IBM PartnerWorld: IBM Revamps Channel Organization

Perhaps not unexpectedly, IBM (IBM) at its PartnerWorld Leadership Conference announced sweeping changes to its channel organization, bringing together the various channel touchpoints under a “One Channel Team” umbrella, in an effort to consolidate and streamline the way Big Blue and its partners interact.

“We now have one management system with teams to help business partners build practice, build skills, organize to cover and invest in the partner and grow our ecosystem,” said Marc Dupaquier, general manager, Global Business Partners, who will head up the newly combined group.

Once-siloed IBM is working to bring a more integrated experience to partners and help them approach sales from a more solutions perspective, utilizing IBM’s different areas of focus—cloud, analytics, services, security, commerce, Watson and systems—to build opportunities.

“We’ve brought together all IBMers dealing with channels under one single unified management system,” he said. “They are now all part of this One Channel Team. That is a big change. Partners are saying this was long overdue and I believe it’s really an improvement.”

Part of the consolidation is a new central marketing portal that encompasses all technologies, enabling partners to access resources for all IBM’s offerings rather than having to go to different portals for different technologies.

Additionally, the company is adding 300-plus workshops in its Business Transformation Initiative to help its business partners shift to cloud and a services-based business model and has enhanced its PartnerWorld University platform for training and certification. IBM also has enhanced its sales and technical training incentives through its Know Your IBM learning portal for partners looking to increase their knowledge of IBM’s infrastructure and those areas of opportunity including cloud and analytics, according to the company.

What’s more, IBM has expanded its PartnerGrowth Initiative incentive for partners who sell IBM Power Systems and IBM Storage, with a quarterly incentive that doubles if certain requirements are met and a quarterly bonus for achieving specific skills and certifications, the company noted.

“Simpler and faster—we have simplified the way we interact with you,” Dupaquier said. “One portal, one marketing engine, one set of channel incentives. And faster—engaging with you to support and expand our business partners.”