Deliver Your News to the World

IBM Enhances Tools to Help Business Partners Grow Their Business Opportunities in the Mid-Market


WEBWIRE

Expanding the Grow Your Business with IBM Software Tool and Offering New Web Syndication Service Can Increase Sales for IBM Business Partners.

ARMONK, NY.- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the expansion of its Grow Your Business with IBM Software tool to enable Business Partners to identify new growth opportunities by recommending cross-brand sales scenarios which now include products from the IBM Express Advantage and mid-market offerings portfolio. In addition, at no charge, IBM is now offering a Web syndication service that will simplify how Business Partners gain information on IBM’s latest innovations and complement their marketing strategies.

The enhanced tool supports cost-effective growth by automatically recommending IBM cross-sell software scenarios that utilize Business Partners’ existing areas of expertise and available skills. Grow Your Business with IBM Software now includes over 50 new products selected from the IBM Express Advantage and mid-market portfolios, each designed and packaged to meet the price point, ease of use and maintenance, configuration and scalability requirements of mid-market customers. With the tool, Business Partners can plan for profitable growth in the mid-market with links to IBM cross-brand small and medium business marketing programs, product sales and marketing dashboards, Express Advantage programs, and ROI analysis for mid-market products.

For example, a Business Partner who has developed a strong install base selling IBM database software can now use the tool to find recommendations for Tivoli Express software offerings that deliver additional security and database backup capabilities for their mid-sized customers. The new version of Grow Your Business with IBM Software also helps Business Partners develop new opportunities with IBM hardware customers, with over 29 software cross-sell software scenarios for IBM BladeCenter, System Storage, System x, System i and System p platforms.

“Grow Your Business with IBM Software is a valuable tool for our mid-market resellers as it enables them to dig deeper into IBM’s portfolio of products and determine which solutions will best meet the needs of their customers,” said Mark Taylor, VP and General Manager, Arrow ECS Midmarket Group. “As the tool continues to evolve and incorporate new sales scenarios, it enhances how we work with our resellers and help them build their revenue stream.”

With the addition of the Express Advantage products, the tool now includes 128 products and more than 300 sales scenarios for mid-market and enterprise Partners.

“IBM continues to differentiate itself through new and easy-to-use tools that simplify how Business Partners can better meet the needs of their clients and help them generate leads,” said Shaun Jones, Vice President Worldwide Channel and General Business Marketing. “With these resources, we are empowering our Business Partners to grow their businesses and succeed in the marketplace.”

IBM has also introduced a new benefit for Business Partners to syndicate information from ibm.com directly to their Web sites at no cost. This solution opens an automated pipeline between IBM’s Web site and Business Partners’ Web sites, through which they can tap into IBM’s Web marketing content about offerings. As IBM updates and changes information on its site, the partner’s Web site is synchronized to do the same.

Nearly 90 percent of IT decision makers use search engines to locate products, services and solution providers that will best meet their needs. In many cases, those decision makers come across Web sites with out-of-date information. Through this syndication service, IBM Business Partners can leverage IBM’s marketing assets, such as briefs, brochures, data sheets, white papers, and videos, transforming their Web sites into powerful sales and marketing tools.

IBM’s Web site enables Business Partners to educate customers on how its products differ from the competition, highlighting those attributes and features that demonstrate why a particular product or service offers the greatest value for the customer. Having a Web site with current product information is critical to generating new leads and helping to drive business.

“The free syndication of information from IBM’s Web site has acted as an online sales force for us by keeping our site updated with new product announcements and information,” said David Sylvestre, Vice President of Marketing for Lighthouse Computer Services, Inc. “The ability to have our Web site automatically populated with information on IBM’s latest innovations has complimented our marketing initiatives around key software, hardware and services offerings for our customers.”

To complement IBM’s content, Business Partners can take advantage of a search engine optimization benefit, designed to analyze and enhance their Web assets while improving the performance of their Web sites in online searches. This benefit provides a detailed assessment of how well the Business Partner’s Web site performs in online searches and recommendations to help drive increased traffic from search engines to their Web site. Business Partners will also learn how to identify and capture prospects who visit their Web site from a search engine.

In addition, IBM is offering a discount for Business Partners that take advantage of this new offering. The benefit of search engine optimization is offered at a 60% savings over the regular rate. It includes a one hour personalized consultation with experts from Global Strategies International (GSI), a vendor that provides this service for large enterprise companies.



WebWireID65568





This news content was configured by WebWire editorial staff. Linking is permitted.

News Release Distribution and Press Release Distribution Services Provided by WebWire.