| IBM is the largest IT vendor with the broadest portfolio of offerings. Its breadth has resulted in financial stability during tough economic times. In late 2002, IBM's new CEO, Sam Palmisano, described IBM's new corporate strategy, pulling together most of the established elements of IBM's portfolio—plus new elements, such as business consulting—toward a single vision called "on demand."[8] According to IBM, an on demand business is a dynamic business that is flexible from its business processes to its software infrastructure to its hardware infrastructure. On demand is not just about efficiency and cost cutting, it is also about increasing the value of IT to the business. It is about a paradigm shift for IT, as well as growth for IT vendors that can provide on demand services and solutions. IBM's new strategy shifts the focus of its business divisions. The challenge for IBM will be executing such a broad, integrated strategy across all of its service, software, and hardware organizations. The evolution toward the on demand environment will: -
Reduce capital and labor costs through more efficient use of resources and more automation. -
Shift the IT cost structure from fixed to variable, so costs can expand and contract with business demand. -
Increase agility by enabling the IT infrastructure to dynamically change and repurpose itself in response to changing business needs and priorities. -
Improve service levels through greater underlying IT service and component intelligence to predictively manage service levels in an automated way, as well as providing faster response when failures do occur. |
