IBM Express-es Its Candid Desire For SMEs
Part Three: Challenges and User Recommendations
P.J. Jakovljevic - August 6, 2003

IBM's Challenges

Despite IBM Corporation's (NYSE: IBM) clout at selling its services, its recognition as an SME product provider has yet to be established, although the mid-market segment has accounted for $20 billion in 2002, which was almost a quarter of its $81 billion total revenue in 2002, and without the newly allocated resources for the Express program, which include a 6,000-person sales organization and a $200 million marketing budget. Still, that revenue was mostly due to selling hardware and middleware components, which still does not provide IBM with much brand visibility compared to true enterprise applications providers...