Business outsourcing services is a relatively small part of the IBM service offerings making only about 4% of GTS revenues.
Think about Apple and IBM as service companies.
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The Smarter Checkout solution also allows the customers to use their mobile devices to process orders, redeem digital coupons, access loyalty points, and pay for purchases at IBM self-service pay counters.
Instead, they should take a cue from IBM and become true service entities.
The competition in Cloud services and hosting is filled with companies that have deeper pockets than does Rackspace, including Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM, and the service integrators, respectively.
Last week Forrester Research named IBM the top information technology service provider of 2010.
On top of that in-house development, the service ties in IBM's acquisition of Web presentation company WebDialog in August 2007.
They were among the first volunteers in IBM's new Corporate Service Corps program, which aims to stretch the company's vast global reach while building a network of international teams.
It is another move to be the kind of value-added service provider, like IBM, the company hopes to be.
Fred Balboni is global leader of IBM's Business Analytics and Optimization service line.
They saw it as helping with solutions and he went on to reframe IBM from a heavy metal maker to a service provider.
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In addition, IBM said it is piloting a next-generation service platform, displaying public, private and hybrid enterprise computing models.
Hayman said IBM already has several customers involved with the new service, including 1-800-FLOWERS, Staples office supply, food company Danone, and various financial services firms.
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IBM, Oracle and, of course, Microsoft, with all its many service partners.
Along with the mainframe makeover, IBM has also announced that it will acquire software-as-a-service provider Kenexa (NYSE: KNXA), a company that has experienced approximately 15.9 percent revenue growth over a five-year period.
The programs, an addition to the company's "Lotus" group of applications, also represent one of IBM's most ambitious forays yet into enterprise software-as-a-service, the browser-based model of applications pioneered by companies like Salesforce.com.
IBM's Web focus also exploits the timely appeal that software-as-a-service has to IT managers' wallets in the midst of the current economic downturn, says IDC Research Analyst Frank Genz.
"Following Oracle's move into hardware and SAP's move into the database market, both of which position these leading apps companies more in IBM's traditional markets, IBM has perhaps fewer reservations about participating in the apps and software-as-a-service market, " Nomura analysts said.
International Business Machines ( IBM) is the company Hewlett Packard ( HPQ) secretly wants to be, one where high-margin service and software businesses support huge but slow-growing (at best) hardware divisions.
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