May 01, 2008, 9:27 PM — IBM is trying to rally support
for an online applications marketplace for small and mid-sized businesses that
it plans to launch later this year.
On Thursday, it outlined plans to create the Global Applications Marketplace,
where small businesses will be able to browse and purchase applications from
potentially thousands of ISVs (independent software vendors) around the world,
which local IBM channel partners will then install and manage for them.
IBM optimistically compared the marketplace to Amazon.com,
because customers will be able to read reviews of products written by other
customers. It will also be like iTunes,
in the sense that it will be tied to the vendor's hardware: customers who use
the marketplace will have to have an IBM server, just as iTunes customers need
an iPod.
The goal is to make it easier for companies with small or nonexistent IT departments
to adopt new software and services to help run their businesses. For IBM and
its partners it's a way to generate more business from companies with up to
500 employees, a market largely untapped by IBM thus far.
The initiative, also called the Blue Business Platform, was announced Thursday
at IBM's Business Partner Leadership Conference in Los Angeles, where IBM pitched
the idea to resellers and ISVs. Competitors will include Microsoft's
Small Business Center, Salesforce.com
and, eventually, SAP's
Business ByDesign.
It will also compete with the Intel
Business Exchange, which the chip maker announced separately on Thursday.
Intel's site offers bundles of software and hardware for SMBs, including applications
from Salesforce.com, Symantec,
Microsoft, Doculex
and Tripwire.
Small businesses will be able to search for applications at the marketplace
and enter parameters like the number of employees they have. The system will
spit back recommendations, including any IBM infrastructure software that might
be appropriate. When the customer decides on an order, IBM sends it to a local
reseller who will deploy and manage the software, said Matthew Friedman, vice
president of marketing for IBM's Business Systems Division
Success will depend on getting buy-in from ISVs and resellers. To take part,
ISVs will have to adopt a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) that
allow them to list their software on the marketplace. Other APIs will support
remote management capabilities, like the ability to add and remove users or
deliver patches, and also allow for integration with other applications and
services.
A reseller could connect an application to Amazon's
S3 hosted storage service, for example, but only if Amazon chooses to adopt
the APIs, Friedman said. Longer term, IBM plans to release other APIs that allow
for integration at the data level, allowing resellers to set up business processes,
he said.
Only about 10 ISVs have implemented the APIs today, Friedman said, but IBM
expects to get many more. Vendors that signalled support Thursday include CFXWorks,
which provides credit card processing for retailers; Cincom,
which offers a business intelligence product; and InterNetworX,
which sells enterprise resource planning software.
IBM expects most of the applications to be installed on premise, the model
used by 90 percent of SMBs today, Friedman said, although some software will
be offered as a service. The resellers will also be able to incorporate online
backup services, he said. The remote management will usually be provided by
the reseller.
