IBM Streamlines Online Co-Marketing Funding Web Site

The new IBM Co-Marketing Center replaces several older campaign design programs with new features and functionality in a single, integrated location on the partner program Web site, the company said this week. The resources can be used to create customized campaign assets such as Webinars or e-mail flyers.

The Co-Marketing Center also includes new marketing funding opportunities from IBM and a streamlined online process partners use to get reimbursed for marketing expenses. IBM said the disbursement process also has been revised to ensure claims validation and payments within 30 days.

IBM will spend more than $100 million this year on marketing and demand generation in the midmarket, including traditional advertising, Web-based marketing and social media, said Ed Abrams, marketing vice president for midmarket, global business partners, in an interview this week.

Abrams was speaking at the IBM PartnerWorld Leadership Conference this week where IBM debuted new training, technical, sales and marketing resources for partners in cloud computing and business analytics. "There are a number of new features that make the IBM Co-Marketing Center easier to use," said Gwen Lucio, partner funding accounting specialist from Logicalis, an IBM channel partner. "I can select, click and edit only the items that need updates and upload files directly in the tool, which makes it much faster for me to submit my claims," she said in a statement.

The new site is now live for business partners in North America, will go live in Europe by midyear, and in other countries in the second half of the year.

"By combining our campaign asset tool and funding tool into one single application, IBM is simplifying the approval process for executing turnkey campaigns so business partners can more quickly respond to their growth objectives by harnessing demand generation tactics," said Mike Gerentine, vice president of Global Business Partners and Midmarket Marketing. "The new Co-Marketing Center is particularly important in the mid-market segment where IBM business partners are more actively engaged in co-marketing to drive demand," he said in a statement.