Liverpool Football Club and IBM i

We’re preparing for an announcement next week, so I haven’t blogged as much as I would like, but I wanted to share one of the customer references I talked about last time. If you’ll recall, I mentioned that while many clients do not allow us to mention their names, there are also many who are happy to share their story. Today I’ll spotlight someone from the other side of the Atlantic: the Liverpool Football Club.

Like many of our clients, no matter what the industry, the Liverpool Football Club wants to do a great job for their customers. Their need from the IT solution they buy: Liverpool FC aims to provide the best possible football experience for its supporters and recognized that online ticket sales were a key part of its interaction with its fans. The club decided to review its ticketing platform and create a roadmap for future development.

From more than 20 vendors, the club selected IRIS Ticketing, its incumbent supplier, to deliver a program of enhancements for the TALENT Sport ticketing system. IRIS Ticketing focused on transforming the fans’ experience with a new queuing system, and improved performance by moving the software onto a new IBM Power 720 server.

The team clearly saw benefits from this solution:

1. Increased capacity by 250 percent; the system can now support over 750 concurrent users.
2. Handled 100,000 ticket sales within four days without a single moment of downtime.
3. Queuing system gives supporters a better understanding of the ticketing process, improving customer service and fostering loyalty.

“The upgrade has at least doubled our capacity on the TALENT Sport system, and may even have tripled it.”

— Phil Dutton, Head of Ticketing and Hospitality at Liverpool FC

As is clear by this example, we reach many of our IBM i customers because of the excellent solutions that continue to be invested in and enhanced by ISVs such as IRIS Ticketing. It’s this focus on a customer solution that runs the business reliably, with high performance as well as fit-for-purpose functionality, that remains a winner.

So, whether you’re a fan of Liverpool FC or not, did you know that they use IBM i and Power Systems for their business? Now you do. That’s an example of IBM i in your world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IBM i in Your World

When you go to a bank, do you know what kind of IT equipment is being used to run it? How about when you go to your local courthouse? Or a big retailer? When you check into that hotel? When you call your cable company? When you ship a package?

I wish I were at liberty to tell you the names of every client we have using IBM i, but the fact is, most companies do not give IBM permission to use their names. Those who do, become “references” and we use those references frequently. Current IBM i customers, or companies considering adopting IBM i, like to hear about other businesses who are successfully using it.

Still, while I cannot list every customer, I can mention some. I can also tell you in general about some of the ways you probably encounter users of IBM i in your daily life. In fact, I tweet about these every once in a while, so let’s see a couple of examples.

The above is an example of a long-time client, a member of the IBM i Large User Group (LUG), which is very successful. The business is growing, and if I told you their name, there is a very good chance you would recognize it. In fact, this description could apply to several of our LUG members.

Here’s another “anonymous” example.

Now, you might not have heard of this specific (fast-growing) company, but I can pretty much guarantee you have heard of its parent company. Even without the name, it’s pretty impressive to know that this customer successfully handled more than 100 million online transactions on the Monday after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, and those transactions were running on IBM i, on a very large Power System.

IBM i is extremely prevalent in several key industries in the world. One of them is banking, and the follow tweet contains an actual reference account.

Alex Woodie wrote the article in the link above, about Bank Ekonomi Raharja (BER) in Indonesia. Now, if you are not working with that bank, you might not think this has much to do with you, but the point is that you might well have dealings with a bank that is running on IBM i. Three of the most prevalent banking solution ISVs in the U.S. (FIS, Jack Henry & Associates and Fiserv) have highly successful IBM i solutions – the bank I use is a customer of one of these three – and DataPro is a strong IBM i banking solution provider in Central and South America. Additionally, several of the largest banks around the world use IBM i for key portions of their diverse financial offerings.

What about the parcel delivery industry? This quote from FedEx Ground is in many of my presentations, because they are a long-time reference for the platform.

“Its stability, TCO and speed of development convinced us we should not only maintain our mid-range environment, but expand it to keep it at the center of our operations for the long term. IBM i has enabled us to grow the scale of our environment, while at the same time become more nimble and resilient.”

            --Ken Spangler, VP of IT

However, FedEx is not the only company in the shipping business that counts on the reliability of IBM i running on Power Systems. If you used a package delivery company in the U.S. during this past holiday season, there’s a pretty good chance the business was running on IBM i. You might not have known it, but based on our client list, it certainly could be.

Many of the most successful large businesses in the world, as well as many thousand smaller businesses and governmental entities, keep their customers satisfied while relying on Power Systems and the IBM i operating system. They are all around you, and just like your company, they use this platform because it delivers stability, security, value and innovation that helps them succeed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key IBM i Posts from 2012 “You and i”

This has been an excellent year for IBM i, from many points of view. Professionally, it’s been excellent for me as well – and these two facts are definitely related. I’ve been more involved in talking to clients and partners than ever before, the IBM i team has delivered several key enhancements, and I am excited about the plans we have for 2013 and beyond.

As 2012 draws to a close, I want to leave you with a “summary” post that can serve to gather together the most important messages I’ve delivered here through the year. I’ve organized them into themes

 

Key Announcements

Two Technology Refreshes came out in 2012, and those are important, but they are not the only big announcements: 

• IBM i 7.1 TR4 – with Live Partition Mobility
• IBM i 7.1 TR5 – Navigator, Guardium, BRMS Enterprise & more
• V5R4 End of Service coming 9/30/13
• Software Group Announcements around Rational Open Access and Sub-Capacity Virtualization Pricing

 

IBM i and Smarter Planet

A theme of our messages this year was to show how IBM i fits into the larger message from IBM about building a smarter planet.

• Cherry Central – an IBM i client selected as an example of Smarter Planet when the initiative first began.
• IBM i - Designed for Data Video – The first of three pillars for Smarter Computing, and a clear strength of IBM i.
• IBM – Workload Optimized – The second pillar, in which IBM i benefits again from our DB2 implementation, plus our focus on integrating with applications and storage.
• IBM i – Managed with Cloud Technologies – Finally, the Cloud video, which features Live Partition Mobility.

 

Strategic Messages and Customer Resources

I use this blog to more clearly articulate messages we want you to know about IBM i’s strategy and to share material that you might find useful.

• IBM i Information Strategy – Here is an overview that describes the relationship between blogs, the Information Center, developerWorks and so on. This is likely to be a key theme in 2013.
• “Why IBM i?” Presentation refresh and some overview material about the architecture – We make this presentation available for people to use if they find it helpful. We updated it a couple of times this year and will likely publish more “Why i?” content next year. Watch this space.
• IBM i into the 2020s – A recent blog discussing the long life we are planning for IBM i.
• ITG Studies for IBM i Midsize and Enterprise Clients – The most recent post, with very important information about the financial benefits of using IBM i & Power Systems.

 

I’ve also had a couple of customer reference posts, one about Turner Industries and another about Nishii Paint Industry, a customer IBM i won from the competition. I hope to have more of these next year, because I’ve received quite a few positive comments about the value of these examples.

I look forward to continuing this blog into 2013. I know we have many new things to tell you about throughout the year. I also want to share some of the stories of clients using IBM i solutions to enable their businesses to succeed.

But first, vacation! I’ll enjoy some time off around the holidays. I hope you all can, too. See you next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

TCO, TCA and Low Cost of Downtime – the ITG Studies and IBM i

Two studies have recently been completed by the International Technology Group (ITG) that should be of particular interest to the IBM i community. I wrote about the previous ITG study back in February of 2011. Now, almost two years later, the refreshed study confirms what the prior study showed, and what we all know from experience: IBM i on Power Systems is not only a great platform for function and stability, but it’s also a great platform for a company’s bottom line.

The first new study is the ITG study called “IBM i for Midsize Businesses.” The short URL for it is http://bit.ly/IBMiTCO_ITGMidsize and it confirms that the total cost of ownership for IBM i is significantly less than for the typical x86-based competition. Here’s a key chart.

The numbers are impressive. Over a three year period, running a midsize business on the combination of IBM i and Power Systems costs 44% less than running that business on Microsoft Windows Server and x86, and 57% less than Oracle/Linux on x86. These numbers continue the value proposition the platform has had for years, enabled as they are by the integrated nature of IBM i, and the automated nature of DB2 for i.

What remains a surprise for many customers and prospective customers, however, is how those three-year costs break down between Total Cost of Acquisition (TCA) and operational costs. The numbers are in the following chart:

Again, IBM i and Power Systems combine to beat the competition on average for acquisition costs; by 24% vs. Windows and x86 and by 47% vs. Oracle/Linux and x86. This means that ongoing operating expenses for IBM i are less than half of what they are for competitive environments; on average 51% less than Windows and 61% less than Oracle/Linux.

ITG did more than one study this time. They created a study that is of more interest to our larger clients. That study is called “IBM i for Enterprise Businesses: Quantifying the Value of Resilience” because one of the most important aspects of a platform for large clients is “How much money will it cost me when it doesn’t work?” The short URL for that study is http://bit.ly/IBMi_ITGEnterprise.

For this study, ITG looked at large businesses in various industries that run on IBM i, and those in the same industry that run on competitive platforms. I’ve selected on chart that shows the huge difference platform choice makes.

Again the study looks at a three-year period, and again, IBM i + Power Systems is a winning combination. With the integrity and reliability of the system, and with the features we’ve added over time to allow more changes to be made in the environment without disruption, the cost of downtime is significantly lower on IBM i. And this is a trend. A great quote from the study:

"No matter how one rates the value of IBM i’s distinctive strengths, that value is increasing over time."

Please, take a few minutes to look at one or both of the studies. And the next time you encounter someone who wonders if trusting your business to IBM i and Power Systems is the right business decision, point them to the documents. The numbers in the study, plus your personal experiences with the stability and function of IBM i make a pretty powerful story.

 

 

 

 

 

Win for IBM i – Nishii Paint Industry

As I mentioned last time, IBM i has a very large presence in Japan. When I was visiting, I got to talk to several IBMers, customers and partners who were interested in telling me the stories of how important the platform is to their business. One of the stories I heard about is the subject of today’s blog. We all like hearing about “wins.” In this industry, we are in constant competition to show how our solutions are better for our customers than those they could get from the competition. When a customer looks at their options and decides to go with IBM i on Power Systems, that’s a “win.”

The customer in this case is Nishii Paint Industry Co. Ltd. They were profiled in an iMagazine article, but since most of my readers can’t read the original Japanese version, I thought I would give a few highlights.

Nishii Paint produces:

• Paint, adhesives, building materials, sealants, waterproof resin relevant material, metal surface treatment
• Painting and environmental pollution control equipment

They have more than 270 employees and have sales worth in excess of $200M annually. They had aging technology and needed to:

• Replace an aging NEC PC server based sales support and warehouse applications
• Rewrite 20-year-old Visual Basic applications

The solution they were going to select needed to be cost-effective and positioned for the future. They evaluated NEC, Hitachi, IBM and Fujitsu. The IBM Business Partner they worked with was Fukuoka Business Information (FBI) who helped deploy a cloud service on IBM i and Power 720, using ILE RPG for ERP, with a PHP/JavaScript user interface. One of the key attributes of IBM i that helped make this solution so attractive, according to the Nishii Paint CEO, was the IBM i investment protection – the assurance that program objects would not need to change as generations of hardware and operating systems changed.

Though it required a significant investment in software development, they are seeing monthly costs for their current solution that are 20 percent below their prior solution. The project took about 18 months, but the customer is very happy with the results. They expect to make back their investment in five years or less. And this project positioned them well to use mobile access while also making new business process implementation much easier.

This story, and others like it, illustrate why we work hard to keep enhancing IBM i to use the world-class architecture to support new capabilities. One of the best parts of my job is hearing about “wins” like this, because IBM i is helping another client get the job done. Another one of the best parts of my job is getting to tell stories like this to you. I hope you enjoyed it and can use it yourself.