ARMONK, N.Y., April 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM)
today announced that it is launching a series of initiatives to
make it easier and more profitable for Business Partners of
SoftLayer, an IBM Company to develop, market and sell cloud
services to their customers.
Cloud computing is transforming the way that IT services are
consumed and delivered and will account for the bulk of new IT
spending by 2016*. For Business Partners who specialize in
streamlining integration and delivering value-added solutions,
cloud presents an unprecedented opportunity to capture new revenue
and enter new markets. In fact, Business Partners who have
transitioned to cloud are experiencing more than twice as much
revenue growth as Business Partners who have not**.
With the new sales incentives, marketing programs and training
courses it is announcing today, IBM is building on its
industry-leading support for SoftLayer and IBM Business Partners to
help them capture the growing cloud market opportunity. It is also
combining best practices from the SoftLayer partner program and IBM
PartnerWorld to enable Business Partners to improve margins, build
skills and drive demand.
As part of today's news IBM is:
- Offering improved margin opportunities with richer
earned-volume discounts for SoftLayer Business Partners without
requiring a prior commitment.
- Creating a new SoftLayer Services & Solution Provider
program, which streamlines the SoftLayer hosting reseller and
strategic partners program to improve clarity of eligibility
requirement and benefits of the program.
- Launching a co-marketing initiative as part of
PartnerWorld to help SoftLayer Business Partners that join the
program build their brands, generate demand for their services
and grow their marketing skills. Partners who join PartnerWorld,
and existing IBM Business Partners who join the SoftLayer partner
program will have access to campaign design and creation tools as
well as customizable campaign templates to minimize upfront work
and deliver consistent messaging.
- Expanding the technical training courses for both
SoftLayer and IBM Business Partners to build skills that meet
clients' plans to use outside resources for delivering high-value
cloud solutions. The free two-day courses introduce SoftLayer
solutions through hands-on activities delivered by Global
Knowledge, one of IBM global training providers. Classes are held
in 21 locations including markets where IBM is expanding its global
network of cloud hubs in addition to several other key markets
around the world, including: Japan, India,
China, England and several locations across
the United States.
"Supporting our partners as they transition from selling
traditional on-premise cloud solutions to hybrid and off-premise
cloud solutions is a priority for Avnet Technology Solutions," said
Fred Cuen, senior vice president and
general manager, IBM Solutions Group, Avnet Technology Solutions,
Americas. "With these new enhancements, and with IBM's plans to
expand its global cloud footprint globally, SoftLayer has assembled
the right components for a winning partner program and we're
looking forward to leveraging it to grow cloud market share for
Avnet and our partner base."
SoftLayer, an IBM company, provides a high performance,
enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure that can expand to
accommodate any workload and offers a unique network architecture
that optimizes global performance using a high-speed private
network. Offering services on SoftLayer's high-performance cloud
enables Business Partners to take advantage of IBM's considerable
investments in building out its cloud portfolio, including a recent
$1.2 billion investment to expand its global cloud footprint and
its $1 billion investment to develop a unique platform-as-a-service
offering, codenamed BlueMix™.
ClipCard is a SoftLayer partner that provides a big data
discovery platform built on SoftLayer's cloud infrastructure.
ClipCard renders big data discoverable for end users by driving new
insights and context to support business decisions. "As a lean
company selling to large enterprise customers, we really appreciate
what SoftLayer has to offer," said Ryan
Cunningham, product vice president, ClipCard. "Our customers
like the security, reliability, and control that comes from a cloud
provider who really 'gets' enterprise. We love that we have a real
partner in the SoftLayer team, not just a website to go to when we
need a hand. IBM is clearly invested in helping us be successful,
which is a great boost for a company like ClipCard."
Today's offerings build on IBM PartnerWorld's existing
cloud-related resources, including: Cloud services mark, an IBM
ingredient brand mark for cloud solutions and service to allow
eligible PartnerWorld members to promote cloud services that run on
IBM technologies, including SoftLayer; PartnerWorld Cloud Benefit
Guide, a catalog of resources connecting PartnerWorld members with
benefits for building, selling and deploying cloud solutions;
PartnerWorld SatScor, a free client satisfaction survey for
promoting referral marketing; Cloud-based Program Criteria to make
it easier for cloud-based PartnerWorld members to achieve advance
participation levels in the PartnerWorld program.
"Cloud computing is transforming the relationship between
Business Partners and their clients, creating unprecedented
opportunities to enter new markets and sell new services," said
Tom Blair, Senior Vice President,
Global Sales, SoftLayer, an IBM Company. "SoftLayer recognizes that
our Business Partners are evolving to meet the needs of their
customers and we are committed to building a world class support
program for them to tap into as they transition to this new era of
computing."
Partners can learn more about joining SoftLayer's programs at
www.SoftLayer.com and can learn more about joining IBM PartnerWorld
at http://bit.ly/1lRjlxI.
About IBM Cloud Computing
IBM has helped more than
30,000 clients around the world with 40,000 industry experts. Since
its acquisition in 2013, IBM SoftLayer has served 4,500 new cloud
clients. Today, IBM has 100+ cloud SaaS solutions, thousands of
experts with deep industry knowledge helping clients transform and
a network of 40 data centers worldwide. Since 2007, IBM has
invested more than $7 billion in 17
acquisitions to accelerate its cloud initiatives and build a high
value cloud portfolio. IBM holds 1,560 cloud patents focused on
driving innovation. In fact, IBM for the 21st consecutive year
topped the annual list of US patent leaders. IBM processes more the
5.5M client transactions daily through IBM's public cloud. For more
information about cloud offerings from IBM, visit
http://www.ibm.com/cloud. Follow us on Twitter at @IBMcloud and on
our blog at http://www.thoughtsoncloud.com. Join the conversation
#ibmcloud.
*Source: Gartner Press Release: Gartner Says Cloud Computing
Will Become the Bulk of New IT Spend by 2016
**Source:
IDC: Worldwide channel and alliances 2013 top 10 predictions,
January 2013
Media Contact:
Nicholas
Smith
IBM External Relations
Email: nssmith@us.ibm.com
Phone:+1-978-869-0870
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SOURCE IBM