IBM adds new ammunitions to its Express arsenal

In order to further bolster its Express initiative in the country, IBM has
introduced two new plans for its partners. Called the Express Activation Plan
and Business Partner Enablement Plan, these two allow the company's business
partners to develop solutions around the software applications already available
under the Express offerings. The plans also enable the partners to use IBM
resources, including a direct access to the innovation center for business
partners, situated at Bangalore.

The company has currently appointed five partners under these plans. They are
Omnitech, Nexstep, Sobis, Sonata Information Technology and Prodapt. They will
recruit more such in days to come. It is also offering joint sales initiatives
for the solutions developed by these partners and imparting sales and technical
training to enhance the partner's workforce.

ERIK ELZERMAN Allowing partners to develop solutions around applications available under Express offerings

Sharing more information on this new development, Erik Elzerman,
Director-Channels and GSMB (Software Group-APac), IBM says, "These plans
have been unveiled only in the APac region and Indian and Chinese partners are
the most significant drivers of the same." According to him, there's a
huge requirement from SMB customers of solutions that are cheap, easy-to-use and
easily scalable, and "Partners could take advantage of these plans to build
such solutions around the existing bouquet of applications under the Express
suite, to effectively address the SMB community."

Additionally, the company has added two new products to the suite. They are
Solution Builder Express and Websphere Business Integration Server Express,
taking the total number of software offerings in the Express portfolio to 25.
"The new products will help customers easily integrate their existing
applications, facilitating increased utilization of the same."

GOLDIE