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General Manager, IBM ISV & Developer Relations Buell Duncan is General Manager of IBM ISV and Developer Relations. He is responsible for IBM
alliances and programs with independent software vendors and solution developers. Mr. Duncan, a
graduate of Vanderbilt University in Business and Economics, joined IBM as a marketing representative in
1975. He held various management positions including General Manager, iSeries; Vice President, Sales,
AS/400; General Manager, International Operations, Worldwide Sales and Services; General Manager,
Systems Sales, EMEA; and General Manager, Industries, IBM North America.
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if it's sunday - i am taking a break...
for the past 3 years every sunday night i've tried to write down a few thoughts that get posted on the developerWorks blog on monday. it's highly unlikely that this blog is read with consistency by anyone - including my immediate family! last month i changed assignments from leading the isv and developer relations team at ibm to worldwide vice president marketing, ibm software group. my close friend jim corgel is taking the lead with the idr team and will absolutely propel it to new heights. the mission of recruiting and building the strongest ecosystem in the industry is critical for ibm, the companies we work with and most importantly, for our customers in order to deliver the solutions that make a difference in their business.
transitioning to this new job is incredibly exciting. we are in the midst of transforming our marketing activities to focus less and less on technology for technology's sake and more on the broader business value we deliver to clients (with our partners!). the ibm program framework is based on messaging around key themes and audiences across all customer segments. we are not moving away from the strengths of individual products in our portfolio, but rather focusing on the value of integration and impact these products bring when optimized together. business flexibility (soa), governance and risk management, optimizing i.t. are examples of real business issues that ibm is well-positioned to address.
in digging into this new role, i think i will take a sabbatical from my sunday night blog for a while. one thing i want everyone to realize though is how privileged i have been to work with the idr team and how fortunate i am to join this new world of marketing. i love to say over and over that it's all about the value that is delivered. no one has done that better than those i have worked closely with these past few years.
Categories
: [ Buell_Duncan | IBM | IBM_Software_Group | Jim_Corgel | developerWorks ]
Mar 13 2007, 01:12:03 PM EDT
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snow and ice and business processes - oh my
last weekend several friends of mine were trying to get to florida on jetblue. they tried friday. they tried saturday. they tried sunday. we all know the story. bad weather literally crippled this popular airline. they are known for doing so many things well - yet a thousand flights were canceled, millions lost and goodwill of a fast growing company damaged immeasurably. how did this happen?
i'd argue it's weak business processes that haven't kept up with the company's growth. planes and crews in the wrong places. passengers getting late and inaccurate information. the airline's logistics and customer support systems literally fell apart under the pressure of the crisis. businesses depend on i.t. systems more than ever. effectively linking i.t. with critical business processes can mean life or death for a company. open standards and soa are more critical than ever in building the necessary systems to respond to change. working with our partners - we are committed to bringing value that addresses this challenge. are you ready????
i hope you'll join us at the ibm impact conference in orlando - may 20 - 25. this will be ibm's largest-ever conference on soa and websphere - and i am told it will leave attendees revved up! so - prepare to start your engines (and figure out which airline you're going to use!)
Categories
: [ Buell_Duncan | IBM | Impact_2007 | JetBlue | SOA ]
Feb 28 2007, 10:03:46 AM EST
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it's the truth!
"i cannot tell a lie..."
of all the powerful quotes attributed to george washington - this is the one we all remember. ironically - it's not even accurate! but it's simple - and that's why it's so powerful.
our lives are complicated and so is business. but we're working on that. in fact, earlier this month ibm announced an easier way for business partners to make money using open source. business partners using websphere application server community edition (was ce) or db2 express-c now have free access to ibm's sales, marketing and technical consultants. the idea is simple. you work with ibm -free of charge- and we'll give you all the resources to help you get your open source apps to market quicker...and that's no lie! this initiative is already making a huge impact - more than 300 business partners have built their apps based on was ce and hundreds more are in the process.
speaking of impact - ibm announced another way to make your life simpler. ibm impact 2007 is coming to orlando, florida may 20 - 25. this will be ibm's largest-ever soa conference - with everything you ever wanted to know about soa and doing business with ibm. i am especially interested in the business partner day on may 20 - that will include among other things, partner-only breakout sessions and a gala reception just for ibm business partners. i hope you're planning on coming - and bringing the sun screen!
Categories
: [ Buell_Duncan | IBM | Impact_2007 | SOA | open_source ]
Feb 19 2007, 07:34:04 PM EST
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what makes you special?
over the weekend, i spoke with a friend of mine who is a financial planner. he works with extremely wealthy clients (of which i am definitely not one!) providing investment and financial advice. his focus is on expanding his services well beyond basic investing and portfolio management. sure, estate planning and family trusts are not exactly stretches to his base business, but what about bill paying and college planning? heck, he even told me they have a service to help clients buy cars or private jets! another fellow i know is a residential builder. They are very nice homes that i assume - even in a tough market, still provide good margins. he is transforming his business to offer his customers home management services for an annual fee. these include regular maintenance to property management to security services and more.
my financial buddy tells me investment management has become a commodity. the winners have to differentiate themselves by adding value. a builder offering additional services creates an ongoing revenue stream to soften the downturns in the real estate market. software companies have been using this approach for some time. the secret of course is that real value must be delivered. otherwise it's viewed as a tax or a service that just won't sell. i think there is also an analogy to how we view our time at work. do we bring a unique value proposition in the eyes of our company and our colleagues? to succeed, it's not enough to just show up and do our job. it's the value above and beyond what is expected - even if it's outside of the box - that makes the difference.....
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: [ Buell_Duncan | IBM ]
Feb 15 2007, 03:09:52 PM EST
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from xbox to the board room
how much time do teenagers today spend on video games? while it may vary from family to family, one thing is certain; millions and millions of people, young and old love to play their game boys, xboxes, play stations and the rest. this whole virtual reality craze is at a fever pitch. the question to ask is, how far beyond teens can this go?
building virtual communities has become one of the hottest topics in business. today banks are creating 3-d virtual networks to better support their clients. many real estate companies give virtual tours of their properties. coca cola ran a virtual reality advertisement on sunday's super bowl broadcast and ford showed a truck being assembled in virtual 3-d. ibm ceo sam palmisano has his own avatar. it goes on and on. with announcements like lotus connections, virtual reality and social networking is going mainstream......it is now about business and it's big.
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: [ Buell_Duncan | IBM | Lotus | Lotus_Connections | second_life ]
Feb 08 2007, 09:27:48 AM EST
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if at first...
what happens when your twelve year old strikes out in little league or drops the baton in a relay race? you tell them to understand what went wrong, practice and try again. one of my pet peeves in business is not that people make mistakes, but that they don't understand what went wrong or have a crisp plan for improvement. a colleague of mine responsible for sales in asia once asked me, "what is the best way to deal with the worldwide corporate team in the weekly sales review?" i told him there are three important points: know exactly where your business is positioned, have a clear diagnosis of the problems and a specific recovery plan that you are ready to execute. one of my bosses once said, "a lot of people can say it looks like rain, but too few know where the umbrellas are."
our efforts with our partners are far from perfect and don't always work as planned. by focusing on continuous improvement they get better and better though.
like our kids, you get back up at the plate or on the horse when you fall. you do it best by knowing what you did wrong and what you will do different the next time. it's not the mistakes that kill us, it's what we do after we make them......
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: [ Buell_Duncan | IBM | partners ]
Jan 31 2007, 07:59:16 AM EST
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passion to win...these players have it!
my ten year old son played in a hockey tournament this weekend. it was unbelievable. every game was close and they made it to the finals, ultimately losing in triple overtime. they were exhausted and literally gave it everything they had. i love the emotion that kids put into their team sports.
success in business is tied to many factors; depth of skill, creativity, hard work and good planning. but the passion to win may be at the top of the list. and just like in sports, passion is a key intangible for success. the team in isv and developer relations brings out all of the attributes of success. this team has built world class alliances with the most important software companies; they help deliver open standards curriculum to hundreds of thousands of students; and through developerWorks they reach millions of software architects and developers. thanks to this team, the ibm ecosystem is the strongest in the industry and offers our partners the greatest technical and sales support of any company.
this success is tied to the passion and commitment to win that every member of idr shows each day. they are winners in every sense of the word and working as part of that team is a privilege. while the game vs our competitors may often be close and sometimes go into overtime, it's rare this team doesn't come out on top. like the ridgefield lions in hockey, they are the best!
Categories
: [ Academic_Initiative | Buell_Duncan | IBM | ISV_and_Developer_Relations | developerWorks ]
Jan 22 2007, 12:05:27 AM EST
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organization better be more than charts
today we announced several organizational changes for isv and developer relations at ibm. we are creating an emerging business and strategy team, changing the reporting structure of our global innovation centers to link them more tightly with the broader technical organization and aligning our european operation with the current ibm structure. on the surface, one can argue this is about headquarters' designed, internal organization charts. in fact, like everything we strive to do (but admittedly don't always achieve) it's about adding value to external client and partner relationships.
now i could (but i won't) take you through the case for each of these seemingly routine changes. the point to be made is that our customers should be first and foremost in every decision we make. focusing on value-add delivered externally will make the difference in the success of a business. i am always reminded any time i travel or talk with partners, customers and teammates of how much there is to learn...and how little we learn sitting behind our desk!
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: [ Buell_Duncan | IBM | IBM_Innovation_Centers | ISV_and_Developer_Relations ]
Jan 16 2007, 09:10:35 AM EST
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if you are a sports fan, this must be heaven
if you are a sports fan, you have to love this time of year. the pro football play-offs are in full swing - even though both n.y. teams lost this weekend :-( the college bowl season has been unbelievable. how about boise state! it peaks monday when i hope my florida gators surprise all of us! basketball and hockey are rolling. golf has started in hawaii. the best for me though is watching my teenage kids do their thing on their school and town teams. sports are exciting. we pull for our favorite teams. while we're never positive about the final outcome, success is tied directly to strategy, execution and luck as the ball bounces. sounds a lot like business if you think about it - especially in the software industry.
competition has never been more intense. like football, we are measured in quarters. there are always factors outside of our control, but generally speaking, it's the stronger team that achieves the greatest success. our ibm team from sales to development, marketing to channels is all pro. what makes us even stronger is the added value our partners bring to the field when we work closely together. last season was a good one. with new venues like saas, soa, virtual communities and expansion into new markets, 2007 will be even more exciting. we are prepared - and with our partners, you will see this team put up lots of points!
i hope the gators can too..........
Categories
: [ Buell_Duncan | IBM | PartnerWorld_Industry_Networks | saas | soa | software_as_a_service ]
Jan 08 2007, 09:34:11 AM EST
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2006...it was a very big year!
one can make a strong argument that 2006 was a pinnacle year of change across the i.t. industry. think about the growth of open source adoption, the introduction of second life and other new communities on the web. how about the rate of consolidation in the software industry? seems like every company has become either a buyer or buyee. i believe we will look back on the year as a watershed when software as a service became the real deal; growth of new startups and traditional software companies are either launching new saas offerings or getting ready to.
behind every new trend that is sustainable there must be a business driver. the driver in 2006 was undoubtedly innovation. companies worked to differentiate themselves from their competition by re-engineering and improving their business processes. they focused on their relationships with customers, suppliers and employees and better integrating disparate i.t. systems. soa took the main stage, enabling integration and allowing companies to more quickly redefine themselves.
overall, it was the year of the ecosystem. building relationships with partners who can help broaden a company's market reach, delivering skills and solutions. none of the trends above are possible without an ecosystem to build and deliver technologies that businesses depend on to drive innovation. as we look ahead to the new year, there is only one thing we know for certain...as exciting as this year has been, 2007 will be even better!
wishing you a very happy new year with genuine thanks for the opportunity to continue to work together.
Categories
: [ Buell_Duncan | IBM | ecosystem | saas | soa ]
Dec 30 2006, 09:49:47 AM EST
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making a list, checking it twice
tis the season for crowning the "best ofs": business week lists the "best and worst of", forbes has the "2006 best sellers" list, among many others and time magazine unveiled their "person of the year" pick - which i'll come back to. and in case you didn't see it, ibm topped a list last week too. for the second year in a row - analyst firm idc ranked ibm number one for the work we do with our business partners. the report studies the top 10 isv partner programs across three areas: marketing, sales and technical resources. after compiling the scores in all three areas - ibm won, beating out microsoft, sap, oracle and hp.
talk about a top 10 list i am excited about! but really, the reason i am so proud of this, is because it's a title that could only be won with a strong team. the thousands of business partners across the globe that are working with ibm and creating the industry's strongest ecosystem played a significant role in this win. this analysis is further proof that what we are doing together is working - and will continue to work.
now, back to the time person of the year...you. is it a cheap answer? or an incredibly clever choice? i have to vote for clever - as i am about to post a blog for a very niche audience, you. the article in time discusses the massive social experiment that is web 2.0, and how we crave community and personal experience. it may not seem so odd to us now, but think of how reputable news outlets like reuters are running blogs next to their actual news reports. it also highlights the massive amount of work that you are putting into web 2.0 as well, building avatars on second life, recording podcasts and building open source software. yes - open source software is time magazine's person of the year, sort of. not sure this is a "best of" list microsoft is excited about. i wonder what you will be doing this time next year?
here is to making your top 10 and a very happy holiday!!!!
Dec 18 2006, 11:18:38 AM EST
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partnering...making the best even better
much like elves at the north pole, the ibm partnerworld team has been working round the clock for the big day. that day is today....
thanks to feedback from many of our ibm business partners, we've made major enhancements to partnerworld, which will make your work with us easier and more profitable. it comes down to making the experience simpler for everyone. log on and you'll notice a new interface that will save you time. resellers, consultants, integrators should log on too, because now everyone can have access to partnerworld industry networks. and isvs will find even more technical support as well as new and enhanced benefits.
i've said it before... with our business partners, we have the strongest ecosystem in the industry....and it's a team effort. you provide feedback, tell us how we can move forward together - and we respond. we're committed to continually improving and building stronger relationships with our partners. it's how the best remain the best...and how those elves have remained so efficient over the years!
Categories
: [ Buell_Duncan | IBM | ISVs | PartnerWorld | PartnerWorld_Industry_Networks | ecosystem ]
Dec 11 2006, 01:08:02 PM EST
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building blocks... one center at a time
a couple of weeks back we announced the opening of our thirty-third ibm innovation center (iic) to increase support of ibm isv partners. this new center, located in barcelona, follows the opening of a center in kuala lumpur two months earlier. these centers are more than the physical evidence of ibm's technology leadership and commitment to business partners. they provide technical porting locations for isvs to enable to open standards based hardware and software platforms. but they also serve another, equally important purpose. the iics act as central hubs that bring together ibm teams, world class isv firms and clients to build innovative solutions.
this year, more than 16 thousand applications have been ported and enabled to ibm's server and middleware technology. thirty percent of these solutions are being supported for the first time by our partners, significantly increasing the number of new solutions on ibm platforms. the annual revenue impact of this work is in the billions of dollars to both ibm and to our partners. one statistic that is particularly interesting is the number of transactions that are happening in the mid-market with customers that are working with ibm for the first time.
a strong ecosystem is critical to the long term success of any business in our industry. starting with students building skills at colleges and universities and working closely with professional software developers, isvs and systems integrators is essential. we are continuing to invest to serve the needs of our customers. investments that are well justified - because no company, no matter how large, can go it alone.
Categories
: [ Barcelona | Buell_Duncan | IBM | IBM_Innovation_Centers | IIC | ISVs | academic_initiative | developers ]
Dec 05 2006, 12:41:33 PM EST
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thankful
this past week, many of us here in the u.s. celebrated thanksgiving... it would be remiss of me not to mention that i was thankful for the chance to express my thoughts and opinions in this space. and even more so - thankful that you take the time to read and occasionally respond!
may you have plenty to be thankful for this season........
-buell
Categories
: [ Buell_Duncan | IBM ]
Nov 26 2006, 10:03:11 PM EST
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if it's tuesday, it must be barcelona
last week i traveled to ireland, spain and sweden. the weather was different, the food was unique, but the theme of the companies i met with was consistent....subscription software offerings or software as a service (saas) is becoming a very big deal.
executives from the irish software association explained the huge increases in r&d spending in ireland; much of it driven by venture investments in saas application vendors. in barcelona, we opened the new ibm forum, a combination client and partner innovation center. we met with dozens of isvs who were working with ibm in spain and also expanding to other countries. many of them, like nimsoft, whose websphere/soa telco solution is delivered as a service. in stockholm, companies like gopro (based in iceland) and danish-based it factory, are both seeing huge growth....driven by saas.
it was a great trip. the november weather really was the good, the bad and the ugly. the food was in fact out of this world. the business talk though, was all about rental software apps. it was about high growth and the value of working with ibm. wherever we went, our local teams got high praise and deserved every bit of it... with our software partners, they are changing the world!
Categories
: [ Buell_Duncan | Gopro | IBM_Innovation_Centers | IIC | NimBUS | Nimsoft | SaaS | Software_as_a_Service ]
Nov 20 2006, 11:33:00 AM EST
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