At one time, IBM was the dominant force in corporate IT. The giant, best known for its super-powerful and super-stable (and super-expensive) mainframe computers, was the reliable choice. Common wisdom had it that ‘nobody ever got fired for buying IBM’. This attitude resulted in a feeling that IBM was untouchable, both inside and outside the corporation.
This hubris led, in 1993, to IBM posting an $8 billion loss – breaking all previous records. That triggered a switch in strategy, with a new focus on services, rather than just on its proprietary hardware and software. But the core business approach – based around locking customers into IBM products and then charging them handsomely for support, fixes and upgrades – continued.
Founded in 2002, Origina began as an IBM business partner. Then in 2016, the company recognized that IBM customers could be presented with a choice to take back control of their own IT decision making, and took a strategic decision to offer independent third-party support to IBM customers. As Rob Paddon, Origina’s Territory Manager for the UK and Ireland, explains it, “If you own a perpetual license (for IBM software), you’ve paid enormous amounts to own the rights to the software but you are still facing ever increasing annual maintenance charges. The challenge is that IBM will dictate what version of the software they will maintain and customers are on an endless upgrade cycle that diverts funding and resources away from essential digital projects”.
Given IBM’s premium pricing, it was easy for Origina to undercut on price: Rob claims that the average customer saves 30% - 50% on their old contract. But Origina’s benefits go far beyond just price. For many customers, upgrades are more than just a straightforward cost: they require skilled resources to be diverted away from other work. Yet ignoring upgrades may mean that customers lose support for old software versions. This gives customers two unpalatable choices – either to follow the IBM upgrade path, or be pushed into decommissioning the software.
Origina offers an attractive third path. Rob says “We don’t care what version of a product you’re running. We don’t demand upgrades”. Origina will support all versions of any IBM (or even ex-IBM) product. We can protect the software from cyber threats and work on interoperability to allow it to keep working with changes to the operating system, database or linked applications. This means that not only do customers save money on the support contract, but they escape from the upgrade loop.
Once the environment is more static, customers can plan their future migration paths. “What we do is lifecycle management,” says Rob. “We’re typically supporting products that will eventually be decommissioned and on which organisations would ideally spend as little as possible”.
This allows IT managers to pause the upgrade cycle, stabilise the ecosystem, and plan longer-term strategies. But although this seems like an obvious choice for IBM customers trying to escape lock-in, a problem comes to mind: supporting old software requires specialist knowledge.
Origina manages this issue because it is focused specifically on supporting legacy software. “We have the skills to do this,” says Rob. “As IBM has been shedding staff, Origina has been signing them up as Global IBM Experts, all with at least 15 years of senior experience in their specialist domain”.
Not only does this extend the life of software installations, but it extends the careers of veteran IBM engineers with expertise in older software.
Right now, Origina is going from strength to strength, employing 130 staff in the US, EU, UK and Australia, and with a turnover around $50 million.
In partnership with Bramble Hub, Origina has won large projects at the Department of Work and Pensions and is looking to extend its reach in the UK public sector. “We have a good reputation with the DWP,” says Rob, and there are many public sector organisations still using older versions of IBM software. IBM itself is committed to selling its Cloud Pak architecture and commercial models which are not necessarily the direction that customers want to follow. That gives us an opportunity to take over legacy software installations in customers that don’t want to continue down the preferred IBM upgrade path”.