New IBM resources to help software partners gain skills and generate leads

More than two-thirds of IBM software
partners expect improved profitability from its new skills initiative
according to a global survey of 400 partners, revealed IBM.The
initiative includes new sales and technical resources for IBM
software partners to help jump-start new business opportunities.

For the first time, IBM will pass new
mid-market sales leads valued below $50,000 to authorized IBM
software partners. The company will also deliver new cloud computing
architecture certification for partners, including education on cloud
business models and will provide direct access to more than 130
industry training sessions online and in local markets worldwide.

Today businesses are adopting
technology to become more efficient and transform their organization
based on specific industry requirements. IBM is delivering this
initiative to help partners build the right skills needed for 21st
century transformation projects. Its partners can choose products
across the IBM software portfolio to become certified and authorized
to sell based on their business model and industries served such as
healthcare, banking and financial markets, retail, government,
telecommunications, chemical and petroleum and energy and utilities
among others.

"Business partners are key to
IBM's success in the marketplace, and we continue to invest in new
resources that help ensure their success. With this new initiative,
we are now providing our partners with the same training and
resources we provide our IBM sales team," said Anil Menon,
VP-Software Group Business, IBM.

According to a new Global Business
Partner Profitability Survey conducted by Ronin Corporation and
commissioned by IBM, 60 percent of IBM software partners said they
expect to increase profitability in 2010 and beyond by participating
in Software Value Plus. The same percentage of IBM's top-tier
software partners said they see more revenue in the form of hardware,
software, and services when selling IBM software as compared to
revenue generated by other vendors' top tier partners. From a growth
perspective, 50 percent of IBM's top-tier software partners report
that cloud computing will be a leading driver of profitability over
the next two years.

"IBM's strategy to boost access to
sales, marketing and technical skills with initiatives like Software
Value Plus can help partners meet client requirements in a better way
and also improve their profit margins," said A Francis Albert,
GM-Redington India, an IBM Value-Added Distributor.

"There is a paradigm shift in
customers support expectation as their business needs are impacted by
the challenges they face in software systems," said Manoj
Tharian, Director, MicroGenesis Technosoft, an IBM Advanced Business
Partner. " IBM has introduced SVP, which will raise the bar of
partner competency, their niche identity in the market and value
realization for customers. Our objective at MicroGenesis is to enable
our customers to become agile in adopting high end technology, tools
and processes successfully," he said.

The new resources are provided through
the IBM Software Value Plus initiative that helps software partners
build technical, marketing and sales skills on IBM's software
portfolio and key growth opportunities such as business analytics,
collaboration and industry transformation. IBM will continue to
expand Software Value Plus with additional demand generation,
co-marketing and technical skills resources for software partners
throughout 2010.