Right. Mainframe stories (profiles, business cases, success stories,
white papers, they have many names) appear in such places as z/Journal
(with a technical slant), Mainframe Executive (aimed at management),
IBM's Web site, IBM's Systems Magazine (Mainframe Edition), and other
industry publications. For a while, I edited and wrote IBM's magazine
S/390 VM and VSE Solutions Journal (subtitled "Success stories for
today's business"). And of course, hardware/software vendors sometimes
commission customer writeups highlighting their products' contributions
to the (successful, long-lived, cost-effective, blah, blah, but still
valid) mainframe ecosystem.
But it's generally tough recruiting profile subjects, even though the
process isn't burdensome or threatening. Sites can give enough detail to
convincingly demonstrate (not describe or explain, there's a difference)
why mainframes have been valuable to them. But
proprietary/competitive/sensitive information need not be included. It's
not investigative journalism and profile authors aren't 60 Minutes' Mike
Wallace.
The key to a good profile is simply a good story -- describing a problem
solved, economies achieved, growth sustained, reliability maintained,
industry leadership developed, etc. Or, simply nuts-and-bolts,
bread-and-butter (insert your own cliche here...) company operation
supported by mainframes.
Profiles work for small/medium/large companies; they need diversity
(geographic, industry, products/services, customers, etc.). There's
usually an angle that works for story hooks; what matters is being
willing to step up and be visible as a success story. So the next time
an industry journalist calls for volunteers, step forward.
So, Barton -- which of YOUR customers need profiling today? ;-)
Barton opined, wisely:
It doesn't matter if our mousetrap is better if nobody is out there
trying to get mindshare (marketing). Preaching/grumbling to the choir
doesn't change anything.
So when was the last time that any of you tried to get a case study
published showing how great your accomplishments are using z/VM?
There are very few published stories (sorry games on "z" don't impress
bean counters or executives, it's rather demeaning), we need REAL
business case studies showing the value of "z/VM" to real companies. If
we get enough and executives do a google search on VM, maybe they will
find something useful? There are many places to post and publish. Even
twitter or blogs would be helpful in getting mindshare.
--
Gabriel Goldberg, Computers and Publishing, Inc. (703) 204-0433
3401 Silver Maple Place, Falls Church, VA 22042 [email protected]
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/gabegold
