Inside IBM’s Service-Related R&D Efforts
Services research is a hot area at IBM, as the corporate giant looks to eke greater profitability from its services division.
The idea behind services research is to build a stable of repeatable industry offerings and capabilities using new and existing IBM technologies. By structuring services — taking out some of the judgment calls and reducing the emphasis on labor — IBM hopes to streamline delivery while at the same time improve the quality of its services engagements.
Leading the Big Blue charge is Robert Morris, who in mid-2004 gave up his research role at IBM for a spot in services. Morris had been the head of IBM’s Almaden Research Center in Silicon Valley when he embarked on a two-year stint in Global Services. Today he’s back on the research side of Big Blue’s business, spearheading efforts to help the services organization adopt a structure that reduces its dependency on individual consultants’ skills and increases its use of standardized technologies and processes.
For example, IBM had existing fraud management technology that it now can easily wrap into a project to deliver a claims management system for an insurer. “That’s an example of a technology asset inserted into what otherwise might be a routine implantation of a claims system,” Morris says.
Over the last two years, IBM has worked to set up development labs around the world dedicated to services and build out a range of standard processes and methods. In September, IBM began unveiling service products that take advantage of these standardization efforts. Among the first to debut are a network convergence bundle aimed at helping customers determine their convergence readiness and an IP telephony offering focused on designing, deploying and managing IP telephony infrastructure.
The service products contain blueprints for project elements — such as requirements definition, implementation methodologies…
