SCS Earns IBM On-Demand Accreditation

Strategic Computer Solutions (No. 295 on the 2005 VARBusiness500) of Syracuse, N.Y., has achieved accreditation as an IBM On Demand Business Partner, becoming one of the first solution providers in the Northeast to do so. Currently, fewer than 40 IBM partners have earned the accreditation since it was introduced last November as part of IBM's on-demand strategy. According to Sandra Jolla, IBM Global On Demand Business program manager, more than 5,000 IBM business partners are eligible for the on-demand designation, but to date only 39 have successfully completed the process.

Already an IBM Premier Business Partner, SCS says the on-demand certification will increase its value in the market. Jim Carrick, CEO of SCS, says the certification is unique because it's about process, not product.

"Unlike other certifications that are focused on technologies, this one is about...developing solutions to business problems," Carrick says.

Before joining SCS in 1999, Carrick spent 18 years at IBM in various sales and executive-management roles. Since taking over as president in 2001, Carrick has grown the small regional company to one of the fastest-growing IBM business partners in the industry. The solution provider's IBM software sales grew more than 560 percent last year, and SCS says it had already sold more software by June of this year than it did in all of 2004. Darrin Nelson, vice president of software and services at SCS, says IBM's on-demand solutions, which are typically anchored by the IBM WebSphere middleware suite, are resonating with the company's Northeast midmarket customers.