Becoming an IBM business partner

There’s never been a better time to be an IBM Business Partner. IBM® has one of the largest business partner communities in the industry and partnerships are at the core of its go-to-market strategy.

By working closely together IBM and its business partners are able to strengthen their mutual client relationships and grow their joint revenue and market opportunity.

IBM has three main focuses for its partner program in 2009: to be the leader in midmarket; to be the partner of choice across the industry; and to be the number one provider of integrated solutions via its business partners.

Raymond Skoglund, IBM New Zealand Channels Manager, says that IBM can help resellers enter new markets, create new business opportunities and increase their revenue.

“Ensuring our resellers have the right tools to differentiate their solutions in this market is important as more organisations look to improve their processes to remain competitive.”Leading the midmarket 

IBM’s strategy for its partner program is to continue its focus on serving the IT opportunities in the midmarket sector. Targeting the midmarket is very much about creating integrated solutions, Skoglund says.

Over the last year, IBM has improved its brand awareness in the midmarket through its Business Insight campaign. Business Insight has proved IBM’s ability to deliver successful and innovative solutions to midmarket clients at an attractive commercial price that meets their budgets.

Its ability to continue to generate demand in this market will foster a stronger community of resellers for IBM. This is complemented by a very comprehensive enablement plan that extends IBM’s reach into cities and regions across New Zealand.

IBM will continue to provide a range of opportunities for new and existing resellers to learn more about partnering with IBM.

Partner of choice

“Our team’s responsibility is to make it easy for our resellers to do business with IBM,” Skoglund says. “Keeping IBM Business Partners informed about what the company is doing in the market, what promotions are taking place, how it is driving demand and so on is an important element to this.”

IBM’s Business Partner Bulletin provides all subscribers with this information on a monthly basis, and this is supported by newsletters from IBM distributors.

“This year, IBM will continue to refine and improve its own processes, allowing easier and faster access to pricing. We’re always looking to improve and provide a quality service to our resellers,” says Skoglund.

“The real reason the partnership works is because of its people and their can-do attitude. IBM really engages with our sales team to help us win the deal,” says Chris Maclean, Sales and Marketing Director, Maclean Computing.IBM Business Partners also have access to Partner World, a password-protected website designed to provide an enormous amount of learning and information.

Integrated solutions

IBM has one of the largest software businesses in the world, yet many of its business partners sell only its hardware.

IBM Business Partners have a great opportunity to truly differentiate themselves in the market by leveraging more parts of the IBM portfolio to provide an end-to-end solution. IBM Business Partners can reduce complexity and risk by investing in one vendor to provide a more complete solution for their clients.