IBM Partners Sorry To See Atkins Exit

Effective immediately, IBM said Atkins, general manager for IBM Global Business Partners, will be replaced by Ravindra "Ravi" Marwaha, who is returning to the computer giant from China's Lenovo Group to take the top channel post. Marwaha and Atkins worked together on the deal to sell IBM's $12 billion PC business to Lenovo for $1.75 billion in December 2004.

In order to facilitate a smooth transition, IBM said that Atkins, who took the top channel job in July 2004, will stay on in the coming months in a senior advisory role.

"We are sorry to see him go," said Rick Kearney president and CEO of Mainline Information Systems, Tallahassee, Fla., one of IBM's largest solution providers. "He has an outstanding track record at IBM. He has done a great job with the channel. That was his best performance at the company. We wish him well."

Kearney said it has never been a better time to be an IBM business partner due in large part to changes made by Atkins and Towney Kennard, IBM's former vice president of IBM Business Partners for Americas. Kennard left his channel post last month to become general manager for the IBM Lenovo Alliance.

In fact, Kearney said he expects his IBM sales this year to be up 20 percent to $638 million. Given the at-best industry growth rates of 10 percent, Kearney noted that his business is growing at twice the industry rate.

Kearney said Atkins' biggest contribution was helping to eliminate what he called "channel stacking" where IBM partners were competing with IBM direct and other sales channels. "Rewind three years ago and the No. 1 concern was channel stacking," said Kearney. "IBM had multiple routes to market whether it was SMB or intermediate accounts and even in integrated accounts. There was some challenge in direction concerning IBM.com, IBM direct, distributors and value added sales across the board. Donn and Towney did a terrific job of setting guidelines for where these discreet routes to market would be most effective."

Kearney said he has not met Marwaha, but is looking forward to working with him in the future. His message to Marwaha: "Let's tweak it [the channel partnership] and make it better."

Chris Ferry, executive vice president of Technology Integration Group, an IBM solution provider based in San Diego, Calif., also praised Atkins' channel leadership. He said Technology Integration Group's IBM business has never been better.

"Atkins did a great job," said Ferry. "He is one of the most influential people in this industry. He never waivered in terms of his support for the channel. He was always consistent. This guy has been great for the industry and IBM."

Ferry said he does not see any big challenges for the new IBM worldwide channel chief. "We look forward to the new leadership coming in and expanding on the work of Donn and his team."

Given that IBM touts the fact that in 2005, IBM Business Partners influenced 35 percent of IBM's total revenue, Ferry said his message to Marwaha is IBM should move to increase that number to 50 percent.

IBM said that in the coming days, Marwaha and Atkins will communicate the change in leadership to partners and reaffirm IBM's ongoing commitment to the four strategic priorities for the global Business Partner Organization: increased growth, profitability and market share for partners; further business partners competitive advantage based on an integrated portfolio of IBM offerings, solutions and programs; enable teaming across the partner ecosystem to build and deliver total solutions and improve ease of doing business with IBM.

Atkins was named the 2006 Channel Executive of The Year by CMP's Channel Group, the parent of CRN. The award is the CMP Channel Group's top executive distinction for channel leadership.