case study ibm

1. PPM-IT
ASSIGNMENT-2
CASE STUDY ON IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (commonly referred to as IBM) is an
American multinational technology and consulting corporation, with corporate
headquarters in Armonk, New York. IBM manufactures and markets computer
hardware, middleware and software and offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting
services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.
The company originated in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company
(CTR) through the consolidation of The Tabulating Machine Company, the
International Time Recording Company, the Computing Scale Company and the
Bundy Manufacturing Company. CTR was renamed "International Business
Machines" in 1924, a name which Thomas J. Watson first used for a CTR Canadian
subsidiary. The initialism "IBM" followed. In 1949, Watson created IBM World
Trade Corporation, a subsidiary of IBM focused on foreign operations. Securities
analysts nicknamed the company Big Blue for its size and common use of the color
in products, packaging and its logo.
In 2012, Fortune ranked IBM the second largest U.S. firm in terms of number of
employees (435,000 worldwide), the fourth largest in terms of market capitalization,
the ninth most profitable and the nineteenth largest firm in terms of revenue.
Globally, the company was ranked the 31st largest in terms of revenue by Forbes for
2011. Other rankings for 2011/2012 include №1 company for leaders (Fortune), №1
green company in the United States (Newsweek), №2 best global brand (Interbrand),
№2 most respected company (Barron's), №5 most admired company (Fortune), and
№18 most innovative company (Fast Company).
IBM has 12 research laboratories worldwide, bundled into IBM Research. As of
2013 the company held the record for most patents generated by a business for 22
consecutive years. Its employees have garnered five Nobel Prizes, six Turing
Awards, ten National Medals of Technology and five National Medals of Science.
Notable company inventions or developments include the automated teller machine
(ATM), the floppy disk, the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, the relational
database, the Universal Product Code (UPC), the financial swap, the Fortran
programming language, SABRE airline reservation system, dynamic random-access

2. memory (DRAM), copper wiring in semiconductors, the silicon-on-insulator (SOI)
semiconductor manufacturing process and Watson artificial intelligence.
IBM has constantly evolved since its inception. Over the past decade, it has steadily
shifted its business mix by exiting commoditizing markets such as PCs, hard disk
drives and DRAMs and focusing on higher-value, more profitable markets such as
business intelligence, data analytics, business continuity, security, cloud computing,
virtualization and green solutions, resulting in a higher quality revenue stream and
higher profit margins. IBM's operating margin expanded from 16.8% in 2004 to
24.3% in 2013, and net profit margins expanded from 9.0% in 2004 to 16.5% in
2013.
IBM acquired PwC's consulting business (2002), SPSS (2009) and Kenexa (2012),
also spinning off companies like printer manufacturer Lexmark (1991), and selling
off to Lenovo its personal computer product line (2005), plus its x86-based server
businesses (2014). Also in 2014, IBM announced that it would go "fabless" by
offloading IBM Micro Electronics semiconductor manufacturing to
GlobalFoundries, a leader in advanced technology manufacturing, citing that
semiconductor manufacturing is a capital-intensive business which is challenging to
operate without scale. This transition had progressed as of early 2015.

3. FUNCTIONS OF IBM:
 Functional Expertise:
Sometimes the hardest problems to solve are the ones that touch so many areas of
the business. Their consultants are well versed in specific functional processes that,
done right, are the key to improving business performance.
 Application Services(AI):
Application Services (AS) team help clients improve their IT effectiveness, leverage
open standards and global development models, and define architectures and
services that provide a foundation for performance and cost efficiency. IBM is a
leader in the application services market and one of the fastest growing service
providers in the industry. They offer opportunities to join their AS team in both
Application Management Services and Application Innovation Services.
 Business Intelligence(BI):
IBM Client Innovation Center’s Business Intelligence (BI) practice is made up of
more than 2,300 dedicated professionals around the world who take advantage of a
common methodology, training curriculum and knowledge-sharing network for the
benefit of our clients - and their own career development. As a leading BI system
integrator, they operate on all continents, with consultants in 25 countries providing
strategic services for clients in 17 target industries.
 Customer Relationship Management(CRM):
With one of the largest Customer Relationship Management (CRM) practices in the
world - over 4,400 professionals in GBS and more than 10,000 across all of IBM -
their consultants truly make an impact, helping clients to integrate their sales,
marketing and customer service functions, and improve sales performance across all
channels. They partner with companies to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction,
while reducing the costs associated with marketing, sales and service. They work
with some of the world’s leading CRM software vendors including
Oracle/Siebel/PeopleSoft, Chordiant and SAP.
 Financial Management(FM):
IBM Global Business Services’ Financial Management (FM) practice is made up of
more than 5,000 experienced professionals, who have served three-quarters of the

4. global Fortune 50 and boast a strong record as advisors to CFOs and finance leaders.
We work with clients to design and implement finance and accounting business
transformation, process improvement and technology solutions across the enterprise.
We help companies address the changing role of finance, better manage capital and
profits, increase visibility of financial information, and maximize benefits of
technology.
IBM Client Innovation Center is uniquely positioned in the Financial Management
services arena, offering their clients the benefit of deep ERP and strategic vendor
solutions with such leaders as Oracle, PeopleSoft, Siebel, SAP, KPMG, Hyperion,
and Cognos.
 Human Capital Management(HCM):
Their Human Capital Management (HCM) practice is made up of over 2,000
experienced professionals in 42 countries helping clients create a responsive
workplace and best-in-class HR function while aligning performance with strategic
goals. They invest heavily in research and thought leadership to deepen client and
employee understanding of today’s top HR and learning issues, as exemplified by
their Global Human Capital Study, Center for Human Capacity, and IBM’s Institute
for Learning and Organizational Performance. We deliver strategy, operations,
process, technology and outsourcing to help clients get the best from and for their
people.
IBM Client Innovation Center partners closely with key vendors such as Oracle,
PeopleSoft, SAP, Kronos and Cognos to deliver world-class solutions.
 Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO):
Business analytics and optimization combines the substantial strengths of IBM in
analytic methods and techniques, the ability of their research teams to solve
problems of unprecedented scale and complexity, and the industry, business
knowledge and skills of their consulting teams.
 Oracle and PeopleSoft:
IBM Client Innovation Center has the largest and most experienced team of Oracle,
PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel consultants among global system integrators -
12,000 - plus global staff with over 6,000 engagements successfully delivered.

5. IBM has consistently been rated the highest by Gartner in ERP, CRM and
BI/Analytics. They were the first organization to develop a co-operative agreement
with Oracle in 1987. IBM was named the 2005, 2006, 2007 Global Systems
Integrator Partner of the Year (now Applications Momentum Award) by Oracle in
the Americas and continues to gather momentum with the Asia Pacific Partner of
the Year Award in 2014 and 2015 as well as numerous other awards from
Netherlands, North America and France. IBM is the first and only Award of
Excellence recipient from PeopleSoft. They are also the world's largest Siebel
integrator.
 Packaged Software
In addition to Enterprise Resource Planning, they are among the leading integrators
of function and industry-specific software package solutions. They have experience
and client insight that can't be matched by leveraging their deep industry
relationships and expertise gleaned from more than 350,000 engagements during the
past 15 years.
 SAP
It is one of the largest SAP integrators in the world. With more than 12,000 SAP
practitioners, they help clients realize tangible business results as they shift ther
business to new dimensional products like HANA, Hybris, C4C and cloud apps like
Successfactors and Ariba.
For over 40 years now, IBM and SAP have helped clients to formulate and execute
winning strategies through thousands of successful implementations across a broad
range of industries. Since the SAP pinnacle awards began in 2002, IBM has won 31
awards - more than any other SAP partner. Additionally, IBM and SAP’s Cloud
Premier Partnership helps clients create a stable, secure and agile SAP environment.
 Strategy and Change (S&C):
IBM Strategy and Change (S&C) consultants help their clients transform their
enterprise to seize industry opportunities by formulating successful strategies at the
intersection of business and technology, and accelerating implementation through
powerful change programs. Working with the Institute for Business Value and
supported by IBM's global research and development community, they craft world-
class industry thought leadership, such as IBM’s Global C-Suite Study and
implement winning strategies leveraging their 3,500 strategy consultants worldwide.

6.  Supply Chain Management (SCM):
Their world-class Supply Chain Management (SCM) team is made up of recognized
experts with impressive credentials. They work in cross-functional teams to analyze
every phase of the supply chain, from design to source to plan to build to distribute,
in order to maximize performance and drive competitiveness for their clients. They
have one of the broadest portfolios of alliances with leading and emerging supply
chain vendors, including SAP, MRO Software, Inc., Dassault Systems and i2
Technologies.

7. IBM HEADS IN INDIA
The head of IBM India is called a country manager. These people have headed IBM
India during its history in the country.
 1966–1976 – Alec Taylor
 1976–1978 – T Brian Finn
 1992–1994 – Michael Klein
 1994–1996 – John R. Whiting
 1996–1998 – Ravi Marwaha
 1998–2000 – Ranjit Limaye
 2001–2004 – Abraham Thomas, currently in IBM Singapore
 2004–2012 – Shanker Annaswamy
 2012 – present – Vanitha Narayanan

8. WORKING IN IBM
IBM's employee management practices can be traced back to its roots. In 1914, CEO
Thomas J. Watson boosted company spirit by creating employee sports teams,
hosting family outings and furnishing a company band. IBM sports teams still
continue in the present day; the IBM Big Blue continue to exist as semi-professional
company rugby and American football teams. In 1924 the Quarter Century Club,
which recognizes employees with 25 years of service, was organized and the first
issue of Business Machines, IBM's internal publication, was published. In 1925, the
first meeting of the Hundred Percent Club, composed of IBM salesmen who meet
their quotas, convened in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
IBM was among the first corporations to provide group life insurance (1934),
survivor benefits (1935) and paid vacations (1937). In 1932 IBM created an
Education Department to oversee training for employees, which oversaw the
completion of the IBM Schoolhouse at Endicott in 1933. In 1935, the employee
magazine Think was created. Also that year, IBM held its first training class for
female systems service professionals. In 1942, IBM launched a program to train and
employ disabled people in Topeka, Kansas. The next year classes began in New
York City, and soon the company was asked to join the President's Committee for
Employment of the Handicapped. In 1946, the company hired its first black
salesman, 18 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1947, IBM announced a
Total and Permanent Disability Income Plan for employees. A vested rights pension
was added to the IBM retirement plan. During IBM's management transformation in
the 1990s revisions were made to these pension plans to reduce IBM's pension
liabilities.
In 1952, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., published the company's first written equal
opportunity policy letter, one year before the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown
vs. Board of Education and 11 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1961,
IBM's nondiscrimination policy was expanded to include sex, national origin and
age. The following year, IBM hosted its first Invention Award Dinner honoring 34
outstanding IBM inventors; and in 1963, the company named the first eight IBM
Fellows in a new Fellowship Program that recognizes senior IBM scientists,
engineers and other professionals for outstanding technical achievements.

9. An IBM delivery tricycle in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1965
On September 21, 1953, Thomas Watson, Jr., the company's president at the time,
sent out a controversial letter to all IBM employees stating that IBM needed to hire
the best people, regardless of their race, ethnic origin, or gender. He also publicized
the policy so that in his negotiations to build new manufacturing plants with the
governors of two states in the U.S. South, he could be clear that IBM would not build
"separate-but-equal" workplaces. In 1984, IBM added sexual orientation to its
nondiscrimination policy. The company stated that this would give IBM a
competitive advantage because IBM would then be able to hire talented people its
competitors would turn down.
IBM was the only technology company ranked in Working Mother magazine's Top
10 for 2004, and one of two technology companies in 2005. On October 10, 2005,
IBM became the first major company in the world to commit formally to not use
genetic information in employment decisions. The announcement was made shortly
after IBM began working with the National Geographic Society on its Genographic
Project.
IBM provides same-sex partners of its employees with health benefits and provides
an anti-discrimination clause. The Human Rights Campaign has consistently rated
IBM 100% on its index of gay-friendliness since 2003 (in 2002, the year it began
compiling its report on major companies, IBM scored 86%). In 2007 and again in
2010, IBM UK was ranked first in Stonewall's annual Workplace Equality Index for
UK employers.
The company has traditionally resisted labor union organizing, although unions
represent some IBM workers outside the United States. In 2009, the Unite union
stated that several hundred employees joined following the announcement in the UK
of pension cuts that left many employees facing a shortfall in projected pensions.
A dark (or gray) suit, white shirt and a "sincere" tie was the public uniform for IBM
employees for most of the 20th century. During IBM's management transformation
in the 1990s, CEO Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. relaxed these codes, normalizing the dress
and behavior of IBM employees to resemble their counterparts in other large
technology companies. Since then IBM's dress code is business casual although
employees often wear business suits during client meetings.

10. On June 16, 2011, as part of its centenary celebrations the company announced
IBM100, a year-long grants program to fund employee participation in volunteer
projects.
Following in the footsteps of other big companies like Adobe and Accenture, IBM
got rid of its annual performance review system in February 2016. Now, through the
"Checkpoint" system, official feedback is given on at least a quarterly basis - and it's
supplemented by a more casual, ongoing dialogue between employees. This
dialogue takes place virtually, through an IBM mobile and desktop app called
"ACE," which stands for "Appreciation, Coaching, Evaluation." The app is an
optional tool, and so far 90,000 IBM staffers are using it.