus on halo services around those infrastructure areas also?
IBM, Accenture, PwC (now IBM) - have all owned application software in the past. For various reasons they decided to exit. Given how profitable IBM"s software division is (compared to services) and looking at how profitable at least the larger application vendors are, you can bet Steve constantly re-evaluates whether to get back in to application software (or for its services group to cannibalize applications via BPO). IBM today could run an apps software or broadly business process centric units far better than it could a decade or two ago.
