IBM has enhanced its partner program to provide training and support geared towards bolstering sales on the four key areas or cloud, analytics, mobile, security and social media.
The new initiative turns the spotlight on selling and social insights, according to Michael Gerentine, global vice-president, business partner and marketing with IBM. He said the growing adoption of new technologies such as cloud computing, big data analytics and social media makes its necessary for vendors and the channel to change many of the processes and strategies that they have been used to for years.
“IBM is transforming to meet the demands of the market and we want out business partners to transform as well,” he said. “That is why we are widening the range of advanced leaning programs we offer to them.”
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The goal is to help partners gain more revenue in what Gerentine calls the CAMSS space – cloud, analytics, mobile, security and social.
For instance, IBM is introducing a social media boot camp for partners where they can learn techniques in how to engage customers and communities through social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs.
The boot camp comes in four different versions:
- IBM hosted personal training
- Guided, one-on-one online coaching
- Self-guided weekly course
Advanced course that covers blogging, running social media events and using social media tools
Another component of the initiative focuses on selling with social media insights.
This is where IBM leverages the information is amasses through its social listening and analytics platform and “provide intelligence for partners through the social Web,” said Gerentine.
“Every day IBM gathers information from more than 280 million different social sources,” he said. “Using different filters we sift through these and isolate for our partners with the news articles, forums, blogs, videos, studies and surveys and other materials they can use back them up when they approach their CAMSS customers.”