CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
SDS Marketing, Developing Leads, Industry Contacts
Support for Product Development, IBM
Locate Decision Maker
Demonstrations

0706 -    ..
0707 - Summary/Objective
0708 -
070801 - Followed up work at ref SDS 14 line 94.
070802 -
070803 - Called John Prial about ideas to help IBM work through the issues to
070804 - recognize the POIMS and SDS opportunity.
070805 -
070806 - Talked to Barbara Hall.
070807 -
070808 - John is traveling today; may be back in the office tomorrow.
070809 -
070810 - She suggested I call on ideas to follow up SDS and IBM.
070811 -
070812 -     [On 950120 sent letter to IBM. ref SDS 15 0000.]
070813 -
070814 - To plan for the discussion with John, developed research on this
070815 - initiative.
070816 -
070817 -
070818 -  ..
0709 -
0710 -
0711 - Background
0712 -
071201 - On 941114 IBM was presented an opportunity to advance human capacity
071202 - to think, remember and communicate. ref SDS 6 0604
071203 -
071204 - In a discussion with John Prial on 941013, he said the Welch paper on
071205 - POIMS:
071206 -
071207 -      ...explains how computers should be applied [for] professional
071208 -      work, as opposed to the way automation has been used up to now to
071209 -      support large scale processing. ref SDS 4 2320
071210 -
071211 - On 941018, Ralph Pollock said he had skimmed the material on POIMS. He
071212 - asked for an explanation of POIMS and how it differs from a
071213 - conventional PIM product, ref SDS 5 9472.  We scheduled a meeting at
071214 - COMDEX to demonstrate SDS applying POIMS technology.
071215 -
071216 - The meeting took place with Dick Sullivan, Ralph Pollock and Jim Nicol
071217 - at COMDEX on 941114. ref SDS 6  The results were reported in a letter
071218 - dated 941122, ref DIP 6, issued at ref SDS 9 9604.
071219 -
071220 - On 941206 Dick wanted to move forward based on my letter dated 941122,
071221 - ref SDS 11 0739, but his team had lost it 3 times. ref SDS 11 2952
071222 -
071223 - On 941209 Jim Nicol confirmed the record of the meeting is accurate,
071224 - ref SDS 12 9065, which included the following points:
071225 -
071226 -     a.  Dick Sullivan said IBM has a strong commitment to workgroup
071227 -         solutions within the meaning of POIMS, consistent with John
071228 -         Prial's analysis on 941013. ref SDS 4 0694  Dick requested
071229 -         consideration to findi the simplest integration of SDS and
071230 -         IBM's current tools. ref SDS 6 2213
071231 -
071232 -     b.  Jim Nicol reported that SDS has excellent capability that
071233 -         spans IBM's Information Technology, Workflow and
071234 -         Communications development groups. ref SDS 6 5380
071235 -
071236 -     c.  Ralph Pollock advised SDS can be a bridge to integrate IBM's
071237 -         Workgroup strategies. ref SDS 6 5380
071238 -
071239 -     d.  The marketing rationale for these objectives is that the
071240 -         "Information Highway has created a "New World Order.." of
071241 -         information overload.  SDS enables IBM to define and lead the
071242 -         emerging market for tools that convert information overload
071243 -         into what people really need, "knowledge" and "ideas" or more
071244 -         simply "intelligence. ref SDS 6 1321 and ref SDS 6 0950
071245 -
071246 -     e.  SDS is the "compelling application" IBM needs, because there
071247 -         is nothing more "compelling" than a tool that leverages
071248 -         intellectual capital.  Most people want to do a better job,
071249 -         they want to make more money.  Most organizations want this
071250 -         too!  When you can give people the power to get what they
071251 -         want, and nobody else knows how to do it, you have a
071252 -         "compelling" application.  You have an unlimited new market.
071253 -          ref SDS 6 0859
071254 -
071255 - On 950113 I called Ralph.
071256 -
071257 - He said Dick and Jim decided not to pursue POIMS and SDS because they
071258 - feel other opportunities have greater promise. ref SDS 14 5833
071259 -
071260 - I asked if any analysis was done to reach this conclusion.
071261 -
071262 - Ralph said they had a phone call.
071263 -
071264 -
071265 -  ..
0713 -
0714 -
0715 - Analysis
0716 -
071601 - Initially, it appears that IBM found that SDS accomplishes POIMS
071602 - objectives, which John Prial expected on 941013 would benefit IBM...
071603 - ref SDS 4 3230  This aligns with IBM's earlier review on 940116 shown
071604 - at ref SDS 1 9700
071605 -
071606 - IBM's position on 950113, ref SDS 14 5833, conflicts with expression
071607 - by Dick, Ralph and Jim at the meeting on 941114, that IBM does not
071608 - have applications that accomplish SDS capability, which actually spans
071609 - their three development groups. ref SDS 6 5380
071610 -
071611 -     This insight by IBM's people is presient because only by spanning
071612 -     all technologies can the craft of management be improved, because
071613 -     "management" means integrating and synthesizing diverse components
071614 -     to create a harmonious whole.
071615 -
071616 -     That is how the human mind works, and that is what SDS aims to
071617 -     improve in order to implement POIMS.
071618 -
071619 - IBM's position that other opportunities exceed the potential of SDS to
071620 - improve earnings at IBM, further conflicts with its technology
071621 - conference, Pathways to Growth, on 940629 where IBM's management tools
071622 - were demonstrated and explained. ref SDS 2 2864  There was nothing
071623 - shown that improves management productivity.
071624 -
071625 -     [On 950607 IBM purchased Lotus Notes. ref SDS 16 6006]
071626 -
071627 - Similarly the os2 3.0 conference on 940915 showing IBM's management
071628 - tools, showed that IBM does not have SDS capability. ref SDS 3 9371
071629 -
071630 - This is consistent with 2 years of research showing nobody, not IBM,
071631 - not Microsoft, not the CIA, no one at Harvard, or Stanford, has a clue
071632 - about how to create an automated application that a manager can use
071633 - all day long, every day to make more money.
071634 -
071635 - This leaves open the prospect that anyone at IBM reasonably determined
071636 - following the meeting in COMDEX that SDS does not implement POIMS
071637 - adequately.
071638 -
071639 - If so, what does POIMS require that SDS does not implement?
071640 -
071641 -     At this juncture, I am inclined to the view that the travel
071642 -     schedules of the participants have precluded serious thinking
071643 -     about this opportunity.
071644 -
071645 - Another possibility is that IBM has discovered a more robust tech-
071646 - nology than POIMS.
071647 -
071648 - This possibility is belied by the record.  Most people cannot grasp
071649 - POIMS, much less another more powerful capability.  It will take about
071650 - 20 years of development and implementation to create sufficient
071651 - insight for extending POIMS.
071652 -
071653 - Perhaps IBM feels they can create SDS without Welch.  Having seen me
071654 - use it at COMDEX, they believe their engineers can devise a program
071655 - that does what SDS does.
071656 -
071657 -     [On 950607 IBM purchased Lotus Notes. ref SDS 16 6006]
071658 -
071659 - This hard to do.  It took 12 years to figure out what goes into SDS
071660 - and how the pieces relate to one another.
071661 -
071662 - Even though the core capability was demonstrated at COMDEX, it was not
071663 - identified as such.  Experience shows no one has ever been able to
071664 - grasp the secret of SDS even when it is pointed out.  This is because
071665 - you have step out of the human mind and contemplate how it performs
071666 - "thinking."  That's hard to do.  It is counterintuitive.
071667 -
071668 - In any case, I am open to IBM trying.
071669 -
071670 - Let them set a budget and time frame to discover what SDS does that
071671 - makes it improve management, say $10M, or $100M, and 2 - 4 years.
071672 -
071673 - After that investment, then I would hope IBM would come back and say
071674 - okay, lets go to work.  Maybe it will cost a few million to get done
071675 - what we need to do to move civilization forward, but that amount is
071676 - lost in a rounding error for their parking attendant budget.
071677 -
071678 -     [On 951025 sent letter. ref SDS 17 0000.]
071679 -
071680 -     [On 950607 IBM purchased Lotus Notes for about $3B, so this is
071681 -     their SDS experiment. ref SDS 16 6006]
071682 -
071683 -
071684 -
071685 -
071686 -
071687 -