IBM's three partner tiers
While tech rival Microsoft did away with its gold and silver partner designations this year, IBM has picked up the tiering system. Partner Plus offers three tiers - silver, gold and platinum.
IBM sell and services partners qualify for silver level with three individuals with proficiency badges, according to the company. To get a proficiency badge, the employee must complete "sales foundation" and "technical sales intermediate" badges for a product or offering.
Gold partners must have seven individuals with proficiency badges and revenue of more than $500,000 if they are in a small market. If the partner is in a large market, they must have revenue above $1m.
Finally, platinum partners must have 14 individuals with proficiency badges and revenue of more than $5m if they are in a small market. Large market partners need revenue above $10m.
For independent software vendors (ISVs) - also called "build partners" by IBM - silver level is achieved with one validated solution, which means general availability of a client-ready solution with an aligned contract, according to IBM.
Gold ISV partners must have one validated solution, a completed listing and revenue above $100,000. For platinum-level ISV partners, the revenue goal increases to more than $1m.
Sell and services partners can ascend tiers based on their experience and proficiency in a particular IBM technology, Woolley said. Partners expanding internationally can retain benefits in a new market "to get up and running really fast," Woolley said.
Partner Plus also includes a blue program for IBM's strategic partners and most elite ISV partners - including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, Adobe, SAP, Samsung and Salesforce.
Tim Kreytak, CEO of Boston-based IBM and AWS partner Ironside, told CRN in an interview that he's excited to see both vendors work on more integrations between their products.
More integration means replatforming instead of migrating projects - which can be more expensive and time consuming - plus customers can pick the best features from each service, Kreytak said.
"Customers that start on IBM often stay on IBM," he said.
"The fact that we can now move those workloads to AWS or move those workloads to other places helps IBM maintain those customers because it‘s easier - if I have someone running on Cognos (IBM's web-based business intelligence suite), and I move them to AWS running on EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), they're still running on Cognos. It‘s more of a replatforming than a migration. Migration projects are larger and more expensive. So the integration between the two is good."
Until June, IBM will work to place partners into the correct tiers - including a registered partner tier for partners below silver.
Read on to hear how IBM is shifting focus on indirect sales...
