July 21, 2007

IBM's Partners and You: Changes Inside IBM Make Partner Selling Better

IBM's core strategy of reaching out to small businesses has been through its partners. Recently IBM reconfigured its entire partner strategy to make it easier for IBM partners to work with IBM. CRN has an extensive review of IBM's new offering here.

There's 3 main segments IBM has for small and medium businesses:

Hardware - Which includes mainly powerful servers, storage solutions and high end workstations. Through Lenovo, of course, IBM offers notebooks and desktop computers.

Software - Which includes IBM middle ware for powering back end data transactions and integrating operations, collaboration solutions and IT management software and other software for smaller businesses.

3rd party software from partners.

IBM has a wide range of solutions, competing head to head with Microsoft, Oracle and other providers. These solutions included ones for vertical industries and technology in general. These solutions include CRM, ERP, Business Intelligence, Supply Chain Management, and just about any other technology solution your business will need. for its operations.

eWeek's Michael Vizard writes Well, now that IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano has publicly stated that the SMB market will be IBM's single largest customer segment in the next five years, it looks like IBM is finally making some concrete moves to reduce the complexity for SMB-focused solution providers doing business with IBM.

Computer Reseller News writes The changes include a restructuring that integrates business partner teams from IBM's Systems and Technology broad hardware portfolio, its Global Technology Services Group and its Global Business Partners organization into a single team that will present what IBM calls one unified face to business partners.

It also includes a new SMB business called the Business Systems Unit that is chartered with designing new breakthrough products for SMB focused solution providers. That unit will be led by Marc Dupaquier, currently general manager of IBM's Small and Medium Systems Business Unit. Dupaquier has promised to deliver a more ambitious SMB product road map in the fall.

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