I Like IBM

I like IBM. It has the worst software ever, it has the worst technicians you can find, but it has the best sales people. They are so good that they convince clients to purchase a software that does not work, then pay for technicians from IBM to try and make it work, then accept only very limited functionality (although the client paid in full) because the rest of the functionality the techs were not able to make it run, and then they get clients to pay big support contracts for keeping that little functionality working.

Every year they are able to make clients pay and get upgrades that also dont work, and so on and so forth.

These sales guys are so good that lots of banks in Europe got fried repeatedly over time. The most common scenario:

• a bank would get in bed with IBM
• The project does not work
• The bank looses tens of millions and is locked in a support contracts to keep that little IBM functionality that works.
• The IT manager is fired or leaves by himself to go to another bank. He probably gets compensation from IBM good enough to make it worth his while.
• The bank brings another IT manager, he determines the cost of getting IBM out would be too high (management does not approve), and then he renegotiates with IBM.
• At some point the management realizes that IBM is a lost cause and spends a few dozen millions to get them out. Like locusts, IBM moves to another target.

The sales guys and the lawyers at IBM are so good that IBM internationally sold most of its hardware producing divisions and now is positioned as "business solution provider". Point being in all this that sales strategies are the ones that really matter and make a difference, not technology.