Proclaiming the U.S. economy to be "at the cusp of a new phase of growth," IBM President and CEO Sam Palmisano in a Webcast Tuesday, touted steps the company has recently taken to support its 100,000 channel partners and said its "Smarter Planet" initiative presents solution providers with new opportunities.
The Webcast, intended to help fill the gap created by the cancellation of this year's Partnership Leadership Conference due to the recession, included the recognition of the winners of this year's Beacon Awards for IBM Business Partners.
IBM also unveiled the PartnerWorld Communities social networking system for channel partners, which the company said will help them connect and collaborate on business opportunities. The site helps solution providers use blogs, wikis and other tools to create profiles, share sales leads and exchange expertise.
The company also launched the online Business Partner Development Series education and networking forum, which gives solution providers access to online and in-person training and networking events.
The normally reclusive Palmisano said IBM's channel partners play a valuable role in the vendor's go-to-market strategy. "And when I say 'valuable,' I mean it," he said. IBM spends $2.5 billion on its partner ecosystem annually, the executive said, and in the past year has spent $600 million to assemble 40 "innovation centers" around the world to assist solution providers.
Palmisano extolled the technical education and certification opportunities IBM offers channel partners -- some 4,000 of whom received 25,000 certifications in IBM products and services in 2008.
Palmisano, however, devoted most of his seven-minute speech to the Smarter Planet initiative, which he called "the most profound, unifying, exciting and expansive strategy we've had as a company in my 35-year career at IBM. One that can't be achieved without the collaboration of you, our business partners."
Smarter Planet recognizes that an increasing amount of information technology is being used outside of traditional corporate data centers, built into everything from appliances and consumer electronics to "smart" power grids and traffic control systems.
Palmisano said more than 150 partners have joined IBM's Dynamic Infrastructure Initiative Specialty Program, under which solution providers train to meet the demand from customers for IT systems that are more self-managing, more adaptive to changing business conditions and less expensive to operate.
Also appearing on the Webcast was IBM channel chief Rich Hume, who recapped a number of IBM's more recent initiatives, including $2 billion in financing for customers with projects that could be eligible for funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
In an interview before the broadcast, Hume noted that the new PartnerWorld Communities site is needed to help solution providers partner with each other to take advantage of Smarter Planet opportunities. "The partner ecosystem as we know it is going to become much larger and we have to find a better way of connecting this ecosystem," he said.
