IBM Details Channel Plans For Netezza Data Warehouse Appliances
The move will provide resellers with a range of sales, marketing and technical resources that IBM said will make it easier to market and sell Netezza systems. IBM is also offering new financing options to channel partners who resell the Netezza appliances, including zero-percent financing and flexible payment options for customers.
While Netezza largely sold its data warehouse appliances direct to customers, IBM has had its eye on the channel for selling Netezza products since it acquired the company in November for $1.7 billion. At the Netezza user conference in June IBM executives unveiled a partner recruitment effort for Netezza and said they expect the channel to account for 50 percent of Netezza sales within four years.
"Business analytics is going mainstream and IBM's goal is to arm its partners with the right skills and support to help our clients take advantage of this trend," said Arvind Krishna, general manager of IBM Information Management, in a statement. "These [new] resources are geared to make it easy for our partners to quickly infuse Netezza into their business model."
IBM has identified business analytics as one of its strategic initiatives and has forecast that business analytics and optimization products and services will generate $16 billion in annual sales for the company by 2015.
Netezza's systems are based on IBM's BladeCenter servers.
Channel partners must be authorized to resell IBM products that come under the Software Value Plus (SVP) program. Authorization requirements include having at least two employees who have passed a technical mastery exam and one who has passed a sales mastery exam.
Resellers who qualify for the SVP program are eligible for co-marketing funds for lead generation and other market planning assistance. IBM also offers partners a skills bootcamp where staff can train on how to set up, manage and maintain Netezza systems. And SVP-member resellers can bring sales prospects into IBM Innovation Centers to test-drive Netezza products.
Starting Oct. 1 the Netezza products also will come under IBM's Software Value Incentive program, which provides financial rewards for partners who identify and develop sales opportunities, but don't necessarily handle product fulfillment.
On the financing side partners can offer zero-percent financing through IBM Global Financing to credit-qualified customers for Netezza purchases. Also available is 24- and 36-month financing with options that let customers match payments to expected cash flows.
And partners can lease a Netezza system for 24 months to run within their own data centers for demonstration, development, testing and training purposes, IBM said.
Charlotte, N.C.-based solutions provider and IBM partner Fuzzy Logix, which supplies predictive analytics software and services to customers, "will use these resources from IBM to uncover global business opportunities and deliver higher value services to our clients," said COO Mike Upchurch, in a statement.