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IBM has announced IBM Partner Plus, a new programme that reimagines how IBM engages with its business partners through unprecedented access to IBM resources, incentives and tailored support to deepen their technical expertise and help speed time to market. The program is designed to fuel growth for new and existing partners, including resellers, hyperscalers, technology providers, independent software vendors and systems integrators, by putting them in control of their earning potential. IBM Partner Plus is central to the company's Hybrid Cloud and AI strategy and aims to empower partners to help clients automate, secure and modernize their businesses.
IBM Partner Plus offers partners a transparent, simple and modern experience. By growing technical expertise and demonstrating sales success, participants can progress to three tiers - Silver, Gold and Platinum - which unlock specialised financial, go-to-market support and education benefits. In the new program, badging will become the standardized measure of skills and validated solutions will demonstrate expertise. The enhanced IBM Partner Portal consolidates and tracks all expertise, revenue and deals globally, offering each partner a clear line-of-site into their progression through the programme.
"IBM Partner Plus introduces a new way for IBM to deliver value to new and existing partners by helping them gain skills, grow faster and earn more," said Kate Woolley, General Manager, IBM Ecosystem. "We've heard from partners that they want a simplified experience that helps them win with clients. I'm confident these changes and our continued investment in our ecosystem will make IBM the partner of choice across the industry, and together we can drive growth for partners, clients, and IBM."
IBM Partner Plus results from the company's journey to put partners at the center of IBM's go-to-market strategy and act as a growth engine to help capture the $1 trillion hybrid cloud and AI market opportunities. IBM has invested in elevating the role of partners and accelerating partner-led sales by enabling the ecosystem to become a preferred route to market, offering clients an optimal mix of technology, services and consulting expertise. To drive continued growth, IBM will increase its capacity to support partners by doubling the number of partner-facing brand and technical specialists to help them prospect and win additional client business.
"The new IBM Partner Plus programme provides an enhanced experience that sets our company up for success by offering employees access to skills and opportunities, so we can help more clients utilise IBM's technology portfolio to modernize their operations," said Bo Gebbie, President, Evolving Solutions. "IBM is more serious than ever about putting partners first. They've listened to our feedback, and it is reflected in the new partner experience that makes it easy for us to collaborate, rewards our investments and fuel growth."
“Today, businesses in India demand a high degree of specialisation and technical expertise to accelerate their digital transformation journey. No single vendor can provide this end-to-end capability. IBM is committed to building a robust partner ecosystem to solve our client’s increasingly complex business challenges. The IBM Partner Plus program is the next step towards making it easier for our partners to co-create with us and make the most of the immense hybrid cloud and AI market opportunity in India and the world,” said Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India & South Asia
IBM Partner Plus brings all partner types and programs together – whether they sell, build on or with, and/or provide services for IBM technology – into one integrated ecosystem. For example, to help broaden the market opportunity and create new revenue streams for its ecosystem, IBM recently enabled partners in North America to resell IBM products through other cloud marketplaces. This allows for independent software vendors to embed IBM Software from partner marketplaces into their own solutions. All partner sales through the marketplace accumulate towards their progression in IBM Partner Plus.
Competitive incentives
Partners can advance through tiers to unlock benefits and demand generation programs which could offer them up to a threefold increase in total investment from IBM. The IBM Partner Portal gives partners real-time visibility into the incentives they are eligible for, predictability into potential earnings and includes an automated deal share engine that helps them surface quality leads. This has improved deal registration and introduced partners to more than 7,000 potential deals valued at over half a billion dollars globally.* IBM investments in co-marketing campaigns and co-sell support with partners can also help bring solutions to market and generate demand.