IBM's Big Focus on Software

IBM India is betting big on software business and has invested significantly to enable channels.

The company last year setup a dedicated Partner Sales and Support Center for software to drive small deals and aid partners with necessary pre and post-sales support. It also invested in setting up the Partner Cloud Center in Pune to provide select partners access to IBM's scalable, secure cloud offering and deep technical expertise.

In addition, IBM along with its distributors—Ingram, Redington and Avnet—has created a dedicated team of 40 to drive overall software sales in smaller cities and promote cross-sales among STG partners across 20 cities.

"In 2010, we enabled partners in more than 20 cities through year-long programs. We also enhanced the Software Value Plus (SVP) and the Software Value Incentive (SVI) programs to ensure more business and profitability for certified partners. In the last one year we have enabled more than 40 STG partners to cross-sell software solutions and another 60 to identify reselling opportunities," informed Anil Menon, Vice President, Channel, Marketing and Ecosystem, IBM India and South Asia.

Menon claimed that the IBM software business in India has been growing at a CAGR of more than 60 percent over the past two years.

Under the enhanced SVP program, more benefits have been extended to certified software partners. "The new SVP makes it mandatory for partners to have one or more certifications to execute deals. All opportunities or deals signed by resellers are routed through certified solutions partners," stated Menon. “Under the new SVI, partners can earn incentives ranging from 5 percent for opportunity identification to 40 percent for cross-selling in competitive deals.”

While among the STG partners Tivoli Fast Backup and Lotus have been doing good business, software solutions partners have been driving middleware products.

By the end of the current quarter, IBM plans to have 75 STG partners certified on software. “Currently, we are running the Rapid Tivoli Certification drive to train 20 premium storage partners. This is a 5-day hands-on training camp followed by technical certification for end-to-end Tivoli configuration, installation and implementation,” Menon informed.

In 2011, IBM plans to consolidate its software GTM and introduce more ready-to-use cross-brand solutions in areas such as continuous data protection, analytics, and backup.

“From 2007 to 2010, contribution from tier-2 cities has gone up from 20 to 40 percent. In 2011, we expect tier-2 cities to contribute 50 percent of software revenues—equal to that contributed by the top 3 cities namely Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru,” Menon concluded.