IBM Adds Business Continuity Certification

On the eve of its annual PartnerWorld Conference set to begin April 29 in St. Louis, IBM is launching a new Business Partner Continuity Specialty certification targeted primarily at the vendor's loyal stable of regional integrators.

"The way we have managed to grow our business over the last seven years since we became an IBM Premier Business Partner is through partnering well with IBM. [We take] advantage of programs that are within our capabilities so that our certifications keep branching out to be able to support specific types of customers," said Rosary De Filippis, director of marketing and business development at Micro Strategies, an IBM solution provider in Denville, N.J.

Micro Strategies is one of the first IBM Business Partners to gain certification in the Business Continuity Specialty. De Filippis said Micro Strategies is putting 40 percent to 50 percent of the company's resources into the data protection services encompassed in the specialty.

Dan Lucky, Micro Strategies' vice president of data management solutions, said the new IBM certification gives the solution provider marketing clout and credibility in the market. "Certifications are the only way you can convince a new customer that you have the necessary credentials to do the work," he said.

IBM is banking on regional integrators like Micro Strategies to join the ranks of those certified in industry specialties. IBM last year launched the Service Oriented Architecture Specialty and is rolling out the Business Continuity Specialty at PartnerWorld.

"We are looking for partners with a strong regional presence and integration skills," said Ron Kline, IBM's director of global SMB marketing. "Part of the certification is around Tivoli as well as software products in the DB2 family. What we are offering the partners is a blueprint—here is the product set that goes with it, here are the kind of integration skills that you need to have to go out and deploy it."

Kline said that the target end-user account for business continuity services is between 100 and 999 seats and that Business Partners will take the lead in the engagement and set the pricing, and IBM will provide marketing and technical support.

Kline said that Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM intends to roll out additional specialty certifications with one focused on security likely to be added by year's end.

"We have a lot of partners who are technically adept and we went through the list of partners who looked like they would probably meet the criteria for this specialty," he said. "They are on our list to go out and start recruiting [for the Business Continuity Specialty certification]. It's not, 'Open the door and put the shingle out.' We know who we are going to talk to."