IBM this week announced it has revamped its channel partner program around three primary build, service and sell competencies.
Announced at the IBM Think Digital conference, the changes being made to the IBM PartnerWorld program are being to encourage more partners to build their own intellectual property (IP) as a means of distinguishing in their own business value, says Chris Oliver, vice president of strategy and business development for the IBM Partner Ecosystem.
As part of that effort, IBM is now making available four IBM Partner Packages to accelerate learning alongside development and testing of application code. Those packages among other things include cloud credits to develop code on IBM public cloud, access to 16,000 software licenses, demos, education reimbursement, testing vouchers, technical support and marketing and sales support.
IBM has also added an IBM Partner Support Desk to help onboard partners and provide ongoing 24×7 support.
Partners that build their own IP are much more likely to drive consumption of IBM offerings, especially in the cloud. IBM is not necessarily trying to move away from partners that only service or sell, says Oliver. However, he did note IBM is looking to make more resources available to partners that build their own IP in either the form of an application or some unique set of custom tools that address a specific vertical industry requirement.
Of course, partners in the current economic climate requires partners to be a lot savvier about which vertical industries they focus their efforts on. The economic downturn has been catastrophic in sectors such as travel and hospitality, while opportunities in the education sector have increased as schools embrace distance learning. Overall, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna this week told conference attendees that they should expect to see digital business transformation initiatives accelerate in the months ahead.
“It’s been a tale of two cities,” said Oliver.
Of course, no one knows for certain when the economy might recover and it will take most partners a fair amount of time to develop their own IP assuming, of course, they can hold on long enough to achieve that goal.
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