IBM Cuts Through Red Tape For SMB VARs

Hoping to tear off a bigger chunk of the $500 billion SMB market, IBM has rolled out a comprehensive initiative that focuses on strengthening its partner ecosystem, managed services and overall partner programs.

IBM executives say the Express Advantage initiative, which debuted mid-March at the company's annual PartnerWorld conference in Las Vegas, is the culmination of a staged three-year effort to put Big Blue's Express series of products and services at the heart of its overarching SMB strategies.

"We've been building [our Express products] little by little, but with this announcement, we now have an initiative that stretches from the point of user contact to [channel]-enablement," says Debra Thompson, IBM's vice president of solutions and channel marketing. "We're [giving] the channel every tool we have to help them expand their opportunities and grow revenue."

While partners and analysts are generally optimistic about the potential benefits of the initiative, some are waiting to see if the vendor backs up its talk by keeping IBM Global Services (IGS) from competing with channel partners for business.

"There is some concern whether IGS will use this as the sharp point of a wedge to get in and take business away," says Rich Ptak, principal analyst and consultant at Ptak, Noel and Associates. "IBM risks massive alienation among partners if it does. It appears, though, that they're very serious about helping channel partners be successful with this initiative."

Executives at IBM say they have learned from the past and have studiously tried to avoid competition between IGS and partners over the past year. They also say that they're more fully aware now of the role the channel can play in helping IBM succeed.

"IGS is the last part of IBM to wake up to the value of the channel," says Kevin Hooper, global director of channel marketing and enablement at IGS. "For us to create offerings to be sold by the channel, we have to create a collaborative relationship between partners and IGS."

The first prong of the three-pronged initiative is a new managed service called Express Managed Services for Web Security. The hosted service, which requires no software or hardware installation at user sites and can be set up in two hours, provides a number of security capabilities, including antivirus and antispyware. It will be priced on a per-user, per-month basis.

IBM is also announcing its first set of Express consulting offerings.

Express IT Strategy Assessment is a prepackaged solution that helps users better align their IT strategies based on their available technical resources. Express Vulnerability Assessment allows partners to consult with users on setting proper levels of security for data protection and privacy. And the Express Web Site Effectiveness Assessment gives partners a chance to advise users on the appearance, usability, performance and positioning of their Web sites.

"The value of these consulting services is to help partners get a foot in the door and either expand their footprint with existing customers or capture new business," says Steve Solazzo, general manager of IBM's SMB division.

NEXT: The next two pieces of IBM's initiative.

The second prong of the initiative centers on "the Express experience"--an attempt to make IBM more approachable to both SMBs and the partners that serve them. As it turns out, some smaller companies have turned to IBM competitors rather than navigate the vendor's complex bureaucratic maze to find the appropriate technical and sales organizations for their needs.

The Express Advantage Concierge is one service that's aimed at enhancing SMB VARs' experience with IBM. Partners can go online or call IBM to talk with a technician, who can help callers determine which products and services they seek.

"These people will be technology-savvy, not switchboard operators, who can figure out in which direction [callers] should head," Solazzo says.

To further guide partners and users in finding the right products and solutions inside IBM, the company will offer to create customized portals and make available online account managers that partners can chat with if they still can't find what they're looking for.

"This will help them find solutions, ROI tools and a customized view of events coming to their local markets," Solazzo says. "But just as important, it puts a human face on [IBM]."

IBM officials believe the Concierge service, in tandem with the company's 200 worldwide territory partner managers, will give channel players a faster, more efficient way to hook up with smaller companies, Thompson says.

The third piece of Express Advantage consists of new hardware and software that the company rolled out last month.

Specifically, IBM unveiled four versions of its Tivoli Express management software, which the vendor significantly redesigned to accommodate midsize companies dealing in server-workload management, application-monitoring, data protection and password veri- fication.

IBM execs say the vendor developed the new products by working with about 45 IBM partners in its development labs over the past 18 months. Those partners offered critical input on features and functions of IBM products, including the look and feel of interfaces.

"Last year, we brought in some hand-picked partners who are expert in the [management and security] area, and we formed steering councils," says Mike Gerentine, worldwide director of channel strategy and development at Tivoli. "We were intent on validating that what our development people were building was the right stuff that solved real users' problems."

The four new offerings are Tivoli Identity Manager Express, which helps SMBs knock down insider attacks and streamlines compliance; Tivoli Storage Manager Express, which reduces data-loss risks from viruses and file corruption; Tivoli Provisioning Manager Express, an inventory management and software distribution product; and Tivoli Monitoring Express, which lets SMBs better manage online applications, such as e-mail and bill-paying.

Some VARs believe IBM has made an honest effort to rebuild and tailor the new applications to midsize companies.

"They have reused and evolved some common features that look like they work pretty well, like the single Web console interface from WebSphere," says Michael Roy, president of Blue World Technology, a VAR based in Seattle. "They have appropriately limited functionality by taking out a couple of layers of abstraction not required by a lot of smaller companies."