iManifest EMEA: Call for Participation

When your image is in the toilet, and you need an urgent public makeover, then you call Max Clifford Associates. But a modem is no longer bundled with an IBM i server so it can’t dial Max for help! One might also turn to a parent for support in times of need but … well, say no more. So we, the IBM partner community, must band together to correct some misconceptions and promote longevity of the world’s best business server – the IBM i.

The launch of the iManifest initiative in Japan has generated an unprecedented level of buzz in the worldwide IBM i community. My original post on the topic is, by far, the most viewed and linked-to page on this blog. We have all no doubt read the extensive coverage by the U.S media and today I learned that the ServerNEWS magazine (reaching some 20,000 I.T professionals in Spain and Latin America) has devoted two pages in their July issue to the ‘IBM i Manifest’.

Last month I offered to kick-start such an initiative in EMEA by helping to construct the board and committing some seed funding. The response was overwhelmingly positive, except for the people who know me and observed that “I don’t have the time” for another new project! Well, we can always find reasons not to do things but why let something as trivial as a 24-hour day stand in the way of progress?

It was bold of our Japanese brothers-in-arms to announce their pledge in a national business newspaper. The cost of such a public declaration sends a clear message of intent to the market and makes this initiative standout from other ‘flash-in-the-pan’ endeavours. While Europe has several pre-eminent business newspapers from which to choose, I am inclined to believe that the Financial Times has the best pedigree and broadest reach in Europe. The rate card for a full-page advert with European distribution is £69,800 (€81,000). We need vendors from the IBM i community in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to come forward and agree to participate in funding and forming iManifest EMEA.

Aside from agreeing the objectives of the group and the mechanics of its formation and management, obtaining seed funding and nominating board members are the most important first steps. The coalition will be a toothless tiger unless we can quickly raise, in principal, the circa. £70,000 required to fund the placement of a full-page advert in the FT. The vendor community may have other ideas about how best to raise the money – suggestions welcome - but I jotted down the following model over breakfast.

Assume 50 founding members from the IBM i vendor community (ISVs, SIs, Consultants, Media Publishers, Event Organisers etc). Some major players must be willing to stump-up serious money to overcome inertia. Like the business model of an airline, the economy seats would be unaffordable [to the masses] were it not for the patronage of the few business-class passengers. So passengers on the inaugural flight of iManifest EMEA (an advert in the FT) can buy tickets in one of three classes:

• 3 seats in Business class (10% of the advert cost)
• 6 seats in Premium Economy (5% of the advert cost)
• 40 seats in Economy (1% of the advert cost)

This ‘aircraft’ has 50 seats (because we all like round numbers) so my model leaves 1 spare seat that will be offered at no-charge to a worthy individual or organisation that the founding members deem beneficial to have on-board. A nomination and voting procedure for the ‘free seat’ (1 member, 1 vote) will follow directly after the 49th seat has been sold. Once all 50 passengers are on-board we will be cleared for take-off :-)

NOTE: I have already ‘purchased’ one of the business-class seats for €8,100 on behalf of LANSA to get the ball rolling. I will also under-write any of the incidental costs incurred in getting us off the ground – but I can’t foot the fuel bill on my own for very long!

The format of the advert will be similar to that used in Japan with the name of each Founding Member listed. I propose that the 9 largest contributors (those purchasing seats in Business and Premium Economy) form the Transition Board with me assuming the mantle of Chairman pro-tem. The Transition Board will meet in-person within 30 days of placing the advert and within 90 days of that meeting the Bylaws will be agreed and published. The Transition Board will be dissolved and members will then put themselves up for election for a 1-year term (1 member, 1 vote from the 50 founders). After that, who knows? Let’s channel our energy and enthusiasm into getting this bird off the ground, rather than drawing-up and filing a complex flight plan.

So, who’s with me? Please come forward as flying solo is no fun for me.

You may either declare your interest and financial pledge by commenting directly on this blog post (if you want to make a public declaration) or send me a private email with your commitment or question. You can get my email address from the profile page.

We should import more from Japan

Before the nationalists among you cry out in protest, I should explain that I am not advocating a widening of our trade gap. Instead, a colleague in our Asia Pacific subsidiary has just told me about an uprising by the IBM partner community in Japan. It sounds like another innovation from the East that could well be heading West.

A group of over 70 IBM partners and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) has joined forces in Japan - the world’s second largest IT market - to launch the IBM i Manifest initiative. The coalition has three main objectives:

1. To revitalize the IBM i market in Japan and increase the customer base
2. To assure IBM i customers, resellers and ISVs selling IBM i solutions that IBM i will not only survive but continue to prosper
3. To inform the wider IT community of the unique value proposition of the IBM i server

The partner community has taken this unusual step in response to a change in focus of IBM’s corporate marketing and server positioning. Below the level of their global campaigns (like Smarter Planet) IBM now promotes its software and services offerings before its hardware portfolio. IBM’s Systems and Technology Group offers a range of server platforms, powered by operating systems which in many cases are also promoted by other vendors and communities - Linux, Unix (AIX) and Windows. In contrast IBM i and z/OS are owned by IBM and so require different marketing, sales execution and ecosystem development strategies. IBM needs to be more proactive in areas like market education, establishing a core value proposition and selling on value. But the harsh reality is that IBM has neglected its responsibilities and now the partner community is left to take up the slack. The question is: can the partner community make a better fist of it all? Well, some of the steps already taken by the iManifest membership include:

• Recruiting 71 foundation members for the launch

• Preparation of a manifesto known as the 'IBM i Manifest', or iManifest for short, to articulate passion and support for IBM i and a promise to support IBM i customers reliably into the future

• Placement of a full-page advertisement in Japan’s most influential daily newspaper, the Nikkei (equivalent to the Wall Street Journal or Financial Times)

• Provision of web access to the iManifest Declaration on Japan’s iForum community web site

• Formation of the iManifest Advisory Board, to coordinate 7 task forces focusing respectively on Technology Advantage, Leveraging the Media, Collaboration with IBM, Marketing of IBM i, Winback Strategy Formulation, New member recruitment and Immediate Actions

What struck me most was how quickly they raised the circa. USD 100,000 required to pay for that full page advert in the Nikkei newspaper. I have seen many such coalitions come and go over the years, but I've never seen one make such a splash and so readily put its money where its mouth is.The advertisement was a success. Immediately the committee started fielding numerous phone calls and receiving emails from IBM i users, IBM employees and business partners to congratulate them on the venture. Competitors sat-up and took notice. Web access to the iManifest page on the iForum web site spiked at 24,000 hits as against the usual 1,000 or so hits per week.The close cooperation demonstrated thus far between the members of the iManifest initiative in Japan is an impressive achievement. While IT vendors often give lip-service to “co-opetition”, defined as simultaneous co-operation and competition amongst vendors, the reality of delivering genuine benefits to the market by co-opetition is much harder to achieve.

S. Kakizawa, President of Sanwa Comtec and one of five directors on the iManifest Advisory Board, puts the question to his colleagues very simply by adapting a well-known historical saying: "And so, my fellow IBM i partner community members: ask not what IBM can do for you, ask instead what you can do for your IBM i community."

Take a look at the iManifest Declaration (originally written in Japanese and now available in English) to see the passion and the determination behind this new initiative. Those of us outside Japan should follow the iManifest initiative’s progress with interest, and see what lessons can be learned for our own markets.

If anyone wants to kick-start such an initiative in EMEA then let me know and I'll gladly help to construct the board and hereby pledge a contribution to a similar full-page advert in the Financial Times.

Sun of Oracle

Late last year I wrote a post entitled ‘Java may slay everything in its path - including Sun’ and asked the question: If Java is so universally good - it has been trying to prove itself for 13 years - then who enjoys and makes money working with it?

It appears that the only vendors who made any real money from Java are Oracle, BEA Systems (now Oracle) and IBM. As I've been tardy about posting to my blog there now seems little left to add to the well-documented saga of IBM choosing not to consummate a marriage with Sun and the man from Oracle saying “I do”. There is news today that Sun’s revenue plunged 20% last quarter and losses jumped to $201m – clearly a broken business model.

With Java finding a home at enterprise software vendor Oracle, whose sales force are notoriously weaned on six- and seven-figure deals, I have to believe that the door is now wide-open for Microsoft to dominate the SMB market. I have long believed that Java’s complexity and running costs have restricted its market opportunity and that Sun’s failure to find a viable business model (for this is what a sale at such a low valuation indicates to me) confirms my suspicion. Note that I am talking about commercial viability and not specifically whether the Java technology is good, bad or ugly.

I suspect that IBM i shops will be eyeing this transaction with some trepidation if they have bet the farm on a Java strategy. Larry Ellison has already talked about optimising it products for the Solaris platform and, by inheriting the MySQL database, Oracle has a new stick with which to beat IBM. I think it’s fair to say that Oracle and IBM are fierce competitors, far more so than either party’s current relationship with Sun. Java bigots will tell me that so much of the technology’s evolution is now influenced by the community process that a change of ownership will make little to no difference to Java’s future prospects. I think that viewpoint is naïve and woefully under-estimates Oracle's ability and appetite for making money.

It is a mantra of mine that to place bets on the future of a particular technology is to be certain of ‘losing big’ at least one time. That’s why I prefer to work with products that operate at a higher level of abstraction, thereby providing a degree of technology insurance rather than lock-in. Having choice is important at the operating system, development language, database and presentation layers because business needs and market conditions are always changing. So a rigid commitment to, say, DB2 + Java + Web carries risks that are not always communicated or considered.

I would not expect die-hard Java shops to down their tools just yet, but I urge those of you on the fence to reflect on this latest power play and consider the long-term implications for you and your organisation. If you are ready to step-off the treadmill of technology dependence then, as a reader of my blog, you hopefully know where to come first.