Tivoli Secures the Lead

Security software vendors have traditionally earned their keep by offering their clients stability and peace of mind as they transact business over the Internet.

So it's ironic that these companies have little, if any, ability to control what their partners think about their channel programs. All they can do is build programs with the attributes they think their partners want,and hope for the best.

The security management software space saw a lot of movement and turbulence in the VARBusiness Annual Report Card (ARC) survey this year, with some new entries taking the top spots and last year's winner finding itself relegated to last place.

Tivoli, now operating under the umbrella of IBM Software, garnered kudos from its solution providers with an overall score of 74, beating out Computer Associates (73), Check Point Software (73) and Symantec (72). Last year's winner, Network Associates, found itself dead last with an overall score of 66. Tivoli had winning scores in the areas of postsales support and program administration. It tied for first in marketing support and communication.

"We are delighted about this award and see it as evidence that we are on the right track to enabling our partners and building a value channel to sell our security solutions," says Robert LeBlanc, general manager of Tivoli. "The award has even more significance in knowing that we were evaluated by the solution-provider community."

Alva Purvis, Tivoli's director of worldwide channel marketing, says that during the past year, the company instituted a worldwide support program for developers and ISVs based on the existing IBM PartnerWorld for Software framework. "By implementing that program, which included customer technical support and presales and postsales support, we were able to extend that on a worldwide basis to our partners," Purvis explains.

While the company has had a strong relationship with its large developers and enterprise partners, it has been making a big push downstream to engage its smaller midmarket partners and help them deploy cross-industry solutions. Tivoli currently works with roughly 20 certified developer partners and close to 200 integrators and resellers. The company planned to put the reseller program under PartnerWorld by the end of the summer.

"While we haven't changed our partner strategy, we have strengthened our focus on building value for the channel," LeBlanc says. "Our integration with IBM PartnerWorld was a big part of that. This is underscored by our commitment to certified business partners and our support through partner programs."

Bob Madey, Tivoli's vice president of market strategy and solutions, says the company's security products, including Policy Director, Identity Director and Tivoli PKI, are being embraced by integrators because they offer a full spectrum of security management solutions addressing all aspects of the authorization, authentication and administration process. "Rather than them having to integrate the security infrastructure, they can spend the time integrating it with the business applications and users, getting a fast time-to-value," Madey says.

The company also puts a lot of effort into its training and mentoring programs, working with key partners like Deloitte Consulting and IBM Global Services to integrate their teams into the product development process from the very beginning.

"They are able to get a full-scale view of what our products, direction and strategy is from the first time we conceptualize it," Madey says. "So from the first concept, when someone stands up and says they have an idea for a product, we've integrated our partners into the process so they can pass judgment and say, 'This is a good idea, and here's the services that I think need to go along with it.'"

While Madey acknowledges Tivoli could never do that with every integrator it works with, the plan is to expand the initiative to include more of the company's key channel partners.

Part 3: Relying On the Channel

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