A Note To My Old Pal Ralph Martino: IBM Needs To Prove Its Commitment

Sorry we couldn't hook up at PartnerWorld last week. I was committed to corporate meetings here at CMP and just couldn't get away, despite the fact that I'd rather get a root canal than sit in another internal meeting. But I thought it would make sense to drop you a note about the challenges you face in your new role as vice president of strategy and marketing at IBM Global Services (IGS).

Ralph, you and I have known each other, if you can believe it, for 14 years. I'm not going to say which one of us looks younger; I'll let the reader decide by glancing at the recent pictures of both of us on this page.

One thing is indisputable, however,we've both spent a bunch of years banging around the channel. As a result, we both have a clear understanding and appreciation for what the channel can accomplish for a corporation like IBM. I think we also understand that channel strategies need to be flexible and must constantly be in a state of evolution. The reason, of course, is that the market is ever-changing and the channel morphs to compensate.

The takeaway from your recent discussions with my team seems to be that you want to send a clear message that you are a channel-friendly IGS executive and committed to working with solution providers to grow business for them and IBM.

Who can argue with that? Trouble is, unlike you, my years in the channel have been spent outside of the IBM bureaucracy. I have been in the fortunate position of seeing what every vendor does. I talk to hundreds of solution providers each year. Having spent more than 22 years asking questions, I'm pretty good at it and, more importantly, solution providers aren't afraid to tell me the truth.

So here's the skinny about IGS. Partners are wary of it.

Those that don't have agreements with IGS are particularly wary. They don't know how to engage with IGS, and they see no signs other than PR spin that it wants to engage with them. Sure, partners that already have a relationship with IGS see some opportunity, but that's today's partners and even they have long-term doubts. As we both know, today's partner isn't necessarily the partner IGS will need tomorrow. Many of the partners it will need do not currently work with IGS and may never do so unless you do something about it.

Let me make a couple of other points, and I'll leave the rest for when we hook up face-to-face.

Channel conflict will be part of doing business in your new role. You know it, I know it, and our friends in the channel know it. But that doesn't mean everyone accepts it. For every partner that has found success with IGS, there is at least one other,probably more,that has a gripe with its policies. You generally don't hear about them because they don't have a loud enough voice. But they do have a loud enough voice for me to listen. It's our job here to listen and tell their story.

My opinion is that IBM is doing a lot of things right, but it is not yet doing enough to make the channel notice.

You are also doing some things wrong, and those things will become bigger problems going forward. The entire channel is very aware of vendors' efforts to drive services business to their own internal divisions. The channel will key in on the problems more easily than the successes, and IBM is a seen as a bureaucratic nightmare to deal with by many solution providers.

Ralph, all is not well in the IBM kingdom. But you are in a critical role to set it right. I'm sure we will talk soon.

Your old friend,
Robert Faletra

Make something happen. I can be reached at (516) 562-7812 or via e-mail at rfaletra @cmp.com.