IBM Aims To Regain Its Touch With SMB Partners

"If there is any feeling that our [channel field] coverage has declined and it is affecting our business, we will fix it," Marwaha said in an interview with CRN after an address at Ingram Micro's VentureTech Network Spring Invitational last month in Nashville, Tenn. "We have already increased our sales force into the reseller community."

Marwaha said field coverage is just "one leg of a multileg stool. What we have to do is make sure we get the right demand, we get the right coverage and we make this whole ecosystem work."

A number of VARs have complained privately that they have lost touch with their IBM channel reps in the wake of IBM's $1.25 billion sale of its PC business to Lenovo nearly two years ago. Some VARs also say Hewlett-Packard is eating into IBM share in the blade server market.

Market research firm NPD Group says IBM slipped 8.2 percentage points to 60.5 percent share in the blade server market in 2006. What was lost was picked up by HP, according to the NPD data.

The CEO of a large solution provider, who did not want to be identified and who counts IBM as one of his largest vendor partners, said that since the sale of IBM's PC business to Lenovo, his face-to-face contact with IBM has fallen off. "I can't tell you who my IBM rep is," the CEO said.

Another IBM partner, who also did not want to be identified, said HP is simply executing better in the field. IBM's top executives are espousing the right vision, he added, but it isn't translating into the field.

Marwaha, however, stressed that IBM is having success with the channel. In fact, he praised distributor Ingram Micro for helping drive a tight partnership with VARs. He said that IBM server sales through Ingram Micro's VARs were up 15 percent in the fourth quarter; sales of IBM ServicePac Services are up 15 percent; and IBM Express product sales are up 150 percent in the past year.

"The objective is not coverage," he said. "The objective is success. If [VARs] feel that there are things that IBM could do to be even more successful, they know how to get in touch with me."

Marwaha said IBM feels good about its success in the SMB market, but wants to take it to "new heights."

IBM now offers a 5 percent solution sales bonus and a 5 percent sales bonus for new SMB customers. Marwaha said IBM plans to shift more benefits to smaller solution provider partners. The Armonk, N.Y., company is expected to outline a number of new programs and initiatives at its IBM PartnerWorld Conference, set for April 29 to May 2 in St. Louis.

Several VTN members who partner with HP said it would take a significant effort by IBM to win them over.

Mark Lutes, president of Algoma Business Computers, a $2.5 million Sault Saint Marie, Ontario, solution provider, said many smaller VARs have to focus on one vendor in the server market because of the high cost of supporting two platforms.

"I would consider IBM again," he said. "But they would have to make assurances to us that the partnership is solid."

CRAIG ZARLEY contributed to this story.