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IBM offers training incentives for business partners
'Skills are what are needed'

By Colin Barker

Published: Monday 13 October 2008

IBM, which expects to unveil better-than-expected quarterly figures, has announced it will spend some of its cash on incentives to encourage some of its largest partners to invest more in training and other areas.

Last week, the company introduced a scheme to help its business partners who are co-operating on its New Enterprise Data Centre strategy. The scheme involves incentives for IBM partners to improve their knowledge in three specific areas: virtualisation and consolidation; energy efficiency; and business resiliency.

And Mike Bernard, general business and channels marketing leader at IBM, told silicon.com sister site ZDNet.co.uk that there is also a fourth area under consideration, but not yet announced: information infrastructure.

Bernard said: "Skills in those areas are what's most needed. From that the clients will benefit as well as the partners."

There are two levels of incentive for training that partners can apply for: general speciality, for which they will receive $25,000; and speciality elite, for which they get $100,000.

Bernard said the scheme was open to any qualifying partner. "There is no qualification other than that they are undertaking work in the chosen areas. They do that and they qualify and they get the money for it," he said.

According to IBM the money is there to invest not only in marketing but in business-development activities, marketing intelligence, investment and certification training and even personnel salaries. It will also offer access to IBM Labs, use of IBM tools and more sales support, the company said.