IBM resources to help s/w partners gain skills

NEW DELHI: More than two-thirds of IBM software partners expect improved profitability from its new skills initiative according to a global survey of 400 partners, revealed IBM.The initiative includes new sales and technical resources for IBM software partners to help jump-start new business opportunities.

For the first time, IBM will pass new mid-market sales leads valued below $50,000 to authorized IBM software partners. The company will also deliver new cloud computing architecture certification for partners, including education on cloud business models and will provide direct access to more than 130 industry training sessions online and in local markets worldwide.

Today businesses are adopting technology to become more efficient and transform their organization based on specific industry requirements. IBM is delivering this initiative to help partners build the right skills needed for 21st century transformation projects. Its partners can choose products across the IBM software portfolio to become certified and authorized to sell based on their business model and industries served such as healthcare, banking and financial markets, retail, government, telecommunications, chemical and petroleum and energy and utilities among others.

"Business partners are key to IBM's success in the marketplace, and we continue to invest in new resources that help ensure their success. With this new initiative, we are now providing our partners with the same training and resources we provide our IBM sales team," said Anil Menon, VP-Software Group Business, IBM.

According to a new Global Business Partner Profitability Survey conducted by Ronin Corporation and commissioned by IBM, 60 percent of IBM software partners said they expect to increase profitability in 2010 and beyond by participating in Software Value Plus. The same percentage of IBM's top-tier software partners said they see more revenue in the form of hardware, software, and services when selling IBM software as compared to revenue generated by other vendors' top tier partners. From a growth perspective, 50 percent of IBM's top-tier software partners report that cloud computing will be a leading driver of profitability over the next two years.

"IBM's strategy to boost access to sales, marketing and technical skills with initiatives like Software Value Plus can help partners meet client requirements in a better way and also improve their profit margins," said A Francis Albert, GM-Redington India, an IBM Value-Added Distributor.

"There is a paradigm shift in customers support expectation as their business needs are impacted by the challenges they face in software systems," said Manoj Tharian, Director, MicroGenesis Technosoft, an IBM Advanced Business Partner. " IBM has introduced SVP, which will raise the bar of partner competency, their niche identity in the market and value realization for customers. Our objective at MicroGenesis is to enable our customers to become agile in adopting high end technology, tools and processes successfully," he said.

The new resources are provided through the IBM Software Value Plus initiative that helps software partners build technical, marketing and sales skills on IBM's software portfolio and key growth opportunities such as business analytics, collaboration and industry transformation. IBM will continue to expand Software Value Plus with additional demand generation, co-marketing and technical skills resources for software partners throughout 2010