Overheard At PartnerWorld

A half dozen IBM partners sharing a table at the big show said SOA is a hot button, even among customers who have little idea what a Services Oriented Architecture is. "They just want the SOA stamp, and they're good to go," said VAR A.

IBM used its annual event to outline SOA-focused channel programs aimed at entrenching SOAs in SMBs, as well as large enterprises.

But wait. Not all is sweetness and light in SOA land. For one thing, SAP wants $40k to certify solutions and add-ons for its world, then Oracle wants that or more to slap its seal on solutions for its world, this VAR said.

Face it, even for larger VARs, $50K here, $40k there, adds up to real money.

This VAR said these certification fees should go by another label: Extortion.

VAR B said while all the enterprise players are touting their self-described SOA wares as "open" and "interoperable," that is not necessarily the case.

"At least with plain old Web services, things talked to each other," he grumbled. "We're gonna have to build things especially for Oracle's environment and for SAP's environment," he noted.

The table was quick to say that neither IBM nor Microsoft demand similar certification fees.

The table was 100 percent behind IBM's new sales incentive plan, however. They like the fact that it will assign partner margins based on opportunity identification, sale and fulfillment. They liked the idea of deal registration, although they were quick to point out the proof is in the pudding. The idea behind this is that when a partner finds an opportunity, he or she can register and get five points of margin right off the bat. There's more margin for closing the sale, and still more for fulfilling the sale. Additional points of margin will accrue atop that if that sale is into SMB.

As described by Scott Hebner, vice president of partner marketing and programs: "We used to weigh [margin dispersal] towards fulfillment. This is a shift. If you identify the lead and register it, that's 5 percent. If you help close it, that's 10 percent. And if it's in SMB, you double it. If you do all parts, that's 40 percent margin. This encourages both an ISV who identifies and sells, and a partner who fulfills because they're work will not cut into each other's margins."

For one thing, IBM said it will judge within five days whether a partner's deal registration is valid. "My guess is that right now, people will start registering their phone books," quipped VAR A.

"How do we know that IBM won't choose one partner over an other if the leads come in at or near the same time, based on an IBM favorite, even if the customer prefers dealing with us?" asked VAR C.

"Where does customer choice come in here?" he noted.

But they all agreed this is a good stab at solving a tough problem. "They're trying to set stuff up up front. The biggest problem we've had is someone coming in at the last minute and undercutting us. This could help there," said VAR D.