In the 79th episode of Burning Platform, we host Hari Candadai, SVP of Service Innovation and Thought Leadership at Origina. They are a third-party software maintenance company focused exclusively on providing IBM Support. As he says “Over the last decade Origina has perfected the third-party software maintenance model for IBM Passport Advantage customers around MQ, Cognos, DB2, Informix, FileNet and other products down the list.”
We discuss why we have for decades discussed the death of the mainframe and how it continues to survive and thrive especially in airlines, banks and other high transaction volume environments. IBM continues to breathe life with the latest z Series architecture and is reporting numbers which are delighting Wall Street.
However, that is no reason to put up with the high cost and shrinking talent in that world. We cover why third-party maintenance is attractive around IBM products – the lack of skills at customers and even at IBM (and how Origina has built its talent pool), the high cost for relatively stable environments (and how Origina can shave half off), and the need for interoperability with all the systems that keep on mushrooming around the backbone applications on the mainframe.
He goes into plenty of detail and spends some time describing their long journey with the utility. Southern California Edison.
McKinsey recently wrote “For many companies—and many industries—the COVID-19 pandemic set off a period of head-spinning change. They realized they were capable of moving faster than they ever thought possible. They went digital in a matter of days, not years. They offered new services almost overnight.
If companies sustain this newfound speed and agility, it’s conceivable that more innovation will happen in the next ten years than in any previous decade in modern history.”
That innovation will need money and staffing commitments. Another reason to consider a firm like Origina. Nicely covered by Hari in about 20 minutes