IBM Links Partners To Fuel System i Sales
Rose Harr, CEO of BlueWare, a small ISV based in Cadillac, Mich., has a lofty ambition: to grow worldwide adoption of electronic medical records.
The ISV has developed a health-care solution--an electronic patient records system that uses IBM's DB2 content manager to capture data. Files include recordings of heart and lung sounds, as well as clinical and diagnostic multimedia.
In recent years, studies have shown how such electronic systems can reduce hospital costs and medical errors. As the interest in online medical records grows, so has BlueWare's business, which has doubled since 2004. The ISV expects to double that number again this year.
To do that, BlueWare plans for global expansion; company execs knew that it would take more than the 40 staffers employed now to build as quickly as they liked.
Because BlueWare's electronic patient records system can run on IBM's System i servers, and because the solution fits into a niche that IBM has identified as a target market for those servers, the ISV qualified to participate in a new IBM initiative called System i VIP (Vertical Industry Program).
The program is designed to tap the channel to reach specific market segments by pairing up local ISVs and resellers that specialize in those verticals.
As part of the program, which took two years to develop, IBM identified 80 sub-industry verticals in 15 countries to target initially. A sub-industry could be as specific as a physician's office with fewer than 10 doctors or all motorcycle distributors in Sydney, Australia, says Peter Small, worldwide director of IBM System i ISV and business partner sales.
The benefit for IBM is to increase sales of its System i servers into areas that present opportunity. Big Blue is facing competition from Microsoft Windows ISVs in some of the vertical markets it has dominated traditionally.
The VIP program promises to boost business for everyone--from ISVs and distributors to IBM and its solution provider partners.
The initiative is designed to help ISVs expand geographically, increase sales by creating repeatable solutions and models, and differentiate their offerings by adding complementary partner technologies in such areas as IP telephony. IBM also provides dedicated local sales resources and co-marketing investments for ISVs in the program.
"It's opening doors in different parts of the world that I would never have had the opportunity to get into so easily," Harr says.
For BlueWare, VIP helped find both customers and potential partners in the United Kingdom, where the VAR is now offering its e-records solution. The reseller plans to move into additional regions in the second quarter of this year.
For distributors and resellers, IBM's program provides dedicated sales resources, new customers, leads, financial incentives and support for the development of repeatable offerings, Small says. Already, IBM has brought two distributors--Avnet and Agilysys--into the program and plans to bring more two-tier players onboard in the coming year.
"Replication of solutions is one of the most important parts of this. Once we've gotten it right, we can create a franchise model," Small says. "You don't just build 500 Starbucks to see if it works. You get one right and you figure out what people are willing to pay. Once you've gotten that, you can start offering [your wares more broadly]--something repeatable that has brand recognition in a sub-industry."
VIP is part of a broader initiative at IBM to help solution providers specialize in vertical markets in exchange for incentives such as margin enhancement. Other vendors, too, in an effort to build their ranks of small and midsize VARs, are starting to base their channel-program rewards on criteria other than revenue.
"The reason we're doing this is to help drive more business for our partners and ourselves in the SMB space," says Rich Michos, vice president of worldwide sales for SMB Solutions and Services at IBM. "We want to provide them with better integrated solutions. That's where this will pay off."