A fair bet for services

IBM's Global Services arm is changing massively as the firm attempts to lure resellers. But resellers are already offering their own or others' services

It seems it isn't just tumbleweed and dust blowing through the Nevada desert, where the winds of change whistled past IBM and its Global Services (IGS) arm last week.

The revelation that IGS is to plough millions of dollars of investment into the mid-market services sector in a bid to encourage partners to sell IBM services was touted even by IBM executives themselves as "a complete and total shift in IGS's transformation" as the services giant tries to turn IBM's business partners into IGS business partners.

But while the idea of selling IGS offerings isn't unattractive to most partners, many who attended IBM's partner conference in Las Vegas last week - and, in particular, the IGS briefing - found the announcement to be disparaging.

What IBM seemed to fail to realise, partners told me, was that most business partners are already selling services, and feel like they are already making a contribution to the services growth of IBM.

Many partners felt that being told by IBM execs that they really have to get going in SME services was not the best way to thank them for the work they have done in the space so far.

But you have to give IBM credit for trying. When Big Blue restated its software strategy just over five years ago, the vendor took time to get it right. But get it right it did, and the ISV announcements the firm made last week received a resounding round of applause.

Having only just stated its new IGS strategy, the vendor cannot be expected to get it all right at the beginning. And while the dust settles on the strategy, it's worth remembering that IBM is still way out in front of its rivals. While Microsoft is the closest behind IBM, Big Blue's other competitors have little yet to offer their partners in the way of solid strategy to target the mid-market.

With its new packaged services, the strength of its brand name, and its attempts to make the most of the relationships that its partners have forged at a local level, IBM has at least put its money on the table and placed its bet in the mid-market game.