IBM Restructuring Puts Focus on Small Business

IBM's better known for its enterprise-class solutions than as a partner of small businesses. But that might change soon in the wake of the company's planned restructuring of its hardware division.According to the Associated Press, an internal memo from hardware division head William Zeitler outlines a reorganization of the group around customer types rather than products. Hardware sales efforts will focus on four groups: large organizations; retail, telecom, and healthcare "industry systems"; buyers of IBM's custom processors; and small and medium-sized businesses. It seems that the technology purchases of smaller companies are growing faster than those of big corporations and governments, so IBM's just following the money.

According to Bob Djurdjevic of Annex Research, the realignment should help IBM move more quickly to meet the needs of smaller customers. Hopefully this will translate into more small business-centric hardware, not just more attention from salespeople.CNNMoney.com, ChannelRegister.com