How IBM Business Partners can grow through software certification and accreditation

During the 2^nd half of 2013, Hurwitz & Associates interviewed IBM Software Business Partners to ascertain what factors they attributed to their success.  What we discovered was that amongst other elements, successful Business Partners leveraged IBM’s software certification and accreditation programs as a way to build and expand their businesses. Once these companies established highly skilled, expert teams they were able to gain customer trust and help accelerate their relationship with IBM.  Through certification and accreditation, Business Partners have discovered a predictable way to gain new customers and significantly increase revenue.  We recommend that IBM Software Business Partners identify what makes you unique and leverage your deep expertise into positive outcomes for customers.

PMSquare is an excellent example of a partner that was able to expand to a new region by investing in skills training. This Australia based IBM Business Partner focuses on data warehousing, business intelligence, and enterprise planning. The company made a strategic move to increase sales opportunities by opening an office in Singapore. At the time, PMSquare was not well-known in the market nor did they have existing contracts.  By investing in certifications and earning accreditations, PMSquare demonstrated that they had deep technical expertise.  This helped the company win new customers and build momentum within the region.  Today, PMSquare’s Asian division is serving a large number of customers with complex solutions.

Another partner that achieved significant growth by investing in skills training and accreditation is Icaro Technologies, a Brazil based IBM Business Partner.  The company was able to quadruple the size of its business since entering into its relationship with IBM. Icaro credits a large portion of this growth to their focus on creating expert teams. Laerte Sabino, Business Director at Icaro Technologies told us that obtaining certification and accreditations that build skills are a crucial tool for growth.  Laerte says, that “when approaching new customers and growing their business with existing customers, we need to show we have deep knowledge.”  These certifications helped to differentiate Icaro in the market, including helping them to become the first IBM Business Partner to obtain SVP Industry Authorization in Latin America.

To encourage employees to continue building skills, Laerte says “we incentivize our teams to obtain certifications and all of our project managers are certified.”  Icaro’s effort to continually build their employees’ skills requires a commitment from the company.  As Icaro spends more effort on increasing their knowledge, and delivering support resulting in high client satisfaction, they have seen increased opportunities.  In addition, Icaro’s focus on building skills and obtaining certification has also helped them gain the confidence of IBM teams.  The company is now seeing IBM increasingly bring them into large companies in Brazil to assist with new engagements.

What resources are available to IBM Business Partner to gain expertise?

IBM Business Partners with the highest levels of success have taken advantage of the following program offerings:

Tuition reimbursements

IBM highly values Business Partners that keep their employees up to date on the latest releases of IBM Software they are implementing and deploying. To offset expenses, IBM offers a tuition reimbursement program called “You Pass, We Pay” to keep training and certifications up to date.

Easy access to IBM Software for development and testing

Business Partners can get hands-on access to IBM Software to create customized high value client solutions with the purchase of the IBM Software Value Package and the IBM Software Access Option.

Beta test opportunities

Volunteering for beta testing gives Business Partners valuable IBM Software product and solution development expertise.  Participating in beta testing also helps strengthen direct relationships with IBM Software development teams with extensive customer engagement experience.

The IBM Software Practice Accelerator

The IBM Software Practice Accelerator is a program that allows Business Partners to bridge from understanding product capabilities to successfully deploying them.  They can get training, deployment assistance and, ultimately accreditation when they demonstrate implementation skills. The program allows Business Partners to work directly with IBM experts for coaching and mentoring.

IBM Think Academy

This on-demand learning platform gives Business Partners the content and tools needed to understand and start client conversations about how strategic solution areas such as cloud, big data & analytics, social business, mobile enterprise, and security, are transforming industries and businesses.

https://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/page/pw_com_think-academy

Direct Marketing Association Online Courses

Business Partners can build marketing skills to help develop pipeline and prospect lists with a series of new free courses from IBM.

https://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/page/swg_com_sfw_build-marketing-expertise

Learn more about many of the above IBM program offerings by listening to the replay of their recent Let’s Talk Business Partner webcast entitled, “Clients demand the right skills and expertise.  Can you deliver?”  Register and listen at: https://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/software/2014.

Note: Earlier this year, Hurwitz & Associates authored a white paper for the IBM Business Partner community on the five best practices for maximizing success selling IBM Software .  As part of this research we interviewed a range of IBM partners and asked them what it takes to become a profitable channel partner with IBM.  These partners, from multiple regions across the world, ranged in size from 40 to more than 6,000 consultants.

Want to hear more from IBM?