IBM Pushes Global Services As Partner, Not Enemy

In a move that demonstrates exactly how important the new messaging initiative has become to Big Blue of late, the company decided to open up PartnerWorld 2002, its annual partner summit, with a message to solution providers that partnerships with IBM Global Services work.

IBM opened the event in San Francisco Sunday evening with an eFusion roundtable to show how solution providers are benefiting from these relationships.

During the event Anne Smith, senior vice president of IBM's Consultants and Integrators program, hosted a panel that included executives from IBM Global Services as well as IBM business partners who were willing to talk about their experiences partnering for services.

"At first glance, consultants and integrators would appear to compete directly with IBM Global Services," said Smith in opening up the panel discussion. "But the marketplace is changing and clients are turning to multiple consultants. Perceived competitors can be our best partners."

For the roundtable, Dave Liederbach, the executive in charge of IBM Global Services' partnering initiatives, was joined by representatives from three IBM business partners who are benefiting from a strategic relationship with IBM Global Services: Answerthink, Digitas and Jack Henry and Associates.

Liederbach said that since forming a formal partnering strategy last year, IBM Global Services has focused on a number of key messages. Among them: business partners are core to the way the organization creates value in the marketplace. "We believe we're making progress. On the other hand the services marketplace in our industry is extremely dynamic, so we need to learn, adjust and adapt and change the way we evolve and work our partnerships--from where we were a year ago to where we are today," said Liederbach.

Liederbach said that in 2001, IBM Global Services generated a full $6 billion through or with IBM business partners. "We did that by growing the services we sell through our partners and expanding both the types of relationships and the breadth of relationships we have with our current partner base."

Neal Prescott, Answerthink's managing director of commercial applications, says IBM has a number of distinct relationships with his company, including as a technology partner, a services partner and even a client, with Answerthink serving as one of IBM's four agencies of record. "The interesting thing about our relationship with IGS is that it has really been built by working with executives and developing a model that works for both of us," said Prescott. "Corporately, we set things out and established these relationships early on. Then its really about getting out in the field and working with our account teams and IGS executives."

In particular, Prescott pointed to Answerthink's successful Lawson practice as an area where the company has benefited greatly from working side-by-side with IBM Global Services to deliver comprehensive solutions. Despite the positive partnering environment, Prescott acknowledged that there are still times when the two organizations are forced to compete for business. "And when we do so, we have to do it in a way that is mutually respectful."

Unlike most other firms that work with IBM Global Services, Digitas' relationship actually started out with the services component, not hardware or software reselling. That has made the relationship strong from day one, said Craig Kauffman, senior vice president of technology.

"For us, this has become a very strategic account. It started with a lot of influence revenue on the hosting side of the business," said Kauffman. "But what we saw toward the end of the year as we started to strategize and work together is that it is creating these category-killer type solutions. Right now we're working in enterprise content management to create an end-to-end solution."

Kauffman said that since Digitas is known for its expertise in areas like marketing and CRM, a partnership with IBM Global Services to supplement its core strength with deep technology expertise is a no-brainer. "Where we are playing, we're leading with the marketing and strategy side of the business," he said. "By partnering with IBM GS, we can offer comprehensive end-to-end solutions in the marketing arena."

In addition, the two organizations can combine their go-to-market strategies, said Kauffman, since Digitas traditionally has strong relationships with chief marketing officers and IBM Global Services has stronger relationships on the technology side of a client's business.

The third panelist, Mike Henry, CEO of financial services solution provider Jack Henry and Associates, said his company has been working with IBM in some form since its founding in 1976 and has been an IBM premiere Business Partner for the last 10 years. But only recently has the company has grown so close to the services side of the business.

"The marketplace we see has changed a bit over the last few months," said Henry. "Bankers are a little more conservative in the IT spending. They are really looking to do more with what they have. IBM Global Services helps us do that."

Henry said his company has made a big commitment in its partnership with IBM Global Services, appointing a staff of several people whose entire role is overseeing the services relationship. "It's very important for us because we want to take a solution to our customers. We're not there just to sell products and forget about them, we want to keep bringing out solutions. We're there to hold their hand, and IGS helps us do that with some coverage, some technology and some people that we simply couldn't do all by ourselves," he said.

In addition to the opening roundtable, IBM Global Services executives are markedly increasing their participation in PartnerWorld activities this year, with four separate sessions planned over the next three days to educate attendees on partnering opportunities.