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Muscle for the Midmarket
Like Howard, Steve Bolduc bought IBM for its muscle. But the senior manager of point-of-sale and technical support at Caribou Coffee Co., the second largest gourmet coffeehouse operator in the U.S., sees another fringe benefit: IBM's global experience. When he wanted to sell coffee in the Middle East, an IBM food service specialist led Bolduc to reliable technology providers in the region.
Caribou Coffee cuts IBM a check for about $2.5 million each year, and it's something of a textbook midsized IBM customer. Bolduc almost always lets his local business partner, Retail Data Systems (RDS), deal with Big Blue.
"I really utilize my third party," he explains. "They are my eyes and ears to new technology." His business partner at RDS also picks up the phone for him, he says. "It can be a big place to navigate," Bolduc says of IBM. "But our third party does not have a problem getting someone on the inside."
The bottom line, Bolduc says, is that he chose IBM not so much for its reputation as for the stuff he can see: that is, 900 SurePOS point-of-sale systems and more than 100 IBM Anyplace Kiosk units. These high-end, touch-screen machines are used in the heavy-volume stores throughout Caribou's 416 coffeehouses in 15 states. From Denver to Dubai, that's a lot of drip brew -- as well as foam, steam and syrup spilling and splashing around at scalding temperatures.
Bolduc means it when he says that his IBM Anyplace kiosks work in the "harshest environment" -- which translates to a rookie cashier being able to drop a cup of bourbon blend on the hardware.
"In my business," Bolduc says, "you see a lot of spillage. The durability of the terminal is really what I based my decision on. They demo the kiosks with water running on it." He plans to install 300 additional units by 2008 -- no matter that headquarters runs on another company's servers.
"My CIO is actually a Dell guy," Bolduc says.
And that's OK with IBM and Steve Solazzo. "We've got enough challenges breaking into this marketplace," he says. "Being vendor-proprietary isn't one of them."
As for Madison, he's been on the phone with IBM and Hitachi Ltd. lately, comparing SAN pricing and requirements. "Whether they sell through channels or resellers--or whatever marketing plan they choose -- I don't really care," says Madison. "I don't have any incentive to try the new stuff out if what I've got now is working."
Madison says he sees Microsoft as having a natural edge in the midmarket because of its ubiquitous desktop applications in offices, homes and college dorms -- places where many small businesses get their start.
"My sense is that for [IBM] to get into this marketplace, they are going to have to do something really profound and innovative," he notes, "because they are going to have to get into the hearts and minds of the average Joe. That's who's working at midmarket companies."
Ellen O'Brien, a former senior editor at CIO Decisions, is now a senior editor at Storage magazine. Write to her at eobrien@techtarget.com.
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