VARBusiness 500 Executive Briefings Update: IBM

Buoyed by an upturn in the economy, IBM channel chief Michael Borman outlined some key partner objectives for 2004 aimed at helping Big Blue and its partners take advantage of the expected boost in IT spending.

Borman, who serves as general manager of IBM global business partners, told executives at the VARBusiness 500 executive briefings in New York on Tuesday that increasing growth, profitability and market share top his list of priorities for this fiscal year for both IBM and its partners.

Borman's second goal for partners this year is to engage them more aggressively in IBM's emphasis on on-demand computing, including business-process automation and the company's new approach to selling IT that hinges on solutions and vertical industries.

And in a clear acknowledgement of IBM's history of difficult and sometimes confusing access to IBM resources, Borman pledged to make it easier for partners to work the company this year.

"The tendency is for us not to have the most streamlined relationship out there," he told the packed room. "So we dramatically need to simplify."

Drilling down a bit into the goals, Greg Adams, IBM's vice president of business partners, said partners will be critical to IBM's success in the SMB market, which constitutes 50 percent of the IT spend in the Americas. IBM plans to commit more resources to SMB, as well as to partners that sell business solutions based on combinations of IBM products and services. IBM has defined 86 SMB territories nationwide and is looking to link partners directly to the territory managers in their region to become a more intrinsic part of the sales force, he said.

In terms of programs, Adams said IBM will work to make them more clear and consistent. This effort took a big step forward earlier this spring when Big Blue unified its vast web of partner initiatives under one PartnerWorld umbrella. The company is also looking to invigorate areas like demand generation and find better ways to allocate marketing dollars to partners so they yield real returns.

With a dose of optimism that epitomized the general sentiment at the VARBusiness 500 event yesterday, Adams said the upcoming year looks bright for IBM partners.

"2001, 2002, 2003 were the worst years in the history of IT spending. Just the fact that you are all here is remarkable testament to the talent of your organizations," he said. "Now we are finally getting a little wind at our back.