Is IBM Passport Valid?

IBM's global strategy has some missing pieces.

IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano last week told business partners it's time to play in the "globally integrated enterprise." He noted that when he joined IBM in 1973, it was an international company, but each IBM country organization operated as if it were an autonomous company.

CRAIG ZARLEY Can be reached via e-mail at czarley@cmp.com.

Now, Palmisano wants to tear that world down, as IBM shifts to a "world is flat" global view. Problem is, many terms and conditions from the siloed IBM world still linger.

Business partners attending PartnerWorld said IBM's global terms and conditions haven't kept pace with its global strategy. One cited example: Product warranties often dictate that products must be purchased in the country or region where they are deployed, or the warranty is void. Partners note that they may be authorized to sell some IBM brands in one country, but not another. This means when they do a global deal covering a broad range of IBM products and services, they often have to obtain exceptions from IBM to skirt authorization issues.

Solution providers note that larger business partners have the clout to win exceptions to arcane global terms and conditions, but smaller solution providers face an uphill fight.

To be fair to IBM, this is a problem most vendors face. Business, it seems, may see one world, but IBM and other vendors operate according to an internal management bureaucracy that clings to a country-by-country structure.

IBM executives aren't oblivious to the problem. They just haven't come up with a viable solution.

Kevin Hooper, IBM's vice president of worldwide business partner strategy, said, "You're not telling us anything we don't know." Hooper said IBM is moving to make its products and services better tailored for partners to sell and deliver globally. "The final part of that journey is having globally acceptable terms and conditions that work in every single country. But until every single country adopts the same legal system, that's going to be challenging."

I'm betting the one-world business climate has a better shot at happening before the one-world legal and political system. If IBM believes that, too, it should come up with some viable terms and conditions that facilitate, not impede, partners' global expansion.

What's in the way of global expansion? You can reach CRN Industry Editor Craig Zarley via e-mail at czarley@cmp.com.