Company Overview
Highlights
In 2007, won MCA Management Award for creating an air-surveillance system for the British Ministry of Defense.
In 2006, landed a seven-year, $316 million IT outsourcing contract with Danish dairy company Arla Foods.
In 2005, acquired Healthlink, bolstering its already-strong health care practice.
In 2004, inked $1.4 billion outsourcing deal with Dow Chemical, supplanting EDS as IT services vendor to the company.
IBM may be better known for its computer hardware (the company’s initials did originally stand for International Business Machines, after all), but Big Blue’s largest division is Global Services, which competes with the likes of Accenture and CSC.
Global Services accounted for more than half the parent company’s revenue in 2006. It has grown into a consulting powerhouse since acquiring PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting in 2002. Originally, IBM ran a consulting unit under the name IBM Consulting, but in 2000 it merged that with its systems-integration group to provide end-to-end business services.
IBM Global Services works with companies large and small throughout the world and offers e-business, IT, and strategy services. Its specialty, however, is systems integration; by 2008, the company intends for 70 percent of its business to be in integration. Recent clients have included Chevron, Delta Air Lines, Marriott, the state of California, and Swiss Re.t
Big Blue’s size and reputation have remained steadfast, despite the economic setbacks of the past few years. “We’re a stable company, and that’s what attracts companies to our services,” says one insider.
Ongoing acquisitions continue to give IBM Global Services sector-specific depth and breadth; recent ones include Healthlink (health care consulting), KeyMRO (procurement services), Liberty Insurance Services (life insurance administration), and Mainspring (strategy consulting). In 2005 alone, IBM Global made 16 acquisitions. IBM SEC filings indicate that Global Services made three more acquisitions in 2006. At the end of 2006, Global Services had a backlog of $116 billion, a $5 billion jump from the year before.
IBM has been at the forefront of innovation in terms of deploying its human capital. Long known for harboring its share of technical and scientific geniuses in its research centers, IBM is now farming these so-called “brainiacs” out to clients to create software and solve complex problems.