IBM Helps Business Partners Deepen Skills and Deliver High Value Solutions with New PartnerWorld Program Benefits
IBM
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New channel investments include senior-level IBM relationship services, market intelligence resources, expanded social media and search tools, and a specialty to help Business Partners deliver solutions based on IBM System x technology. These benefits are delivered at no cost through a simplified IBM PartnerWorld program that features new ways for partners to advance in the program.
"Just as our partners are making an investment in IBM, we continue to invest in our Business Partners through skills development, streamlined processes and new opportunities to collaborate as we work together to create solutions for our clients," said Rich Hume, general manager, IBM Global Business Partners & Mid-Market. "We continue to deliver on our promise to simplify the way we do business with our Business Partners and help them improve profitability and accelerate growth."
These are the latest moves in IBM's long-standing commitment to provide education and incentives that help Business Partners deliver increased value to clients through enhanced capabilities and solutions expertise. This is particularly important as clients seek greater industry insights and a consultative, solutions-led approach to solving their toughest business challenges. The importance of greater insight can be found in IBM's Global CEO Study which reveals how leading companies are using new approaches to manage complexity and find opportunities for growth. In fact, more than 60% of CEOs surveyed cite industry transformation and the information explosion as the most significant factors facing their organizations over the next 5 years.
New skill-building opportunities and benefits through IBM PartnerWorld
-- Extended executive relationship coverage: IBM is extending executive
relationship benefits to a broader community of Premier and Software
Value Plus authorized Business Partners. This benefit is in addition
to other established relationships such as the recently expanded
Software Lab Advocate program for Software Value Plus authorized
Business Partners. The relationship executive will support the
Business Partner at their headquarters with strategic initiatives with
IBM.
-- Market Intelligence: Advanced, Premier and Software Value Plus
authorized Business Partners will have access to a new suite of
no-cost Market Insights research reports on PartnerWorld from both IBM
and external vendors. This benefit provides a wide range of
prescriptive, easily accessible market intelligence and industry trend
data to improve decision making and gain competitive advantage.
-- The IBM Business Partner Locator: This new tool helps clients,
prospects and partners more easily identify skilled IBM Business
Partners in their local market. The tool replaces previously available
locators with a single tool enhanced with new features including the
ability to search by capabilities, expertise and Software Value Plus
authorized Business Partners. The Locator also features a new
interface utilizing Google maps mash up capability and a partner
profile comparison solution.
-- Expanded PartnerWorld Contact Services: All Business Partners can take
advantage of additional phone, web and live chat services for support
with marketing, sales support, training, technical support and other
areas. This will help Business Partners more easily identify and put
into use the broad array of PartnerWorld resources to gain skills and
pursue new opportunities.
-- A new System x Specialty to help Business Partners expand their System
x sales, technical and solutions skills through a comprehensive set of
education, testing and learning resources. These skills and related
certification are proven differentiators within the x86 market in
which the System x platform continues to deliver unmatched performance
and cost advantages to companies of all sizes. The System x Specialty
prepares partners to pursue high value opportunities and deliver
powerful, secure and smart infrastructure solutions to their clients.
Achieving the System x Specialty qualifies partners for a wide range of benefits including enhanced technical support, participation in targeted sales programs, and industry recognition through the System x Specialty mark to be delivered later this year and into 2011.
"These enhancements will simplify our path to gaining the kind of skills and specialties that will deliver high value expertise to the client in a joint effort to build a Smarter Planet," said Daniel Fortin, General Manager of Relavance. "This ultimately helps customers benefit from the in-depth knowledge of a business partner such as ourselves who has committed the time to develop the skills and expertise of our staff. The customer can be assured of our competency in being able to plan, deploy and service IBM technologies and our solutions."
New, simplified PartnerWorld program criteria.
IBM is introducing simplified requirements for advancement through the PartnerWorld levels built around four criteria: Skills, Revenue, Customer Satisfaction and References. The new criteria recognize more ways to advance through the program, have fewer rules and minimum requirements and are designed to provide a clear path to higher PartnerWorld program levels, increased benefits and specialties.
-- Skills: IBM has introduced a new system of weighted skill points. In
the new system, partners earn points for certification and
progressively higher points for deeper skills attainment such as
advanced and expert technical certifications. These are the same
certifications that are currently used towards other attainments, for
example, Software Value Plus authorized. Skills points are also
awarded for verified Business Partner solutions leveraging any
combination of IBM hardware, software, or services.
-- Revenue: IBM has introduced new revenue-based categories and a special
midmarket accelerator to earn additional PartnerWorld points. The
midmarket accelerator delivers additional points for revenue earned
from midmarket accounts to reward Business Partners leading IBM's
focus in this critically important opportunity. In addition, total ISV
influenced and Application Specific License revenue will now be
included in the total revenue calculation.
-- Client references: To further recognize the importance of client
success stories in the sales process, IBM will now award PartnerWorld
points for verified client references.
-- Customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction remains a focus area and
the customer satisfaction process for PartnerWorld points is
unchanged.
In addition, IBM has simplified the visual design and enhanced the user experience on the main PartnerWorld portal covering sales, marketing and technical support pages. New features include additional live chat support, easier navigation, enhanced search capability and expanded social networking capabilities including industry focused networking groups and a Virtual Summit feature for staging online events with clients.
PartnerWorld program changes will be deployed in phases beginning in July 2010, including the new points system for PartnerWorld level attainment. For more information about these changes to IBM's PartnerWorld program, visit: ibm.com/partnerworld/2010.
CONTACT: Jennifer C. Clemente IBM Communicationsjennic@us.ibm.com 917 992 3147
First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: jennic@us.ibm.com
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SOURCE: IBM
CONTACT: Jennifer C. Clemente, IBM Communications, +1-917-992-3147,
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