Rational Rallies Its Partners

IBM plans to distribute the Rational Software Development Platform through the U.S. IBM reseller community by the end of the year, executives told CRN last week. But they cautioned that the Rational channel will never be as expansive as the larger IBM partner community because partners must have a certain level of expertise around the more-complex Rational products.

"We are focused on maximizing the opportunities for ourselves and our business partners, but we're doing it in a more focused fashion than IBM has in the past," said David Abelow, director of business partner marketing and business development at IBM Rational. IBM is offering larger product discounts to partners skilled in the Rational Software Development Platform to reward them for their significant investments, Abelow said.

This week, IBM is hosting the Rational Software Development User Conference in Dallas--the first since the Somers, N.Y.-based vendor handed the bulk of its developer tools efforts to Rational last December.

Prior to its purchase by IBM in February 2003, Rational did not have a channel-friendly sales model, seeing 95 percent of its sales go direct. Solution providers were hopeful IBM's takeover would significantly expand the company's partnering efforts. While some partners that were in the Rational channel prior to the acquisition reported growth in their Rational business after IBM took the helm, some potential partners found Rational too difficult to work with.

Brad Murphy, executive vice president of business development at Paris-based solution provider and IBM partner Valtech, said he gave up trying to connect with the tools division about six months ago. He admits he hasn't followed up since then, but said IBM Rational has not contacted him, either.

Abelow said that when IBM first bought Rational, the group focused primarily on getting its own 800-member partner community integrated into IBM's PartnerWorld program, a process that took about a year.

IBM Rational has now shifted its focus to expanding its channel. In January, the tools division set up training programs to help more IBM partners get certified on Rational software. In addition, IBM began distributing the Rational portfolio to the Asia/Pacific region in January, Latin America in March and to the Europe, Middle East and Africa region in June.

IBM Rational currently has about 1,000 partners, including resellers, ISVs, service providers, solution providers and what the company calls "influence partners," which drive customers to buy Rational software, said Sean Scott, director of Rational worldwide channel development and sales for IBM.