At the most recent COMMON meeting (held in mid-March in San Diego), I had the honor of being the keynote speaker for the opening session. Wow! A real user giving the keynote. When COMMON asked me to do this, I was pleased — and a bit surprised at the same time. After all, I've earned a bit of a reputation of being an industry "wild card," and since IBM supplies dozens of speakers and tons of technology to COMMON at no cost, having a "loose cannon on deck" like Bob Tipton during the opening session might have resulted in IBM or COMMON not being cast in the most favorable light. However, COMMON is a users group (made up of and controlled by volunteers), and IBM gains tremendous value by participating at COMMON's meetings. In other words, no whining allowed from either side! We should be able to give meaningful, thoughtful, and well-crafted messages to IBM — without fear of repercussion.

Anyway, when the leadership of COMMON asked me to present on the future of e-business, I couldn't resist delivering my "The Future of the AS/400e in e-Business" presentation. Once I'd decided on that particular presentation, I felt the steam rising in me. I feel very passionate about the subject, and once I got on stage in San Diego, I sort of let go.

In the aftermath, I've heard all kinds of things about my presentation. Some interpretations see me "taking direct aim" at Big Blue — unreasonably and caustically criticizing the AS/400's market positioning approach and IBM's marketing overall. Other retellings of my presentation have me performing character assassinations on every IBM executive in the history of IBM and the AS/400 Division. As is usually the case, the truth exists somewhere in the middle, and I'd like to make sure my presentation will not forever be misconstrued or misquoted.

What I Actually Said

Okay, maybe I did criticize IBM somewhat, but I did it using their own information. If IBM — the corporation — were truly proud of the AS/400's place in IBM's overall history, they would have included it somewhere within the "IBM History" section of their Web site. They didn’t. I didn’t make this fact up; I simply reported it. I also pointed out that IBM, over the past two years or so, has quietly shifted from being a hardware-biased company to being a software and services company. I simply showed a copy of IBM's own income statement (again, taken directly from their Web site) to indicate where the growth in IBM's revenue and profitability was coming from (software and services, not hardware). Furthermore, I took the liberty of pointing out the vast differences in decision-making at IBM compared to Sun, Microsoft, and Apple. All I did was clearly show the lack within IBM of a "maniacal visionary" who is totally committed to the AS/400 platform.

Well, suffice it to say, I got a few people at IBM a little steamed with me (that’s nothing new — been there, done that!). What’s interesting is that I got far more IBMers to come up to me and indicate their 100 percent agreement with my message and my approach.

Call to Action

Here's where the important message of my presentation might have been lost as people's emotions got the better of the situation. My presentation was a call to action — for the AS/400 faithful — in that it's time to take the future market positioning of the platform into our own hands. Period. We can't wait for IBM to do it for us; my assertion is that that will be too little too late. Based upon results, IBM is either unable, or unwilling, to clearly and unambiguously differentiate the AS/400 from among their other "quickly-becoming-consumer-products" server platforms. So we need to do it ourselves — with our businesses, with our peers, with academia, with Wall Street, with IBM, with everyone. Without marketing-oriented differentiation, the AS/400 loses.

There are many people in the AS/400 market with lots to gain or lose depending upon the future success of the platform. Now's the time to start a grassroots effort designed to make sure IBM clearly knows how we feel — and to begin to bombard the "right" IBMers with messages exemplifying this perspective. The marketplace needs to know that AS/400 users will not respond favorably to a "sunsetting" or "putting out to pasture" of the AS/400 platform like IBM has done with other world-class technologies that they decided weren't strategic any longer.

Some IBMers may have felt I was personally attacking them. I do apologize for any personal hurt, but I never intended it nor do I think I was attacking anyone individually (okay, one reference to Lou Gerstner and cookies might have been uncalled for, but he's heard it thousands of times before — I didn't invent it!). If some IBMers felt uncomfortable, a little nervous, a little unsure of what was going to happen next, then I did my job. All I did was attempt to awaken the "sleeping giant" called the AS/400 marketplace. I'm sure that's not what IBM wants to have happen — better to have us remain quiet, and submissive. To that, I say, "Plan on receiving some messages about how your users feel about their system. Plan on hearing about the value proposition shown by the AS/400; however, plan on not having IBM marketing delivering these messages."

Unfortunately, the next day, IBM's response to my "hornets-nest beating" indicated it was "easy to point out the problems" and that we should be looking for solutions instead. I agree. Again, I thought I was helping the process by pointing out one of the last available solutions to the AS/400 faithful. To reiterate, here it is: It's time for AS/400 users out there to say to IBM, "WE LOVE OUR AS/400s!" Furthermore, it's time for the AS/400 faithful to take the market positioning of the AS/400 out of IBM's direct control. Please, send your cards and letters by the thousands to IBM, to the trade press, to Congress, to the White House, to Wall Street analysts, to your peers, to your executives, and to the schools in your neighborhood. With the right "missionary" approach, anything can be done.

If we don't take responsibility for the AS/400's market positioning, we will have no one to blame but ourselves for our situation. Now's the time, and you’re the group. Let's get started.