IBM Enhances Public Sector Edge Program

In particular, solution providers will be able to take advantage of new financial incentives, more easily collaborate with other IBM partners, and tap into marketing and training resources.

IBM launched the Public Sector Edge program in July 2005 as a way to accommodate the distinctive challenges facing solution providers and integrators who sell into federal, state and local government, education and health care. Since then, the program has attracted more than 2,000 partners. Combined with partners grandfathered into the program, total membership has hit 3,700.

"The public sector is an enormous opportunity for IBM," says Emilie McCabe, general manager of IBM Global Public Sector. "IBM's innovation agenda on the table resonates so well for this market, but we can't do it alone. We need partners to help drive solutions."

Specifically, IBM is providing new financial incentives for business partners who invest in solutions for the public-sector market. Incentives comprise revenue attainment, an IBM Alumni Business Partner Connections Program that connects channel companies with access to a community with skills specific to product and market requirements, and enhanced sales and marketing support, including market intelligence for landing qualified leads.

In addition, IBM has enhanced Value Net benefits, offering tools that help partners to better locate and network with each other for new opportunities. In particular, a new member level of Value Net assists in partner identification, registration and development of a Value Net go-to-market plan that helps partners reach new geographies and markets within the public sector.

Similarly, business speed-dating events allow partners to connect face-to-face at various locations around the globe. That can be particularly beneficial for small solution providers able to fill federal set-aside requirements for disadvantaged business.

Also new is IBM's infrastructure solution specialty for the public sector, which provides qualified partners with support for building skills, technical enablement and marketing around infrastructure solutions for government, health care and education.

Complementary to that is IBM's Sales Dashboards, which centralize targeted sales and marketing materials on the partner Web site; among the Sales Dashboards is one for the public sector, another for high volume and the latest for the infrastructure solution.

"Infrastructure solutions are a large market in the public sector that we estimate at $20 billion," with an average 20 percent growth per year, says Alex Gogh, vice president of channel marketing for IBM Global Public Sector.

In particular, he says, all levels of government increasingly seek out service-oriented architectures that reduce costs and improve processes.

"IBM is looking at areas of volume and figuring out how we can bring our market intelligence to [the partners]," Gogh adds.

For more information about the latest enhancements to IBM's Partner Edge program, listen to our Podcast with Alex Gogh and Emilie McCabe, or to the recent Netseminar with Gogh and IBM public sector partners.