Six years ago, IBM
Today, IBM has decided that the time is ripe to get some pure EDI expertise back in-house, and so the company is buying EDI leader Sterling Commerce from its owner, AT&T
It's a little more than getting back into EDI services, actually. Sterling is also good at managing supply chains and inventory systems, and all of these areas of expertise seem to dovetail nicely with the big blue machine. AT&T needs to think more about running its wireless networks and other infrastructure-style communications services, and less about being a provider of business software and services. IBM, on the other hand, is building an impressive jigsaw puzzle of services that not only fit together, but also enhance each other. The Sterling crowd, for example, will meld into the WebSphere team and enhance that product suite's B2B powers.
With Sterling under its belt, IBM intensifies old rivalries with SAP
I can't wait to see what IBM will become when it's done with a planned $25 billion acquisition program over the next five years. One thing's for sure: There is a master plan behind the seemingly disjointed pieces of IBM's puzzle, and the whole adds up to much more than the sum of the parts. That's more than you can say for some of the competition.
Whether you love it or hate it, feel free to discuss IBM's grand plan in the comments box below.