The company evolves PartnerWorld to Enable Greater Agility and Innovation with IBM Cloud
In a bold move by IBM, the company expands its Business Partner program to create applications, develop code, integrate their intellectual property (IP) or deliver services with the IBM Cloud. This has come at a time when the partners are feeling pressure due to Covid 19 pandemic.
The new evolution of PartnerWorld expands the program framework to three specialized tracks—Build, Service and Sell—each with tailored offers that are designed to help Business Partners unlock meaningful benefits faster. By adding the new Build and Service tracks alongside the existing Sell track, IBM aligns with the growing trend of partners shifting and expanding their models to better compete in a market driven by cloud adoption. With 58 percent of partner revenue now coming from their own IP, partners are increasingly focused on integrating and delivering cloud-based solutions and services.
This includes helping clients with their hybrid multi-cloud strategies, as well. As IBM continues to enhance its Systems portfolio with IBM Cloud, including Red Hat and IBM Cloud Pak solutions, clients look to partners to help them improve IT agility and bridge mission critical applications on IBM Z, Power and Storage Systems.
“The world looks drastically different than it did just months ago, and our current business environment has only advanced the trend toward business model flexibility,” said David La Rose, GM, IBM Partner Ecosystem. “During this time, our Business Partners continue to adopt cloud business models and strengthen their digital skills to serve clients, who are also facing new challenges. Our partners’ success is dependent on their adaptability and ingenuity when it comes to helping clients overcome these challenges, now more than ever. We’re counting on them to use IBM’s open, hybrid cloud approach to help clients discover new ways to solve problems during these uncertain times.”
The company therefore has created a new incentive structure that rewards Business Partners for delivering client value in Cloud and Systems. This includes companies that invest in the development of bespoke solutions and IP, demonstrate deep skills and industry expertise and integrate critical IBM software and hardware offerings as part of their solutions.
Enabling innovation through Competencies that are aligned to the three PartnerWorld tracks, helping Business Partners deepen their technical expertise and achieve customer success across the industries and workloads that matter most to their businesses. IBM also launched a new Partner Support Desk that serves as a central location for personalized and proactive support via phone, email or chat, helping accelerate partners’ success.
Delivering value via new IBM Partner Packages that bundle Cloud and Cognitive benefits so that partners can quickly learn, develop and test solutions on the IBM Cloud. In addition to helping Business Partners speed up development time and reduce time to market, IBM also has an extensive network of sellers, ecosystem partners and go-to-market resources that can help partners gain global visibility and monetize their solutions and services more quickly.
