IBM Australia to intensify SMB penetration during 2008

IBM spent much of last year touting its SMB focus and 2008 will be no different as the vendor builds out its focus in the burgeoning sector.

Andrew Baker, director of A/NZ business partners at IBM, told CRN: “Our focus this year will be around getting more penetration in the SMB market. Everything over 1000 users we consider enterprise.”

Baker said IBM is particularity interested in the 100 to 1000 user mid-market, which has traditionally been a strong segment for the vendor.

“In terms of our power systems range, we are about to release new entry model systems to be driven to market purely through business partners,” he said. “We have put together a dedicated channel enablement team to ensure our channel is tuned to the SMB market. We are also doing training, we have made senior technical specialists available to the channel, and now have additional business partners coverage with new channel-focused staff.”

Baker stressed that IBM recruits new channel partners on a regular basis, but it is not actively recruiting. The firm is more focused on working and growing with its existing partner base.

“We are also looking at our run rate this year. This is where we are looking to get an increased amount of business from the work we have done educating the channel.”

IBM’s three mainstream distributors in Australia are Avnet, Cellnet and Ingram Micro. Baker added that IBM’s focus is having a big presence with a small number of distributors, with no immediate plans to alter its local distribution model.