IBM’s New Program Tries to Lure Customers Away from the Competition

IBM has launched yet another effort to get its competitors’ customers to move over to IBM’s software and systems.

In particular, IBM is targeting Oracle with new migration resources to help Oracle software customers switch to IBM software. The new resources include no-charge financial and technology assessments, skills training courses, and proof of concepts to support clients ready to convert their Oracle investments to the latest in IBM software.

IBM also announced today that its lending arm, IBM Global Financing, is offering zero percent financing to help Oracle customers move to new IBM software.

Indeed, IBM officials claim that in 2010, more than 1,000 Oracle database customers moved to IBM’s DB2, and more than 400 Oracle WebLogic clients chose WebSphere.

For instance, IBM officials said Guangdong Rural Credit Cooperatives, the largest rural credit bank in China, chose IBM technology to build an enterprise-wide banking system. The new IT infrastructure, built on DB2 and WebSphere software and Power Systems, will consolidate the data and integrate the business processes of all 99 member cooperatives. IBM was selected as the preferred partner over Oracle and HP, responsible for providing the core technology for the IT infrastructure and integrating the 23 disparate systems previously installed in member cooperatives, IBM said.

IBM also said the London branch of Deutsche Postbank AG is using a new IBM Smart Analytics System to help improve the quality and accuracy of its business reporting for risk monitoring, portfolio and collateral analysis. Prior to implementing the IBM analytics system, reporting for the bank was time consuming and involved multiple staff to manually collect data from disparate sources. Now, using IBM technology, the bank has a single view of business information and can make decisions based on up to date information. IBM’s Smart Analytics System was chosen over offerings from Oracle and other vendors because it offered a fully integrated solution based on IBM’s workload optimized systems and industry leading IBM analytics and middleware.

Meanwhile, IBM is providing access to new migration resources* including a no-charge, detailed financial analysis that shows cost savings clients can achieve by switching from Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic to IBM DB2 and WebSphere software. IBM also is providing a no-charge, customized technical evaluation and conversion plan to show clients how to move from Oracle to IBM software.

For more, read the eWEEK article: IBM Launches New Program to Woo Competitors’ Software Customers.