IBM's New Channel Chief Plans More Personal Touch

That is a relief to IBM's solution providers, a number of whom said off-the-record that IBM needs to reinvigorate its channel relationships starting with a more personal approach to working with them.

Hume was introduced as the new general manager of global business partners on Wednesday by his predecessor, Ravindra "Ravi" Marwaha. Marwaha announced his pending retirement in front of an audience of IBM's solution providers and business partners during the IBM Business Partner Leadership Conference, held this week in Los Angeles.

On Thursday morning, Hume who took the stage as host of IBM's Partner Leadership Conference in Los Angeles, the part that Marwaha had been expected to play for all three days of the conference.

Hume comes into a position which has seen a lot of turnover. Marwaha took over the post 19 months ago with a mandate to re-engage with IBM's smaller solution providers in the wake of the sale of the company's PC business to Hong Kong-based Lenovo. Marwaha's predecessor, Donn Atkins, held the post for just over two years.

The revolving door that has been IBM's channel chief is an issue that solution providers hope to see changed.

One solution provider anonymously asked in an on-line posting after reading about Marwaha's retirement, "If this is such a strategic position to IBM, why did they give it to Mr. Marwaa (sic) if he was planning on retiring a year after he was appointed?"

Other solution providers said that they know little about Hume other than what they saw of him on-stage at the IBM Partner Leadership Conference, but that they hope to see bring more of a personal touch to IBM's channel partners.

While Marwaha did a lot to fix the backend of IBM's channel portals from an on-line point-of-view, he was not one to reach out to partners on a personal level, said one solution provider who was at the conference. "It's not that he was that bad, it's just that he didn't interface with us," the solution provider said.

Another solution provider said that IBM's channel program has a lot of issues related to support that he hopes to see Hume tackle. "For example, to run a sales campaign in multiple states, I have to go to 13 different people at IBM to get anything done," the solution provider said. "There's no single person there to work with us."

Hume said that his first priority is to spend the next 90 days on the road meeting with solution providers around the world before he considers any changes to the program.

He also said he expects to be around for a long time, and to bring stability to a job which he agreed has seen its share of turnover.

"It's my commitment to the job," he said. "I don't think the changes in the past were foreseen. There were opportunities that people didn't see when they first stepped into the role. Or for Ravi, after 40 years at IBM, he had a great opportunity to retire."

Hume said he has a strong desire to develop strong relationships with IBM's channel partners. "I'm a very approachable, personable person," he said. "I consider partners a critical part of our success. Their importance to delivering solutions -- even a company as big as IBM doesn't have all the skills we need to deliver on all of our strategies. I want it so we can leverage each other's insights to see how to deliver a solid and consistent result for IBM and its partners."

Hume was first approached about taking over for Marwaha about two weeks ago, a move he said both surprised and pleased him. Since then, he has been preparing for his surprise appearance on stage at the conference.

"As I thought of the conference, my objective was to engage with as many partners as I could, and look at our partner health and relationship," he said. "I've always been focused on what the primary inhibitors to gaining greater success are."

Coming as he does from IBM's PC business, Hume said he knows that a lot of IBM's solution providers, especially those with a software focus, know little about him. However, he said they will get to know him. "It's my clear objective that I'm in this for the long run," he said.