System iNetwork

August 4, 2008

IBM Turns Ear to Business Partners

IBM has launched a marketing campaign and social networking site aimed squarely at helping IBM Business Partners (BPs) grow their mid-market businesses. The program, a.k.a. The Voice of the Business Partner, is designed to help the company open up a conversation with its own Business Partners . . . and any new ones who happen to stumble in.

There's a new site to hold the effort--voicebp.com--and to drive BPs there, IBM has kicked off a marketing campaign that will feature ads in print and online in the bigger channel publications such as CRN, VarBusiness, and ChannelPro magazines. Of course, IBM's PartnerWorld site and communications will feature the campaign, too.

So what is The Voice of the Business Partner, anyway?

"It's a structured discussion," says Karstin Bodell, IBM vice president of channel marketing for North America. "We're not advertising about a product or our programs; we're really trying to open up a dialogue."

The first question is pretty basic: What can IBM do to help you grow your business? After a couple of months, IBM will ask the next question, except it'll be one suggested by the Business Partners through the site.

"The purpose is to listen," Bodell explains. "It's focused on profitable growth for the Partner, and it's meant to be flexible, so we'll go where they want to go."

So, for all your IBM i-focused Business Partners who are interested in the SMB market, this might be a particularly good time to start talking to IBM through a broader channel initiative to make sure your own--and the needs of the IBM i world--are heard. . . . Here's the landing page to get started: http://www.voicebp.com/ibm/portal/home

Posted by cmaxcer at August 4, 2008 7:56 AM