Channel Execs: IBM Global Services Needs To Work With Us

IBM Global Services

That's just one message solution providers will have for IBM executives during PartnerWorld, IBM's annual partner summit next week in San Francisco. IBM's solution provider partners praise the vendor for keeping many promises it made at last year's PartnerWorld, including strengthening channel programs, forming tighter relationships and eradicating much of the direct-sales conflicts that plagued midlevel markets. But, solution providers said, there is always room for improvement.

"IBM made the commitment that solution providers will be the customer face in the mid-market accounts, and they have pretty much followed through with that," said Harvey Najim, chief executive and president of Sirius Computer Solutions, a high-end solution provider and IBM Premier Partner based in San Antonio, Texas. "I think someone in IBM finally woke up and said, 'Hey, why do we want to screw around with these $50,000 or $100,000 engagements when what we really want is the multimillion-dollar deals like facility management.' They want the long-term contracts that are very profitable."

Najim said IBM's direct-sales teams as well as its Global Services (IGS) division have been staying clear of his accounts. But other solution providers said IGS, despite promises to work more closely with the channel, still grabs whatever business it can in the mid-level space, even if that means stealing business from IBM's direct-sales team.

"If IGS hears about a deal, they will come in and attack," said Jeff Medeiros, president and founder of rs-unix.com, a San Francisco-based solution provider. "They argue for every deal. They believe the world is their opportunity. They never did anything to bring partners in. If Global Services has the lead, there is no strategy implemented in the field to engage partners."

Partnering could be a win-win situation for both sides, solution providers said.

"We would both get more business because both of us are only getting less than 10 percent of the market share to begin with," Medeiros said. "If we learned how to work together we would get more of the pie rather than fighting over what we think are current opportunities in the available market. I don't know how to solve that problem."

Some solution providers, however, do have a few ideas of how IGS can start working with them. The problems they face, indicative of any solution provider trying to work with a huge organization, start with communications, executives said. Several solution providers who focus on niche technologies said they have worked with IGS as sub-contractors only to lose touch with the division after their main contact left or was reassigned to another IBM division. Despite multiple phone calls to IGS and trying to work through other IBM contacts, those relationships were never renewed, the solution providers said. In many cases, IGS will develop the specialty in-house and never bother to work with solution providers on other technologies, integrators said.

Solution providers want to work with IGS because it gives their business credibility and assures the customer that the job will be done right, said Pat Kelly, president of Conservor, a Sugar Land, Texas-based solution provider that specializes in high-end storage technologies.

"It makes us look impressive against another independent solution provider or against Compaq or Dell services," Kelly said. "The IBM name gives us a lot of credibility." For IGS, working with solution providers gives IGS "responsiveness and creativity," as well as cost savings that a giant integrator or consultant can't achieve, Kelly said.

But if IGS does strengthen its channel ties, the group will have to make its services easier to resell, solution providers said.

Vince DeRose, president of PEAK Resources, an IBM Premier Partner and one of the largest integrators in the Denver area, called IBM a "fantastic partner" but said the process of obtaining services "needs to be made more channel-friendly.

"There are a lot of times that we can't deliver certain services and need IBM's services," he said. "We need the ability to easily and efficiently get to the IGS people. As [solution providers take on the task of being the primary face for IBM in the mid-market, IGS has to be more channel-friendly."

IBM executives said they're rectifying that situation. IGS recently named channel veteran Ralph Martino as its chief strategist in charge of forming deeper relationships with solution providers in the midtier market. IBM business partners last year generated about $6 billion of IGS's $35 billion revenue, Martino said. He expects to grow that number this year by doubling IGS teaming agreements in the United States to about 40.

Besides easier accessibility to services, solution providers also hope IBM will begin providing them with more of the sales tools and information to the midlevel market that its direct-sales team enjoys.

"In the past, IBM had a client organization that was the delivery to the middle market. Today, the partner has been charted with that mission," DeRose said. "But if we're going to be that delivery vehicle, we need more access resources that were available to the old client rep; information about the customers, any kind of data would be helpful."

Solution providers, despite their suggestions on how IBM could improve, said the company has made great strides as a partner since last year's PartnerWorld. DeRose summed up the thoughts of many of his colleagues.

"IBM has definitely made the shift to have the business partner channel be the main delivery vehicle to their SMB and midlevel markets," he said. " We're 'blue' from top to bottom. We could have been anything we wanted, like a Sun or Compaq partner, but we chose IBM because their partner program is the best. Have they gotten better? Yes, they have. Are they perfect? No one's perfect."