IBM Aims To Keep Microsoft On The Desktop

IBM plans to keep Microsoft on the desktop with a massive effort to recruit ISVs and developers in every segment of the market, said Buell Duncan, general manager of developer relations at IBM.

"We have very good strength in the large enterprise. Microsoft has good strength on the desktop," Duncan said in an interview here at IBM PartnerWorld. "They are coming up. We are coming down. We want to keep them on the desktop."

Duncan said the choice is between what he called a proprietary .Net approach to building Web services and an open-standard, J2EE Web services platform being promoted by IBM. Part of IBM's effort aims to get longtime developers to abandon Microsoft Visual Basic and other Microsoft programming tools, he said. While the number of Microsoft ISVs has remained flat, the number of Java developers has tripled to 2.5 million programmers in the last several years, he added.

As part of its ISV campaign, IBM plans to gather more than 4,500 developers in New Orleans on April 9 to 12 for its DeveloperWorks Live conference.

IBM is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in getting partners to commit to J2EE and WebSphere, said Duncan. That includes WebSphere Business Integration Accelerator for Business Partners, an initiative unveiled at PartnerWorld that's aimed at ISVs who want to leverage WebSphere for industry-specific solutions. IBM also announced here that it is offering ISV applications through its IBM PassPort Advantage software licensing program. In addition, IBM has a number of solution centers where it assists ISVs in moving to the J2EE IBM WebSphere platform.

IBM is moving beyond the tight relationships with its top 100 ISVs, which include Siebel Systems and J.D. Edwards, to target 300 to 400 ISVs in the midmarket, Duncan said, adding that IBM also is sharpening its focus on the tens of thousands of developers it aims to convert to J2EE. A big part of that effort is centered on local ISVs and partners in vertical markets. For example, Duncan said, IBM is working with one partner to convert a solution for a dairy farm to the WebSphere platform.

"We are identifying who these ISV and partners are locally and bringing them the value proposition," said Duncan.

The advantage of working with IBM vs. Microsoft is that IBM won't compete with its ISV partners, Duncan said, noting that IBM has a comprehensive plan to actively team with its ISVs to drive their solutions into the midmarket with the help of other IBM partners. "We are not just enabling them with technology," he said. "We have a go-to-market plan to work together to drive into the market."

David Thomas, CEO of intacct, a Los Gatos, Calif.-based company that offers an accounting application over the Internet, said his company has chosen to partner with IBM exclusively and isn't offering a .Net alternative. Intacct's offering is hosted by IBM, and about 10 percent of intacct's sales go to IBM for various services, he said.

"We don't believe in the long-term vision of the [Microsoft] product model," Thomas said. "Navision and Great Plains doesn't make sense to provide as an on-demand Web service."