IBM Software Resellers Make Push For 'Growth Through Skills' Certification
While some aren't happy about the new requirements, including the associated expenses during tough times, many see advantages to the efforts.
"We looked at it as an opportunity," said Anthony Bongiovanni, president of Micro Strategies, a Denville, N.J.-based solution provider that resells IBM's Information Management, Tivoli and Lotus software. "We're preparing for when the economy turns around."
In February IBM said it was implementing new technical and sales certification requirements that its 100,000 software channel partners had to meet or risk being blocked from reselling IBM software products. The new program eliminates the uncontrolled distribution plan under which solution providers were free to resell IBM software after doing little more than registering as an IBM partner.
IBM said the "Growth Through Skills" initiative is designed to ensure that channel partners have the skills to add value to the software they are selling to customers and are not simply moving products.
The new controlled distribution model takes effect in January, making that the deadline for software resellers to get certified. This week an IBM spokesman said "many" of the company's software partners "are already certified and ready to go," although he couldn't disclose specific numbers.
Champion Solutions, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based IBM partner that works with the vendor's Tivoli, data management and WebSphere software, has achieved about 90 percent of the certifications it needs, said President and CEO Chris Pyle. To help set certification priorities, Champion looked at what customer licenses were coming up for renewal this year and so would require Champion certifications in those technologies.
Champion used boot camps run by distributor Arrow in May to get needed training and certification. The reseller had to send 25 staffers for training, racking up travel-related costs of more than $30,000 plus the costs of pulling those people out of the field. "It was very, very expensive, in my opinion," Pyle said of the total costs. "But we did accomplish a ton of certifications in a short period of time. If IBM was looking for commitments, they got mine."
"We're about two-thirds or three-quarters of the way through the certification," said Micro Strategies' Bongiovanni. "We're looking to be done by the middle of October," he said in a recent interview.
"I think they set the bar pretty high. The requirements were pretty rigorous," he said, adding that his company will need between 40 and 50 sales and technical certifications altogether. Micro Strategies also is one of the first partners to win a "specialty elite" designation in IBM's Dynamic Infrastructure program.
One solution provider, who asked that he not be named, didn't see the value of the whole "Growth Through Skills" initiative. "It was ridiculous and I'm still upset about it," he said.
In the past the reseller said if he uncovered a sales opportunity for an IBM software product for which he wasn't certified, he could still make the sale and call in IBM Global Services to handle the implementation work. IBM got the sale and the partner still got a commission from the services revenue, resulting in a win-win for everyone.
But that can't happen under the new requirements. Calling the change "a massive mistake," the partner said the certification requirements would limit the ability -- and the incentive -- for resellers to identify sales opportunities. "I don't know what my customer's next IT challenge is going to be. IBM is limiting the amount of the [software] portfolio that I can sell to my client. It doesn't make any sense."
The partner said the move also shifts some of the sales, general and administrative costs from IBM to the channel, putting more of a burden on partners in the midst of a tough economy.
Bongiovanni, however, said the economic slowdown proved to be a good time to send staffers for the necessary training, given the reduced demands on their time. While he had to pull some people out of the field for training, he did not see it as a major, expensive problem. "There's always training that needs to be done," he said. "I wouldn't say this was any more burdensome than anything else we do."
Others are taking the new requirements in stride. "Like any new idea, there may have been some bumps. But so far we are OK with it," said Rick Kearney, CEO of Mainline Information Systems, an IBM channel partner in Tallahassee, Fla., in an e-mail.
Sirius Computer Solutions, San Antonio, has already completed certifications in all 11 product categories it needed, including IBM's WebSphere and Information Management software, said Sirius President Joe Mertens. "We've always had a strong software practice," he said in an interview.
Mertens took a positive view of the "Growth Through Skills" program. "I think IBM has been trying to put more value in the channel," he said. "They need to make sure the people selling [IBM software] understand it and can implement it."
Getting the training and certifications "did take effort," Mertens said. "I think it's been reasonable. I don't think it was excessive. Everyone's had a lot of time to get up to speed and get certified." He also noted that IBM paid for the training for partners that became certified under a "you pass, we pay" policy.