Roll up for IBM partner roadshow

IBM is trying to attract more business partners for a May roadshow, aimed at displaying Big Blue-related products and services to a wider Australasian audience.

IBM is trying to attract more business partners for a May roadshow, aimed at displaying Big Blue-related products and services to a wider Australasian audience.

Andrew Baker, Australia and New Zealand director for IBM's global business partner program, said the roadshow linked into the recent announcements around its new PartnerWorld program.

'This roadshow is targeting larger to mid-market customers,' Baker said. 'Partners will get the opportunity to present their wares right around Australia and New Zealand.'

IBM saw its resellers as pivotal to growing its mid-market share -- sales to customers with 100 to 1000 end-users, he said.

IBM resellers would be classified as Member, Advanced or Premier partners in Big Blue's new, global, single-track PartnerWorld program, Baker said.

Premier partners would earn higher performance rebates in the points-based system. However, to be a Member, a reseller only needed to sell IBM products or services, he said.

'We are also increasing the value package, where business partners, for the sum of $2000 have the ability to participate in programs delivering value to their business. For example, software partners might get 50 software licences of their choice for their own business,' Baker said.

ISVs would be part of the new PartnerWorld program, but details on how they would fit into it were as yet undecided, he added.

'At the moment, we're rolling it out for other partners,' Baker said.

As reported by CRN in mid-March, IBM plans to roll all its partner tracks and offerings into one program, dubbed PartnerWorld, by early 2005.

Previously, the software and services giant had several tracks, which meant its 90,000 partners worldwide were often dealing with separate silos of information instead of one main point of contact for their IBM relationship.

'Which is going to be positive for our partners. They will have the same standing across all the different products and solutions they sell ... So once established as an IBM business partner, the incremental investment needed to make to add WebSphere to their offerings, say, is not very great,' Baker told CRN at the time.