Helping customers harness new technologies
One of the most interesting parts of my job is the interaction with customers. I see them in CEO and CIO conferences, in partnership visits, and in meetings with my partnership executive program accounts. I participate personally in many of the roughly 200 customer visits each year at Research labs around the world, and I expect that number to grow dramatically with the recent opening of the Industry Solutions Lab at Watson's Hawthorne site.
Customer interactions help us set a significant part of our research agenda. Their visits help give us an outward, market-oriented focus, which supplements our existing focus on technology. Many of the component technologies that drive the information-technology
industry will get faster, cheaper or more dense by a factor of 50 to 100 over the next 10 years. Keeping up with that evolution is a daunting challenge, even for our most technically sophisticated customers. They understand that these technologies can be a competitive weapon for them and they are looking for help in dealing with the pace of change that is going on around them. More than ever, they are looking for complete solutions to their problems, rather than just a piece of hardware or software.
Solutions usually involve some combination of hardware, software and services. IBM is uniquely positioned to provide all three solution components. Solutions are some of IBM's and Research's major strengths, and I believe they are a critical part of IBM's resurgence. For Research, customer visits are a strong reaffirmation of the solution focus that we instituted five years ago.
As IBM increasingly seeks to capitalize on the solutions capability made possible by Research technology, the technical excellence we provide becomes ever more closely linked to IBM's ability to win in the marketplace. To maintain that level of excellence requires that we hire and retain the best people, give them an exciting and supportive environ- ment, and provide them with the tools and the opportunity to make a difference. Creating this environment is the single most important challenge for management. It requires financial support, time, effort and focus. Our technical excellence is the primary asset we bring to IBM's customers and IBM's success.
Paul M. Horn
senior vice president
Research
