Kate Woolley (IBM)
IBM is on a mission to double its revenue via its partner ecosystem in the next three to five years, making some significant updates to its PartnerWorld program along the way.
As part of its efforts to re-position ecosystem partners at the center of the company’s go-to-market strategy, partners will now have access to the same badges and selling enablement materials as IBM sellers.
This is part of IBM’s ongoing commitment to growing its ecosystem.
“We will continue to make investments in the partner experience so that together, as a single team, we can achieve our goal of doubling revenue through the IBM ecosystem in the next 3–5 years,” said Kate Woolley, IBM’s ecosystem general manager.
The badges and additional materials are available through a new learning hub, designed to improve the digital experience for partners.
“Users will notice a more modernised and consistent experience on the IBM training site, making it easier to find resources,” Woolley said.
All registered partners have access to these resources at the same time as IBM sellers, and at no cost.
“Partners have told us that the more expertise they attain in the IBM products they sell, the better equipped they are to win with clients,” Woolley said. “With this in mind, and with the goal of helping them win more, we have extended access to the same trainings, badges and enablement materials that our own sellers enjoy.”
New sales and technical badges aim to demonstrate a partner’s expertise, including the ability to position and differentiate an IBM solution to clients. The badges are also sharable on professional social platforms including LinkedIn.
Additional materials available to partners include sales demos, seller presentations, client presentations, and digital prospecting.
“I want to be clear – partners and IBMers are considered a single team,” Woolley said. “The investments we continue to make in the partner experience are a part of our ongoing commitment to be more essential to their businesses.”
According to Woolley, over the past year IBM have doubled brand-specialised partner sellers in the IBM ecosystem, increased technical partner sellers by more than 35 per cent and have launched its Partner Portal.
In April newly minted IBM APAC general manager, Paul Burton revealed two-thirds of IBM's revenue in APAC comes from the channel and had goals in place to make the overall pie even bigger.
To aid this, IBM APAC increased its channel account team by 20 per cent. Unlike previous teams, this new channel line-up will be unable to claim any commissions based on direct sales and will only be rewarded for channel deals. This, Burton hopes, will prevent any disintermediation of partners.
