Japanese Imports and a New Role for COMMON?

We've written a lot about the future of the IBM i community in recent posts--and this one is no exception. We hadn't planned to return to the subject this week, but a recent blog post by Chris Maxcer that we picked up on LinkedIn made us think again. It highlighted a new program from a consortium of Japanese Business Partners and ISVs known simply as the "IBM i Manifest Initiative". Several of you commented about ways to get the word out about the value of IBM i and this group in Japan seems to have actually done something about that.

The purpose of this collective effort is to revitalize the IBM i market place in Japan and inform the IT community at large of the value proposition of our favorite system. These are objectives that we can all applaud. And they aren't just talking--they are doing things, including placing a full page (and very expensive) advertisement in the Nikkei--Japan's equivalent of the Wall Street Journal. S. Kakizawa, a member of the iManifest Advisory Board, has adapted a well-known JFK quote to sum up the group's message,"Ask not what IBM can do for you, ask instead what you can do for your IBM i community."

We won't go into more detail on the group's work here, instead we suggest you do as we did and read Martin Fincham's blog "My Midrange Meddle". In his blog, Martin calls on his fellow European ISVs to mount a similar initiative--hopefully some of the larger ISVs in North America will also step up to the plate. You can read the English translation of the Japanese iManifest Declaration here.

In a previous blog entry titled "What Does the i Community Need?" we mentioned that Business Partners and ISVs have a huge stake in the future of the IBM i. While many have developed versions of their applications to run on other platforms, the vast majority still make the bulk of their revenue from the IBM i. Hopefully they will see the wisdom of investing a few of those dollars to help preserve their future revenue stream.

So who will take the initiative in North America? We are unaware of any North American ISV/BP trade organization. In the past these vendors were represented to the body of IBM through the Business Partner program. But due to changes in emphasis in the BP support group, this is no longer as effective a vehicle as it was in the past. But a new trade organization could present a united front to IBM and give these vendors a central focus point for collaborative marketing efforts. And please don't trot out the old "they are competitors; they'll never co-operate" line because trade organizations are common and very successful in other industries. There is no real reason to suppose that they would not work in ours.

So where are we going with this? Well here's a radical thought--perhaps, just perhaps--this is a role in which COMMON could (and in our opinion should) play a leadership role. It has been a long time since COMMON was a user group in the old sense of the word. It has aspirations to be a professional body and often draws comparisons to such organizations. But it isn't a professional body, and isn't ever likely to be if for no other reason than because our profession isn't regulated in the same way as doctors, dentists, hygienists, architects, etc. Perhaps it should be, but it isn't. And if it were, it would surely be done on an industry basis and not be an IBM Power Systems specific organization as COMMON is.

What does COMMON bring to such an organization? An administrative staff with broad connections in the i community, convention and trade show planning expertise, and a strong connection with IBM. All of the things in fact that an ISV/BP trade organization would need. It would give COMMON a new raison d'etre, and give the fledgling new trade organization a foundation that could take months or years to build otherwise.

We're tempted to go into more detail of the thinking behind this suggestion, but we'd rather hear from some of you. One last thing we should mention. This is not a new idea. A good friend of ours, Alan Zwiren, first suggested this notion to us some years ago and it's an idea that has resonated with us ever since. Perhaps now is the time to bring it to fruition as we look at how this new Japanese import can work for all of us.  

Comments

[Alan Zwiren]

Dear Jon and Susan,

You honor me by suggesting that COMMON embrace Business Partners. Although out of the organization for many years, I still recall with clarity the struggles Business Partners faced. Before there was an expo, IBM had a technology expo. At first, Partners had to apply to IBM to have a pedestal. I had been a volunteer at COMMON for a few years, and then took a year off. When I returned, I was amazed.

My company sent me to COMMON as an exhibitor. I did not realize that as an exhibitor I could not participate in the conference. Upon arrival, I went right down to volunteer, and was told that I could not because I was a vendor.

I finally figured out the system and attended the conference. Over my years there I ended up managing the Software Development Methods Track. As one of the largest vendors in the industry, I was a good corporate citizen. I brought our company experts to the conference to share our expertise with the conference. We had only 1 session (of about 20 which we put on) on our product.

My contributions to COMMON continued. For many years I was on the Top Concerns Committee. I was twice nominated to the Board of Directors. Many vendors saw the success my company achieved at COMMON, and began to emulate our actions.

Unfortunately, every time I went to a COMMON General Session, I would hear about the evils of vendors. These people never learned the basic lesson in Economics that secondary markets justify and accelerate the growth of primary markets.

Yes, I did do some memorable things as a vendor at the conference. Some may remember my application protection campaign I ran in the expo. However, I was also one of two people who came up with the idea and distributed the infamous, "It's The Marketing, IBM" buttons.

Embracing the vendors is long overdue. Not only will making the vendors a valuable part of the institution benefit the vendors, it will benefit the institution. It will force the vendors, who do have resources, to act as good corporate citizens for the good of the industry.

[Eli Spitz]

As Alan states above, COMMON (worldwide!) is the ideal forum for such national endevors. Indeed, similar to COMMON's role today, the most important activity would be to conduct ongoing dialogs with IBM in individual countries.

Coordinating meeting agendas and discussing post-meeting content and decisions could be communicated online and in focused columns in the trade press.

[Mary Kern]

Dear Jon and Susan,

As a long term "i" bigot, former COMMON volunteer, and lover of all things "i", the decline of the platform saddens me tremendously. The demise of "i" is finally hitting home. We will be moving off the "i" over the next year.

I too read with interest the post on LinkedIn. We love the US because it is so large and so diverse. It is sometimes difficult to find "common" ground across this great nation.

COMMON has brought people in the "i" community together from across the nation (and around the world). The Japanese model seems tailor made for COMMON.

I do believe that COMMON should refocus its purpose and mission. First and foremost it is an organization that supports the "i" community. I know of no other group in the "i" community that has such a broad reach. COMMON reaches ISVs, companies large and small, local user groups, vendors, and of course those of us in the trenches.

Maybe with help from the very talented staff at COMMON, the top concerns group could refocus its efforts. Rally the troops.

It's been a long time since the "i" community has been really fired up! With COMMON's help each member, vendor, exhibitor, etc. could be informed, excited and energized. Maybe they would even show that excitement by financially supporting a marketing effort initiated by COMMON. It would benefit us all.

That being said ... for the rest of us in the "i" community, STEP UP! What can you do for the "i' community? Your life is on the line.

[Phillip]

This is great to see IBM's ISV stepping up to promote the IBM i platform. To help those ISVs in Japan and all over the world continue to develop on i, IBM offers the Virtual Loaner Program (www.ibm.com/systems/vlp). The VLP provides ISVs with free access to IBM i systems for development. Simply go to the VLP site, select the HW/OS/CPU/Mem specs and the system is automatically provisioned within 2 hours!

[HELP400]

As the "IBM i Manifest" is an example to follow, we have devoted 2 pages in the July issue of the ServerNEWS magazine to widespread among the AS/400 Spanish-speaking community. We've added an entry into our blog ( http://help400.blogspot.com ) with a summary of it.

If you have business interests in the IBM i market and want to cooperate in our project of “i-vangelism”, send us a comment and an e-mail address and we will contact.

Help400 is the publisher of ServerNEWS magazine, the only Spanish magazine focused on IBM Power Systems (IBM i) business and technology. ServerNEWS brings vital information to 20,000 spanish professionals (Spain and Latinoamerica) to help them to make strategic business decisions, solve programming problems, improve performance and security, and assess hardware and software products.

[Martin Fincham]

Call for participation: iManifest EMEA

http://midmed.blogspot.com/2009/07/imanifest-emea-call-for-participation.html

Enough words, time for action?

Martin

[Jon Paris]

Nice to see EMEA in action - hopefully a North American BP will pick up the challenge here.

[Martin Fincham]

For the record, I was approached in early July by the "Chairman of the UK IBM midrange user group (Common UK) and also Technical Director of Common Europe" with regard to collaboration between our groups. So it's not fair to accuse them of being silent or disinterested. But we need to get the iManifest EMEA plane in the air - which requires pilots, cabin crew, paying passengers - before attempting to form alliances and the such. At the current pace, albeit affected by the silly summer season in Europe, it will take another few months to pull everything together.

Martin