The VARBusiness Interview: IBM's Bob Samson

The result of his creativity and charisma is that it often doesn't matter what Samson's title is. While's it's true that Samson's move from IBM's lead public-sector post back to IBM's System Technology Group (STG) shook the government channel earlier this year, the fact remains that Samson would get questions from reporters on pretty much any subject at any time.

Samson shared this "vision thing" with VARBusiness executive editor Chris Gonsalves during the Avnet Partner Conference in San Antonio last month, expounding on solutions, services, innovation centers and technology's ability to change the world.

VB: I hear the terms "managed services" and "solutions" being used as synonyms here [at the conference]. Are we getting less confused about services, or more so?
Samson: I prefer to use "solutions" because I think there are customers out there where "managed services" might have the wrong resonance. It rings of outsourcing. What this is really is the next wave of on-demand. Partners have to build open, scalable infrastructures. That's probably a better way to look at it. Users say, "Help me create an infrastructure, and give me the solution that matters most and that gives me the best value."

This is going to require collaboration across partners, across VARs. This is the most profound thing going forward...solution providers combining skills to drive whole, new sets of skills and capabilities. [Vendors and distributors] need to make sure we're offering the tools for multiple VARs to work with other ISVs and solution providers. The industry is shifting to this integrated solutions idea. We drive the value to the client, which allows them to help customers understand the new business models and just what it takes to develop a business innovation agenda

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VB: What comes first in these engagements, the identification of a business problem or the creation of a solution set?
Samson: You have to get on the ground with the client to find out their challenges. It could be aligning the right resources to help clients solve their issues. It could start with an architecture point of view -- we have a view of where you are today and where you have to get to to do what you want to do. The next step up from there could be data migration, server consolidation, a combination of other ISV solutions. The bigger thought is to get to real innovation, to really know the customers' challenges, determine the right skills and re-engineer the infrastructure to support all of that. That's very different than coming to a customer with a faster, cheaper box to sell them.

VB: Are we talking only about verticals here?
Samson: There's a vertical dimension to all of this, but in many cases it's about recasting a user infrastructure that may not be all that vertical. It becomes a technology architecture point of view to use the assets they have in place and, through consolidation or virtualization, for example, and rework that infrastructure to accomplish other tasks that allows them to innovate. That's the real differentiator among the skills and capabilities with partners here. That's the talk of the town...we work together to drive innovation

NEXT: Samson on how to make customers' lives easier. VB: What should VARs concentrate on to make the most of this shift to solutions and services?
Samson: You have to know what constitutes a good value add. Customers no longer want to be quilt makers, stitching together all these components to make them work. How do we make a customer's life easier? Life is complicated enough. In our CEO study, the No. 1 agenda item is to innovate in the business. And this desire scales from companies like Ford right down to smaller customers. It's innovate or die.

Now a VAR shows up. What's the dialog they have with customer? They have to drive this innovation agenda. Don't get ground up in the components. The VAR has to say, "Let me, with the skills I have, help you do this." It could be using blade servers or POS devices or a printing solution. The VAR has to say, "Let me that be the person that manages all this. Let me have all your business, and I will help drive your innovation agenda and make your life easy. I have skills, technical resources, and you'll have one neck to choke."

VB: So, then, what are the pain points for VARs ready to take this road?
Samson: I don't know if there are pain points. But I do know what needs to be addressed. I have this personal philosophy: To be successful, we've got to collectively make it easier for our partners to sell. It's simple, but it's profound as well. From IBM's position, we have to bring simplicity and clarity in our programs and agreements. We need to bring consistency predictability and far less complexity. We need to offer better tools. This concept of making it easier to sell means getting out of the way of our sales teams and concentrating more on enablement.

Enablement is a broad category, but one item is education our continuing life-long learning programs for sales. That says, "I am going to invest in you and allow you to win more." Also in the same idea of enablement is the expansion of development resources under our Skills For Growth program. We'll move a development engineer to a partner's site for three years and build technical capabilities closer to the client. We've done that in the past with sales, but this is a significant expansion to include developers. It's all targeted at the idea of making it easier to sell. These things allow partners to develop better business models.

VB: How do the joint innovation centers, such as the [Business Partner Innovation Centers] you've developed with Avnet, fit into your philosophy of greasing the sales skids?
Samson: They are incredible -- one of the biggest competitive advantages that we at IBM and Avnet have. If you take an innovation center with all of the great skills and terrific technology and put that much fire power close to the action, you win. Bottom line. When a client goes to an innovation center, you win. If I'm a CEO and my infrastructure won't support my innovation agenda, then I go to the BPIC and see all of the hardware, software, servers, storage, all modeled so I can see my own work in a new way. I'm sold.

VB: So the goal of everything has to be innovation capabilities for the end user?
Samson: We talk about innovation -- that's a bit of a dog-eared term -- but innovation is occurring at an accelerated rate. It may not always creep out as a one-day Eureka! Today I am innovating! But it's being illustrated every day in evolving business models. There's definitely a cumulative effect. I like to substitute a word for innovation and that's creativity. It's about looking at markets and processes and business models in a whole, new way, then figuring out how to get there.

NEXT: Will Samson return to the public sector? VB: Do you miss the government, health-care and education channel spaces?
Samson: I miss the public sector, but I love it here. This is a wonderful part of the industry. You can measure your contribution, if you're a VAR, daily and see it in very profound ways. Driving profound change with clients -- when you do it right, it can really affect people's lives. To say, "I sold some storage and servers today," that's pretty good, but to say, "I sold technology to a hospital, which allowed them to work differently with patients," that affects real lives. That's an inspirational thought, and I try to get that every day.

It's all about integrating technology and delivering innovation that matters. In government and education and health care, you can measure that in a human dimension, but it's no less profound to help a retailer change how they interact with customers in a store, to provide better service. That's pretty profound as well. I encourage people to think of technology sales that way. I ask them to focus on the end game...how the technology is ultimately used is really the business we are in. Always remember to think about what a client could do as a result of what you did, whether it's a school or a hospital or a basket company in Ohio.

Don't get me wrong, I love beating competitors, too. That brings a smile to your face, to beat these gnarly competitors that want us all collectively dead. But what inspires you down to your soul is the idea that you made a difference because a client is using a technology that you helped them with. I still believe I'm in the biz of helping change the world.