(Pictured above: IBM’s John Teltsch on stage at IBM PartnerWorld at Think 2019 in San Francisco, Feb. 11.)

IBM THINK — IBM is digging in its heels with a continued commitment to partners to enrich their experience, simplify benefits and incentives, and improve skills while increasing productivity. That was the message Monday to the more than 8,000 partners attending IBM PartnerWorld at Think 2019, being held this week in San Francisco.

In the morning keynote, John Teltsch, general manager, IBM Partner Ecosystem, talked about new initiatives and investments to help partners bolster their skills and seize new opportunities.

IBM’s John Teltsch

“Reflecting on 2018, you joined us on a journey to return to growth, to take share and transform together. Your candid feedback helped us understand what your needs are and what you require from us,” he said. “In our unrelenting desire to improve, we’re focused on ensuring stability in your sales motions and reducing the friction that your teams experience — this way we can deliver the next wave of change and innovation our clients demand and come to expect.”

With that, Teltsch said that IBM’s 2019 priorities will remain consistent in improving the partner experience, making it easier to engage with the company, and growing the partner business while driving value for clients.

Here’s a closer look at some of what IBM partners will see in 2019:

4 New Engagement Initiatives

New Investments in Skills and Enablement

Partners will also see IBM double the number of …

… systems-channel technical sellers supporting them in the field.

New Security and Hybrid Multicloud Offerings

As the company’s global channel chief since June 2017, Teltsch has been on a steadfast course to drive change in IBM’s channel, one that’s synergistic with IBM’s business transformation. The vendor is focused on target growth areas such as hybrid multicloud, AI, security and analytics. The need for IBM partners to create customer value via IP was also a key focus at today’s conference, as was SaaS.

In his commitment to transform IBM’s channel, Teltsch has turned over 85 percent of his direct reports. He’s not the only driving change at IBM. Dorothy Copeland, vice president, business partners for North America, has been in her job for about 18 months. Her previous job was general manager, global partner ecosystem at AWS, where she worked for more than seven years. Copeland has been busy bringing in new sales heads for vertical markets and geographies. She is also on the Red Hat Synergy team at IBM, which is led by Steve Robinson, general manager.

IBM’s pending acquisition of Red Hat didn’t go unmentioned Tuesday, but since the deal is going through the regulatory process, the company couldn’t get into too many details about a merged organization.

To maintain consistency, IBM and Red Hat intend to continue operating as separate entities for a while. Robinson noted that the Red Hat acquisition is not only a tremendous deal for IBM but also for partners. There are many Red Hat partners who are also IBM partners.