Elix Sizes Up The Competition

We asked Elix what he thought of his major competitors and how they stack up against IBM. He was remarkably candid in his assessments of the opposing teams.

HP Services: "We have 14 years of history and a maturity that has built [over time, while] they are relatively new at doing this. It may not sound like a big deal, but when you look at what it takes for a product company to turn into a services company, there are big changes from pushing products to providing services. They have to go through that now.

We can see the cultural clashes going on between the services guys and the products guys--all the same tension [we have faced] around the product guys saying it should be HP gear.

Second, I must admit I don't proclaim to fully understand why they put their services and systems organizations together. In our view, it has always been important to have the services organization as a separate group focusing on generating revenue and earning streams out of the services business, and not getting confused with an organization whose job it is to produce and market terrific products.

Our view has always been that you need to manage [the units] separately because they are separate business models that fundamentally provide a different offering. I think, through a lot of experience and, frankly, with a lot of scars on our backs, you learn that in the services biz, some decisions you make today can come back and bite you a number of years down the track."

EDS and Accenture: "I think there are some fundamental differences and there are some subtle things. [Among] the fundamental differences, we are the only company that has the breadth of capabilities others would like to have. [IGS] can go all the way from business change to re-engineering to systems integration to outsourcing. [The others] try to partner. We got it, and they have to form alliances to make that happen. The second thing is that we are part of a technology company, [not like] Affiliated Computer Services or BearingPoint. We have a relationship [with our product divisions where we can advise on field use]. That's an advantage to the customer. I often get asked, 'Would you rather cut loose from IBM?' I say, 'Are you kidding?'

The final [fundamental] thing is that we have a sales and support force of 25,000 strong, plus a few hundred thousand partners. That is a go-to-market capability to die for. Then there are more subtle things--how well we execute, represent ourselves, deliver, our customer satisfaction. We sit many points ahead of our competitors."

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