"ISVs, SIs are the biggest customer influencers for us," IBM's ISV Chief

IBM is betting on its ISV and developer relationships like never before. That
globally 60,000 of its 1,00,000 business partners are ISVs only attest to this
fact and India is soon turning to be a greenfield in company's search for more
and more quality ISVs. IBM's chief for ISV and developer relations, Buell
Duncan was recently in Bangalore to assess the vast pool of both organizational
and individual developers that India has.

In an exclusive interview given to DQ Channels India, Buell explains how both
ISVs and SIs together play the role of 'strongest influencers' on customer's
buying decisions. "Compared to other partners (namely resellers), ISV and
SI base for IBM will rapidly swell up in the near future. There is also a huge
synergy between the SIs and ISVs, which we are increasingly facilitating through
our various programs," remarks he. Nearly 80% of all middleware decisions
taken last year by customers involved a solution provider. Further, according to
Buell, top 100 ISVs globally influence in bringing a business of $10 billion
annually for IBM and he believes that a similar trend will emerge in India as
well.

BUELL DUNCAN  Top 100 ISVs globally influence in bringing a business of $10 billion annually for IBM

Over past 12 months, IBM has increased its ISV base to over 100 in the
country and is constantly adding more. And Buell is very bullish on the huge
population of individual developers that reside here. "While the solution
needs of verticals like government, financial institutions, telcos can be
well-addressed by institutional ISVs, individual developers have the right
profile for offering solutions to the large base of SMB customers," adds
Buell. In fact in 2004, of all the business delivered by IBM's business
partners across the world, 63% came from SMBs.

He also informs that many ISVs, who were previously Microsoft-only, have
moved on to offering open standards-based solutions. "In many a cases, such
a shift is largely driven by customer's demand for choice," says he.

In the current year, IBM will be expanding its PartnerWorld Industry Networks
(PWIN) across more geographies and industries as well as increase its business
from strategic alliance business partners and 'ISV Advantage' members in the
mid-market.

GOLDIE