Big Blue looks for innovation in Vegas

IBM strives to be the innovator's innovator

Innovation’s what you need if you want to be the best and if you want to beat the rest, according to IBM.

At its PartnerWorld event in Las Vegas this week, Big Blue is making a number of announcements centred around its new buzzword; innovation.

Donn Atkins, general manager IBM global business partners told delegates at the event that IBM’s mantra will be innovation, collaboration and growth.

“Partners provided 35 per cent of IBM’s revenue last year, that is an all time high, and it is growing across all of our business. Last year we launched our theme; without boundaries. This year we are going to build on that. We’re adding innovation. It’s key to our customers and its key to our business together. We’re adding collaboration, we have to do it every day, its about teaming and its about how we deliver solutions. Innovation and collaboration will lead to growth.”

Atkins also reiterated IBM’s focus on the SME market. “The largest growth opportunity continues to be SME. It’s a $500bn opportunity and these companies want the same kind of enterprise-lead solutions that all companies want. They are looking to integrate their hardware, their software, their storage and their networks. And they are facing the same kind of challenges that enterprise customers face; protect data, guarantee systems availability and ensure the security of what they are doing. And all the while we see SMEs are overwhelmed with technical complexity.”

To help partners reach this lucrative sector, IBM announced that it is expanding its channel programme with the launch of Express Seller. The programme is designed to bundle products and services together with specific pricing to serve the SME community. The vendor also said it is allowing its business partners to access IBM’s research and development teams and develop industry tailored offerings. Finally Big Blue said it is investing $250m in opening new innovations centres around the world.