When it had a near-monopoly grip on the computer industry, IBM Corp. mostly ignored little software companies.
These days Big Blue treats little guys like big shots.
At least that was the word from some IBM executives who were in Chicago this week to meet with local venture capitalists, some entrepreneurs and a few academics to talk up the joys of working together.
IBM promotes partnerships with small firms that will use IBM’s platforms to run software on open-source operating systems like Linux.
The giant will give the little guys technical advice, let them use its equipment to test products and even give them help with advertising, sales and marketing. They can, for example, use IBM’s logo in their ads and buy ad space in trade publications using the hefty discounts Big Blue commands.
“We don’t build our own applications,” said Buell Duncan III, who heads IBM’s outreach to independent software vendors. “We want to get an early connection with innovative vendors. Many of them are large firms, but many more are small.”
It is in IBM’s interest to have as wide a range of applications as possible that will run on its platforms, he acknowledged.
Last year, IBM added 750 partnerships through connections with venture-capital backers. In total, business partners account for about one-third of IBM’s revenue.
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IBM seeks to differentiate itself from Microsoft Corp., which dominates computer software, especially operating systems, Duncan said. Microsoft encourages independents to write applications that work on its proprietary platform, but it also may compete with them by offering its own applications, he said.
“IBM supports open standards and promotes our partners rather than competing with them,” Duncan said.
Claudia Fan Munce, IBM vice president for emerging markets and technology, described the Chicago trip as part of IBM’s “hunter/gatherer” effort to recruit more innovators to use open-standards platforms and IBM’s middleware.
There is a worldwide trend to embrace open standards, she said. When IBM first endorsed them a decade ago, the industry’s attitude was that open standards may be nice in theory, but they weren’t really practical.
“Now, we’ve reached a tipping point, especially outside the United States, where it’s become unavoidable,” she said. “It’s what the market demands.”
Healthy tunes: MP3 music players will be enlisted to remind young people to take asthma medication, in an innovative study set to be launched in Chicagothis year.
The campaign, funded by the National Institutes of Health, will include messages from popular artists interspersed with hit songs and video games on the music players. Rush University Medical Center and Stroger Hospital of Cook County will conduct the study.
“A huge factor in asthma is denial,” said Dr. Giselle Mosnaim, a Rush allergy specialist. “Often, adolescents don’t want to admit they have asthma because they see it as a weakness, especially in the African-American and Hispanic communities.
“As a result, they don’t want to be seen taking their asthma medicines. When a high-profile artist or athlete, especially one with asthma, discusses the importance of taking medication or avoiding cigarettes, that’s an extremely powerful message to a young person.”
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