IBM is offering software channel partners as much as double margins when they help convince customers to swap out Oracle and Sun software in favor of IBM products.
The move, disclosed through an IBM PartnerWorld e-mail sent to resellers Tuesday, is offering increased incentives for such competitive wins. Those cash bonuses can range between 8 and 40 percent, said Sandy Carter, vice president of the IBM Software Group business partner organization, in an interview.
Ever since last year when Oracle and Sun Microsystems disclosed a deal for Oracle to acquire Sun, IBM has aggressively sought to recruit Sun channel partners to join its PartnerWorld program. Just last week IBM Global Financing, the company's lending operation, said it was offering up to $500 million in financing to help "credit-qualified" Sun business partners migrate towards becoming resellers of IBM Power systems.
IBM is offering the new bonuses as part of its Software Value Incentive (SVI) initiative under which the company offers financial rewards to solution providers that identify and develop sales opportunities, but don't always handle product fulfillment.
IBM is also expanding the number of "sales plays" they are providing to business partners selling IBM data management, application infrastructure, security and portal software, Carter said. Those consist of tools channel partners can use in competitive sales situations, including customer use cases, system performance analyses, and proof-of-concept documentation.
In the past two years IBM has convinced some 100 users of SAP software to switch from running those applications on Oracle's database to running them on IBM's DB2, Carter said. And in the last year more than 50 Sun ISVs have ported their software to IBM hardware and software, she said.
