IBM Looks to Engage Partners More During Downturn

IBM this week added a raft of incentives and rewards to is channel programs as part of an effort to help partners close deals during the economic downturn brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting with extending its partner revalidation grace period from May 5th to January 1, 2021 and access to millions of dollars of potential rewards and flexible financing options to drives sales of IBM Power servers and IBM storage systems, the goal is to make it easier for partners to go-to-market, says David La Rose, general manager for the IBM Partner Ecosystem.

As part of those initiatives, IBM is also making available a suite of Virtual Selling Tools to partners, which La Rose says has become a more critical requirement at a time when sales teams can not physically visit customers. IBM has also added a partner track to Think 2020, an online event IBM will host starting May 5th.

“We want partners to engage with us more,” says La Rose.

IBM has already collected feedback from partners and customers that identifies collaboration tools, security, connectivity, endpoint devices, and cloud services as areas where investments are continuing to made during the downturn. At the same time, some customers are pulling back from investing in emerging technologies that they currently don’t have the capital to invest in, noted La Rose.

In general, La Rose says many partners will be relying more on vendors such as IBM that have the financial resources required to fund deals at a time when credit is tight. The challenge many smaller partners will face is driving enough revenue during the downturn to stay independent. In fact, La Rose says he expects consolidation in the channel to accelerate in the near term.

It’s too early to say to what degree the channel will be impacted by the current downturn. However, it is unlikely to resemble its current state. The channel will never disappear, but as channel partners adapt to rapidly changing economic conditions it is already all too apparent their resiliency is being tested now more than any time in recent memory.