Mar, 2002 : IBM eServer Attracts New Business Partners

📅 March 19, 2002 - Technology giant IBM announced on Monday that a program designed to expand the company's reseller channel has been responsible for adding 56 new North American business partners since January 2001.

Code-named "Bluer Pastures," says IBM, the initiative has added resellers of the company's eServer that previously sold only systems from other vendors. The program has also persuaded some resellers already selling a mix of IBM and other products to shift their focus entirely to the IBM platform.
The success of the Bluer Pastures program, says IBM, is directly related to the momentum of the company's eServer in the marketplace, with many consumers transitioning from other platforms. According to data from industry analyst International Data Corporation (IDC), says IBM, the company increased its worldwide revenue share in the server market by five points in 2001, to 28.2 percent. The data also indicates that IBM was the top-selling vendor of UNIX servers in the fourth quarter of 2001.
"IBM believes in relying on resellers to drive sales," says Steve Wakefield, CEO of Sword Microsystems, an e-business solutions provider and recent addition to the IBM reseller channel. "IBM has provided us with all the tools we need to close business: unmatched training, round-the-clock support, as well as industry-leading servers."
IBM says it attributes its success in attracting new resellers to a number of factors, including the company's success in applying its mainframe and supercomputer technology to its server line to create particularly powerful systems; its active adoption of the shift in consumer demand away from proprietary technology and toward open standards such as Linux; and Project eLiza, a broad initiative by IBM to develop "intelligent" systems that "heal" themselves by activating built-in redundant systems in the case of failure, protect themselves with security technology and automatically configure and install operating systems and data.
"The breadth of IBM's product portfolio has given IBM the clout to recruit new Business Partners around the world, which we have done vigorously and with very positive results," says Buell Duncan, general manager of the IBM eServer, iSeries. "The reseller channel is an important competitive tool that IBM is using to serve our customers better and gain revenue share."