IBM Software Group Offers Partners Syndicated Web Content
Thursday the IBM Software Group also announced that it's expanding its "Grow your business with IBM Software" support tools to include the IBM Express Advantage portfolio of mid-market software packages. And IBM is providing new assessment services to help partners optimize their Websites for search engines.
Using the Web syndication services, software channel partners can add IBM content such as product presentations and comparisons, specification sheets, buyers' guides and Webcasts to their Web sites. The content is adapted to the site's look-and-feel and visitors are unaware they are accessing another site as they drill down, said David Sylvestre, vice president of marketing at Lighthouse Computing Services, a Lincoln, R.I.-based solution provider.
Lighthouse Computing was an early adopter of the syndication service and has been using it for IBM hardware and storage solutions. Sylvestre said he plans to begin using it for IBM content management and Tivoli software. "Some of these channels are hundreds of pages deep," Sylvestre said, referring to the strings of syndicated Web content. "Like many solution providers we have a small marketing staff. There's a huge amount of content that no one here would have the time to generate."
IBM contracts with WebCollage to provide the syndication service which will be offered across all of IBM's software brands, said Shaun Jones, vice president of worldwide channel and general business marketing in the Software Group. He said several hundred channel partners have already signed up for the service.
Last October IBM launched the "Grow your business" Web tool that provides cross-brand sales "scenarios" or recommendations that help IBM software solution providers increase sales. Adding IBM Express Advantage software to that service will help channel partners identify sales opportunities to midsize businesses, Jones said.
Many potential customers begin their search for IT service providers using the Web and the new Website optimization for search engines services are designed to give IBM channel partners a competitive advantage, Jones said. The services include a detailed assessment of how a solution provider's Website performs in online searches and advice on identifying and capturing prospects that visit their sites. The services include a 60 percent discount on one hour of consultations with Global Strategies International, a search optimization consulting firm.
