Lotus Taps IBM Global Services Vet To Head Partner Programs

West has been with IBM for more than 20 years, the last three and a half with IBM Global Services (IGS).

The news of her appointment is slated to be announced Monday.

West told CRN that her IGS experience, rather than worrying integrator partners, should be a boon.

"I know their strategy and how they engage ... we need partners with application expertise," she noted. She maintained there is plenty of service and implementation work to go around.

Many companies have co-engagement prerequisites "and IBM Global Services works with companies like EDS and Accenture. Sometimes we prime, sometimes they prime," she noted.

Smaller business partners with application expertise will also be much in demand, she noted.

In addition, Software Services from Lotus, formerly known as Lotus Consulting Services, will provide Lotus technology expertise for partners and customers. Last January, Lotus pledged to get out of the full-service consulting business, citing too much competition with both IGS and large third-party partners.

"I see part of my job as really making sure that business partners at large understand how to engage Lotus," West said.

The business partner and the channel are "a very, very important part of the IBM business, especially as we get more into solutions," she said.

With West's arrival, her predecessor Ken Bisconti is able to fully assume his new role as vice president of messaging services.

Veterans of IBM's huge services arm have been tapped to fill services management posts around the industry.

In January, Microsoft named Mike Sinneck, who spent 32 years with IBM and its services arm, as its vice president of worldwide services, replacing Robert McDowell.

Lotus remains poised to ship Domino 6, a major upgrade long in the making, in the third quarter. The company still has not provided partners details of how WebSphere-based JSP support will be provided in the new release. But Bisconti pledged that Lotus will package and price that support in a way that will not alienate partners or customers.

Lotus has seen its share of channel strife as it seeks to tread the fine line between developing its own Domino-based applications and supporting third-party developers, for example.