Application Integration Middleware : IBM
IBM attributed its success to improved partnering efforts and growing strength of integrated platforms. “It’s an outflow of our focus around partners over the past year,” said Scott Cosby, WebSphere marketing director at IBM. “We put significant work into PartnerWorld to enable our partners to sell more effectively. That’s the biggest driver.”
The scalability of IBM’s WebSphere application server and its support for open standards helped the vendor once again capture the Channel Champions title in the application integration middleware category.
Mirroring last year’s results, IBM earned top title as Channel Champion for 2005 by registering an overall composite satisfaction rating of 74.8, beating both Microsoft (72.5) and BEA (71.9).
IBM also earned top satisfaction ratings from solution providers for its technology and its channel programs. In CRN’s annual survey, IBM outpaced WebLogic developer BEA on technical criteria by a spread of 2.9 points and led Microsoft in channel satisfaction by 1.4 points.
In technical areas, IBM proved to be particularly strong on the criteria of scalability and multivendor support and support for standards, where it beat BEA by four points and 3.9 points, respectively.
The extensive integration capabilities of WebSphere Business Integration Server was a key driver for IBM’s growing success, one partner said. “We can beat BEA and Microsoft regularly on application integration issues because IBM has so many vendor alliances and so many adapters that plug into back-end systems,” said Jim Wright, director of WebSphere services at Agility Partners, an IBM Business Partner in Needham, Mass. “And there are many customers adopting open standards. Microsoft is more proprietary, and BEA is more of a niche player.”
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On the channel criteria, Microsoft captured the high marks for technical education and consistency of channel programs. Even so, IBM’s more decisive wins against Microsoft in sales margins, licensing policies and vendor support over the life cycle of a project put it just ahead of Microsoft in overall channel satisfaction.
One BEA partner, Sam Jankovich, CEO of Enterpulse, Atlanta, said he was “shocked” that BEA came in third in ease of integration. He nevertheless agreed that BEA’s channel support trails that of IBM. “BEA is trying to build a channel, and in the past six months, they’ve made tremendous progress,” he said.