IBM transforms old behemoth into sleek e-business operator
IBM is practising what it preaches and undergoing a radical transformation to become an e-business. No easy feat for the largest IT vendor in the world, with 300,000 employees in 164 countries.
The firm's e-business revamp has been impressive, jumping from doing almost no business on the Internet (just US$30 million per month in January last year) to being on track for about US$12 billion worth of business on-line this year. It already has eclipsed Internet stars Dell Computer and Cisco Systems in on-line revenues.
Much of IBM's revenue generated on-line came from business-to-business sales to resellers and direct sales to large customers, according to Ric Telford, director of e-business technology at IBM's CIO office.
'We would never have become an e-business with the antiquated systems and sub-optimal business processes we had five years ago,' Mr Telford said.
Then IBM had 400,000 employees, 20 disparate and independent business units, more than 5,000 hardware products and 200,000 software offerings. It was a behemoth.
Today, it remains large but it is much leaner, a key factor in its success.