IBM Overhauls PartnerWorld Point System

IBM is also offering partners greater access to the company’s market intelligence through the PartnerWorld portal. And it will provide Premier-level partners with the opportunity to be paired with a senior-level IBM executive to act as an advocate throughout the company, said Rich Hume, general manager of global business partners, in an interview.

Today more than 90 percent of IBM’s channel partners fall into the Member category of the PartnerWorld program, with about 5 percent ranked as Advanced and only about 3 percent, or 2,200, making it to the Premier category.

Partners are judged on a mix of criteria, including skills, revenue, customer satisfaction and client references. But there has been a lack of standardization across that criteria and a lack of consistency in how they have been applied to IBM’s different types of partners, said Mike Gerentine, vice president of marketing and communications for global business partners and midmarket, within IBM’s general business organization.

“This is how we ensure consistency for all partners,” Gerentine said in an interview. “The feedback we’re getting from partners is they want simplification and consistency.” The new system should make it easier for partners to advance through the PartnerWorld levels, he said, but it shouldn’t disrupt partners’ current rankings.

In one example of a change to the revenue criteria, IBM is introducing a 3X-multiplier for midmarket deals. Currently, partners who sell to smaller customers don’t earn as many PartnerWorld points as those who close big-revenue contracts with larger customers. The new multiplier will give solution providers more credit for midmarket sales and help level the playing field.

IBM has unequivocally stated that it is relying on the channel as its primary route to market for selling to midsize companies -- a vow Hume repeated in his interview.

In another criteria change, ISVs generally didn’t get credit for sales in which they played an influential role, but didn’t hold the contract, Gerentine said. Now ISVs will receive PartnerWorld points for those “influencer” sales.

The changes to the partner program recognize the value ISV partners provide, said Daniel Fortin, general manager at Relavance LLC, an IBM ISV partner. “We want to deliver quality services around solutions involving IBM as a partner and this change is a recognition of this.”

Reducing the emphasis on generated revenue in favor of influence is also key. “We want to spend time on selling and delivering high-quality solutions to our joint customers, not spending time on forecasting.”

Fortin, an IBM partner since 1995 (and even earlier when counting Lotus) said the channel program announcements “bring back the good things old -- and very loyal -- partners have seen in the past, disappeared, and are now back.”

“I think the changes are good as they provide more benefits for focusing on skills,” said Joe Mertens, president of IBM partner Sirius Computer Solutions, in an e-mail. “We succeed in the marketplace by bringing solutions to clients’ business problems and being recognized for our skills in this area is a good thing.”

IBM will begin implementing the new partner ranking point system in the third quarter, Gerentine said, with the new processes in place by the end of the year. But he said it would likely take longer to assign all Premier partners an executive-advocate, either someone in sales or on the technical side depending on the channel partner’s focus.

IBM also said it is developing an online search engine or “partner locator” tool to help clients, prospects and even other partners identify IBM partners with specific expertise and capabilities. That is scheduled to go live July 3.