SAN ANTONIO, TX – As IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) works toward its 2015 business plan, analytics, cloud, Smarter Planet and software are top of mind for the vendor. The company also announced the launch of its first Cloud Computing Lab for business partners around the world.
At Avnet Technology Solutions‘ IBM Partner Summit, Mike Rhodin, senior vice-president of software solutions at IBM, said the company’s roadmap to 2015 is “really big.” The company sees analytics as becoming a US$67B opportunity, cloud as a US$67B opportunity, its Smarter Planet initiative is expected to become a US$66B opportunity and software is expected to contribute to nearly half of the company’s overall profits within the next five years.
Rich Hume, IBM sales and distribution, global business partners and mid-market general manager for global business partners, told attendees about the importance and relevance of Smarter Planet and what that means to partners.
“What does Smarter Planet mean to business partners?” Hume asked. “It means higher-value discussions, a focus on clients’ business beyond their IT issues through an industry or solution dialogue, the ability to act as a true consultant and partner to a client’s business and it’s a way to extend value, ecosystem and competitive advantage to drive more business.”
Under IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative, the company has offerings for categories including energy, banking, healthcare, analytics, cloud computing, education and cities. The company, Hume said, sees the cloud as a fast growing and lucrative money-making opportunity.
“We expect the cloud opportunity to grow seven times faster than traditional IT and to have a growth rate of 22 per cent through 2015, and we expect it will represent a nine per cent total for IT spend in the next five years,” he said.
IBM has aligned its cloud services offerings so partners can offer their customers a total solution while at the same time giving them different deployment choices in the form of private and public clouds. Partners can also offer their customers services to complement cloud such as managed security services, collaboration services with LotusLive and monitoring services with IBM’s Tivoli Live offerings.
Sandy Carter, vice-president of IBM’s software group, business partners and mid-market, said when it comes to the cloud, customers want a partner that knows what they’re talking about.
“Customers want to make sure partners know what they’re doing and what they’re talking about,” she said. “They’re looking for partners who have certifications and they’re also looking at bringing security and scalability elements into the cloud. We have our Cloud Computing Architecture Certification that partners can attain to enhance their credibility, knowledge and skills. The certification will also help customers identify these partners as industry leading experts in the field.”
To further highlight and support its commitment to the cloud and its partners, IBM announced the launch of its first Cloud Computing Lab in the United Kingdom. The lab is designed to help partners with cloud computing opportunities. Here, channel partners have access to cloud technologies from IBM and can work with experts to create a go-to-market plan. Carter said partners can also gain virtual access to the lab via any of the company’s 38 networked Innovation Centres around the world.
Hume encouraged partners to get engaged with Smarter Planet and to get educated through its Smarter Planet PartnerWorld University course and infrastructure whiteboard training. Partners can also generate demand by taking advantage of co-marketing and campaign designs. IBM’s Smarter Planet BP (business partner) Reference Guide can also help partners sell with references. One of the most critical parts of being engaged with Smarter Planet is to stay connected with IBM’s PartnerWorld Smarter Planet Web site and its Smarter Planet for mid-market Web site.
To further support its channel partner ecosystem, Hume said IBM remains committed to its partners in many ways.
“We’re passionate about our channel and we’re committed to our partners for the long-term,” he said. “We have US$5.8B in research and development and we also have a business partner-led model for mid-market, in additional to significant earnings opportunities with partner incentives, end-user incentives, business partner seller incentives and strategic investments.”
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