IBM Drives Changes in the Channel

IBM has reinvented itself with an innovative portfolio of advanced technologies – cloud, data, AI, Watson, Quantum – and an unmatched vision for business and industry – a leader among traditional computer vendors. In the channel, however, IBM demonstrates less innovation.

The problem? It’s tasked with keeping its traditional vendors happy while working a new breed of partner that defines the future of partnering.

But that didn’t stop IBM, Wednesday, from rolling out new initiatives and making new commitments to the 2,200 partner attendees at IBM PartnerWorld at Think 2018 — that’s twice the number as last year. In fact, all the partners in the room got to meet John Teltsch, general manager for IBM global business partners — the company’s channel chief since June. Teltsch took the reins when Marc Dupaquier left the company.

Teltsch outlined the three catalysts driving change in the company’s channel: Partners want more transparency, simplicity, and lower costs of doing business with IBM; changing markets; and IBM’s dramatic transformation over the past few years that puts an intense focus on cloud, security, data, and modern infrastructure.

“IBM is transforming, the ecosystem is transforming, the market is transforming; thus, we need to transform inside our ecosystem,” Teltsch told the audience. “So we’ll accelerate our execution model [to do that].”

John Teltsch

John Teltsch

IBM says it is committed to making investments in the following five areas:

Of particular interest are the changes the company is making to client segmentation. For the first time in IBM’s coverage-model history, it has agreed on its software segmentation model.

“We’re committed to the segmentation for 12 months, ensuring that you and your accounts are protected. Before it was six months, now it’s 12 months, and we’re working to get that to 24 months,” Teltsch said.

The company also promised to be more transparent about client segmentation and where partners invest versus where IBM invests its resources. In 2018, the tech giant will deliver the following across three global market segments: the top 900 global accounts are IBM-led; the 14,000 accounts within the industry segment will be co-led; and the commercial segment will be business partner-led.

To show its dedication to the commercial segment and its business partners, IBM is removing commissions and commission payments to IBM sellers who sell direct.

“If they don’t leverage a partner, they don’t earn commissions and they don’t retire quota,” Teltsch said.

There are also new compensation plans for collaboration between IBM reps and partner reps to ensure partners’ success. IBM also reduced its hardware/software incentives from 100 to five, announced in January.

The company further announced four initiatives to help accelerate next-generation partners across its ecosystem.