New I.B.M. sales staff: specialists in products

Article Abstract:

New IBM CEO Louis V. Gerstner Jr gives an early indication of his strategy for resuscitating the company by announcing plans to overhaul its 40,000-person US marketing team. Instead of being arranged by geographic area, the sales force will increasingly rely on specialists in products and vertical industries. Analysts say the new arrangement, scheduled to be phased in over 3rd qtr 1993, aims to position IBM as more of a supplier of information-management solutions and less of a hardware vendor. Sales staff will continue to work in specific geographic areas. The restructuring of the sales force follows similar moves by IBM in Great Britain and in pilot projects in the United States. The restructuring follows a vigorous debate by top IBM management that included a proposal to assign sales personnel strictly to specific product lines and cut numbers sharply.

Management, Computer industry, Marketing, Gerstner, Louis V., Jr., Reorganization, Sales Organizations, Sales Engineers

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I.B.M. to Give Free Access To 500 Patents

Article Abstract:

International Business Machines Corp. is donating 500 software patents to people working on open-source software, like Linux. I.B.M holds more patents than any other company in the United States, and in the past year collected over $1 billion in licensing fees.

United States, Prepackaged software, Product development, Facilities & equipment, Regulation, Licensing, and Inspection of Miscellaneous Commercial Sectors, Patents & copyrights, Labor Distribution by Employer, Patent Programs, Computer software industry, Software industry, Equipment and supplies, International Business Machines Corp., IBM, Donations, Statistics, Intellectual property, Patents, Patent/copyright issue, Public software, Open source software

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