Letter: IBM sales figure is misleading

Regarding “IBM is back, but what happened?”: The estimate of IBM sales to the government of only $1.5 billion are somewhat misleading.

That figure is direct sales only. It does not include the sales of products and services provided by IBM in the role of subcontractor to hundreds of primes and other subcontractors.

The question regarding the suspension should have addressed the sales through others as well as direct IBM sales. Would all IBM products and services been excluded regardless of from whom the product was purchased?

Would IBM sales to state and local governments been covered under this suspension given that many state and local procurements require and are based on the General Services Administration schedule that exists for a vendor?

I do believe that the impact would have been far greater then the $1.5 billion estimated in the article or provided by GSA.

I think the decision to lift the suspension was a wise move on the part of the parties. It is being investigated, and action would be appropriate after all the facts have been gathered.

The bigger question should be: Why would employees make such a big alleged mistake? Is it the lack of corporate training, or is it ignorance of the difference between right and wrong?

Mike Abramowitz
The ProCon Group


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