A Case Study and Analysis of IBM

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Recommended: The background of IBM

IBM Case Study

Critical Facts

• Founded in 1911 through the merger of several companies under the name Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (IBM, n.d.)

• Renamed Internation Business Machines in 1924 to align its name with its business market (IBM, n.d.)

• Introduced FORTRAN, the world’s first programming language standard, in 1957(IBM, n.d.)

• 1959 IBM creates the program “SPEAK UP!” to encourage communication between employees and management (IBM, n.d.)

• Created the web based technical resource DeveloperWorks in 2000 (Pearlson & Saunders, 2013)

• DeveloperWorks provides articles, demos, podcasts, and tutorials to both IBM employees, customers and other developers for free (Pearlson & Saunders, 2013)

• Social networking functionality was added to DeveloperWorks with My DeveloperWorks (using IBM Connections) in 2009 (Pearlson & Saunders, 2013)

• IBM Connections is a professional social networking solution created in 2007 to allow organizations to create “dynamic networks of coworkers, partners, and customers (IBM, n.d.)

Analysis

In order for a business to be as successful over a long period of time, it needs to be adaptable and have a relationship centric approach to its business. From the introduction of FORTRAN allowed IBM and its customers to develop in a common language that could be shared and understood easily. I believe that it is this spirit that has led to the creation and use of DeveloperWorks.

DeveloperWorks social networking provides several key benefits. Allowing both IBM employees and customers to interact in a common location allows them to crowd source issues. Customer’s difficulties with a particular software could be addressed by IBM’s staff and fellow customers. Or a developer in IBM could use ...

... middle of paper ...

...e feedback and conduct performance reviews.) An employee with excellent support skills that is personable is free marketing for IBM. With the recent struggles IBM has that caused them to miss their first quarter estimates in 2013 (O'Toole, 2013), IBM needs to be watchful that it doesn’t get complacent and make the same mistakes Microsoft has by ignoring their customers. Creating a process in which customers can have a direct impact on software upgrades/projects, either via IBM developers reporting popular requests in an IS and aggregating the data or via an automated tool that collects the data for the IS will help IBM stay profitable by providing services and solutions its customers need but IBM may not have considered. Displaying requests, their popularity, and whether the change is being implemented on DeveloperWorks would also help with customer brand loyalty.

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