LeSSON 1:
Don’t be chained
to your desk
One floor is made up of “oasis
areas,” which are designed to look
like a Muskoka cottage (left), an
English library or a Japanese study
(right). “It’s not meant to be over the
top,” says Martin Wildberger, the lab
director. Programmers frequently take
time out to think or work here.
IT departments
aren’t often this
grand, but IBM’s
facility has some
elements worth
stealing. Lessons
from the lab
By Shane Schick
Big Blue exec: We’ll keep
programming in Canada
LeSSON 2: Make your breaks count
A games area features pool tables, ping-pong and a variety
of other ways for staff to blow off steam. Outside the lab
(right) is plenty of green space for strolling.
LeSSON 3: Don’t code alone An archive photo (left) hints at IBM’s future
philosophy of open “personal workspaces,” which is the preferred name for its cubicles.
“There are only so many corner offices,” Wildberger says. “Today you see much better
integration of the space.” The computers (above) have gotten better, too.
Don’t bet on IBM outsourcing any of its
Toronto software development offshore anytime soon. At the 40th anniversary of its lab
last month, the senior vice-president of IBM
Software Group Steve
Mills told the audience the company
is convinced hiring
and keeping the right
level of programming
talent is essential to
helping IT managers
transform business
processes.
“We are not
centred on what a programmer costs us,”
Mills said. “To achieve work of high value
requires years of skill and expertise. The
cost of doing it wrong is far greater than
the savings we could achieve by moving
labour to another corner of the world.”
When IBM first set up its lab in Toronto,
Mills said the cost of Canadian labour was
actually cheaper than the U.S., but that
quickly changed. “The cost has actually
gone up in every region we’ve moved to,”
he said.
A great deal of the lab’s expansion has
come through growth as well as hiring,
Mills admitted. Since the early part of this
decade alone IBM has bought scores of
firms, including seven from Canada.
The lab was originally started to create
applications for a Canadian online banking
system and the Maintenance device, a
portable computer in an attaché case used
by the firm’s customer service representatives. 077764
