IBM's Two-Way Street

At last week's PartnerWorld 2002, Palmisano, who will become CEO of IBM on Friday, outlined IBM's infrastructure initiatives and channel opportunities,which lie in e-business solutions and partnering with IBM Global Services (IGS) when it makes sense.

Palmisano understands the channel and the services business. He understands that IGS must tap into IBM's 100,000-plus business partners. While that $35 billion services business is the envy of many, Palmisano said he considers IGS a niche player, with just a 10 percent market share in outsourcing. To boost that number to 20 percent, Palmisano believes the division must engage IBM's existing base of business partners. Palmisano argues that to reach this goal with internal resources, IBM would need to hire an additional 100,000 people,a difficult and expensive proposition.

Palmisano is willing to listen to IBM's partners. Even though he was at last week's PartnerWorld for less than 24 hours, he met with business partners, key distributors and CRN to outline his agenda. But make no mistake about it: Palmisano believes partnerships are a two-way street. IBM's solution provider partners will need to invest in key skills to participate, and the focus is still on e-business.

This is not about building a fancy Web site with some rudimentary e-commerce engine. To play with IBM, solution providers must build up their enterprise integration skills to link internal applications and functions to the Web. They must develop new Web services models for a future in which customers are linked both internally and externally. IBM executives argue that for every $1 to be made for constructing a site, $5 can be made for integrating the site and $8 for implementing advanced Web services.

If you are trying to make money on selling commoditized hardware, don't count on being a key strategic partner for Palmisano's IGS. If you want to participate, it's time to look at IBM's infrastructure software, including DB2, WebSphere and MQSeries.

It's time to make a leap of faith and invest in the future.

Do you agree with Palmisano? I can be reached at (781) 839-1272 or via e-mail at [email protected].