As an IBM Business Partner, it’s important to know that your business is linked with some of the most innovative and influential executives in the IT business. On August 21, four IBM executives were featured in Everything Channel’s “100 Most Powerful Women of the Channel.”

• Gale Brown – Vice President Channels, IBM General Business
• Sandy Carter – Vice President, IBM Software Channels
• Denyse Mackey – Director, IBM Software Channel Strategy and Transformation
• Ginni Rometty – Senior Vice President, IBM Global Sales & Distribution

Read more and learn about each of their professional goals.

On August 19, IBM Software Group sponsored an IBM Global Financing teleconference to learn about current IGF Sales Plays as low as 0% Financing for 12 months and how to leverage the new IGF ROI Tool.

The replay is now available.

IBM Global Financing Software Group teleconference Replay.

IBM Global Financing Software Group teleconference Presentation.

The IBM InfoSphere portfolio was the first portfolio transitioning from our heritage IBM Business Partner model to the Software ValueNet distribution model. This represented a significant transition for our IBM Distributor’s Value Advantage Plus Business Partners, as well as our customers.

When the InfoSphere products moved into Software ValueNet, we discontinued the Value Advantage Plus Initiative for those specific Business Partners. To ease the transition for InfoSphere Business Partners, IBM is reinstating Value Advantage Plus for the IBM InfoSphere portfolio in Software ValueNet effective August 4, 2009. The InfoSphere products that are not in Software ValueNet are currently eligible for Value Advantage Plus, so this announcement does not impact them.

All normal eligibility and VAP program terms still apply. Eligible Business Partners must be authorized in Software ValueNet for IBM InfoSphere products participating in Software ValueNet and approved for the Value Advantage Plus Initiative with an IBM approved InfoSphere value-add solution.

Value Advantage Plus remains ineligible to other Software ValueNet portfolios such as Cognos, FileNet, and Optim. For questions, contact your Software Sales Representative.

More information.

More than 75,000 IBM customers in the data management community read this magazine each quarter, and you can reach this highly-targeted audience with your key messages. Act now to advertise in the October 2009 issue and benefit from expanded distribution at IOD. For more information about the magazine and advertising, contact Randy Byers at 650.919.1200 x144.

Read more.

View two programs designed to help build your Tivoli skills:

• Tivoli Advanced Technical Seminars deliver brief, targeted, Web-based training on specific elements in the Tivoli software family.
• Tivoli Certification Preparation Seminars help you gauge your readiness for certification testing. You get a pre-assessment test, an online instructor-led refresher class and a post-assessment exam – great confidence boosters before you sit for your exam!

Learn more about these new programs.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack gives you the power to quickly recover any Microsoft Windows server data, anywhere in the organization, from any point in time. TSM FastBack helps to provide continuous data protection and recovery management for Microsoft Windows servers, both in the data center and in remote or branch offices. TSM FastBack gets applications and users back up and running within minutes following any data loss, while full data recovery is performed in the background.

Read more about TSM FastBack.

Product announcements, training offers, promotions — all things Tivoli in the August issue of the Tivoli Top 10 Update for Business Partners. If you haven’t seen it yet, now is your chance to view the latest updates for IBM Business Partners selling, marketing, and supporting Tivoli products and solutions.

In the past, the Tivoli Top 10 was delivered as a separate e-mail outside of the PartnerWorld weekly updates and monthly newsletters. Based on feedback from Business Partners, IBM is pleased to share a smarter approach to delivering Business Partner communications. Beginning this month, the content in the Tivoli Top 10 Update will be delivered through IBM PartnerWorld publications, and the Tivoli Top 10 will no longer be sent as a separate communication as of December 1, 2009. You will also be able to access news online, along with similar update pages for all IBM Software Group brands.

Bookmark the Tivoli Top 10 site and watch for monthly updates.

Pulse 2010 brings together a wide range of attendees from around the world. IBM Maximo, Tivoli, Tivoli Netcool, Rational, Services and you, our valued IBM Business Partner, will convene to share valuable information at this leading educational conference. Pulse 2010 is the perfect opportunity for you and your clients to exchange best practices and experience, firsthand, the leading service management capabilities in the industry. The 2010 conference has an increased focus on education, featuring over 300 client speakers on the agenda presenting the latest in Service Management expertise.

Pulse 2010 features four streams with 14 tracks. The star of the show will truly be the excellent content:

• Service Management and Information Technology
• Service Management for Enterprise Operations
• Service Management for Business Leaders
• Service Delivery Lifecycle Management

Submit a proposal for the call for speakers and if selected, you can differentiate yourself as a leader in the industry and enjoy a high level of exposure. Include a client in your submission and/or invite your clients to submit a proposal and your clients can receive additional benefits if they are selected. EAM papers are eligible for the Maximo best practices award.

General registration opens in September. A day dedicated to IBM Business Partners takes place as a pre-conference event – details forthcoming.

Now is the time to start the conversation with your clients. Invite them to join you and IBM at Pulse to find out how a smarter planet requires a dynamic infrastructure based on IBM Service Management capabilities.

Pulse 2010
February 21 – 24, 2010
MGM Grand Hotel
Las Vegas, Nevada.

Learn more about Pulse 2010 and get ready to take part!

The IBM Learner Portal is a comprehensive educational resource for IBM Business Partners. It brings together learning and informational content to give you access to courseware and related resources in one place.

All Information Management e-learning courses are now hosted exclusively on the IBM Learner Portal for Information Management. Information Management courses previously hosted on the Virtual Innovation Center (VIC) have been transferred to the IBM Learner Portal.

Learn more.

Training and certification remains a top interest area for IBM Business Partners. The Information On Demand Conference, Oct. 25-29 in Las Vegas, is your hot ticket to achieving key certifications, including those for the January 2010 rollout of the Growth Through Skills global Business Partner distribution strategy.

Conference attendees may take up to three Information Management (including Cognos) exams at no charge; a discounted fee of US$100 for subsequent exams will apply. Our complimentary FileNet certification exams will be available to attendees. We will also offer the discounted price of US$100 for all Lotus, Rational, Tivoli, WebSphere, SOA, and XML certification exams.

Learn more.

Don’t miss this opportunity to be recognized for your ingenuity and excellence in developing and implementing IBM Information Management solutions. During this year’s Information On Demand 2009 Conference in Las Vegas, we will announce the Information Management Awards that reflect the top IBM Information Management Business Partners in a broad range of award categories. The online nomination process is quick and easy.

Nominate your solution by September 9, 2009.

IBM was named the ARC Company of the Year in the Data and Information Management category, and picked up the subcategory win in Support. Shaun Jones, Vice President, Business Partner and General Business Marketing, IBM Software Group, was in attendance to accept the award. The 2009 Everything Channel ARC awards event took place in Washington, D.C., on August 19.

IBM would like to extend our sincere appreciation to our Business Partners, and look forward to a strong 4Q09.

Read more.

Join us to hear about an exciting, upcoming campaign and understand how, together, we can amplify the “Lotus Knows” awareness campaign within companies worldwide – large and small. We’ll discuss how you can leverage resources from across IBM in your local marketing and social media efforts to drive awareness and results in your market.

Speakers: Kristen Lauria, Lotus/WebSphere Portal Software Vice President, Marketing and Channels; Sandy Carter, IBM Software Group, Worldwide Sales Vice President, IBM Software Group Channels; and Shaun Jones, IBM Software Group, Marketing Vice President, Worldwide Channel and General Business Marketing.

Date: Monday, September 14, 2009
Time: 11:30 a.m. EDT

Register now.

Are you using IBM PartnerWorld Communities, based on Lotus Connections, the new online social networking and collaboration environment that can support your business’ ability to grow? Are you able to identify the sales opportunities and showcase the value that IBM Lotus Connections brings to your customers? This call highlights the Business Partner-specific opportunities you’ll want to be aware of to help your customers access the expertise and knowledge they need to accomplish their business goals using Social Software.

IBM Lotus Connections provides a forum for building dynamic networks of coworkers, partners and customers to foster community-based innovation. Plus, hear what is new with IBM Lotus Quickr 8.2. Your customers will benefit from the end user and administrative enhancements to the Lotus Quickr services for Domino and for WebSphere Portal.

Date: September 17, 2009
Time: 11:00 a.m. EDT

Register and receive details via e-mail.

The combination of Lotus Foundations Start and Lotus Foundations Reach provides an integrated, all-in-one small business server. It enables customers to use business applications, centrally manage files, store and secure business data, connect offices and employees, protect their network and systems, and much more in real time.

Read more about Lotus Foundations Start.

Read more about Lotus Foundations Reach.

Did you know?

• Lotus Forms is experiencing triple digit growth, year over year
• Lotus Forms generated more revenue than Quickr last quarter
• 28% of Portal customers are considering adding eForms to their Portals in the next 24 months
• The current economy is forcing our customers to look at every way possible to cut costs and improve efficiencies, while getting the most out of their existing IT investments

Lotus Forms offers the best, quantifiable ROI of any product we offer. How it helps automate these manual processes (often paper-based) is easy for our customers to understand and they are buying it! The market is ready, and we have the best solution on the planet. By introducing Lotus Forms to your current prospects, you’ll be able to increase your average deal size and neutralize the competition. It’s also a great upsell to existing Process Server and FileNet customers in your territory.

Join Larry Bowden, Vice President, Portals and Mashups, to learn all about how the latest version of Lotus Forms can help you achieve and exceed your quota by making process automation easier to sell and implement. We’ll cover a product overview, new features, the value proposition, and you’ll even learn from your peers how we won some 2Q customers within various industries.

Date: September 8, 2009
Time: 10:00 a.m. EDT (90 minutes)

More information.

Join this Lotus TechTalk to find out about the new capabilities in Xpages shipping in Notes/Domino 8.5.1.

Date: September 9, 2009
Time: 11:00 a.m. EDT (90 minutes)

More information.

“Enabling Smarter Collaboration – Web Portals and Mashups” is a new YouTube video. It explains how the integration of IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Mashup Center software can help organizations, large and small, innovate and be more efficient. The new video explains the value of Web Portals and Mashups using colorful animation and plain language, making it entertaining enough to share.

Learn more.

The IBM Rational Harmony family of domain-specific best practices helps customers build better systems and software by leveraging its best practices. This solution can be adopted incrementally, accessed globally from a centralized Web-based location and can combine best practices from a number of different sources.

The Rational Harmony family includes:

• IBM Rational Harmony for IT Software Development
• IBM Rational Harmony for Embedded RealTime Development
• IBM Rational Harmony for Systems Engineering

Access the sales kit.

IBM Rational Change is a Web-based, fully-integrated solution for Enterprise Change Management that brings together software development, IT and others sources for effective decision making. This sales kit offers great tools to help you understand and sell this solution, and includes a sales guide, literature, presentations and demos.

Check out the sales kit.

Rational Synergy provides high-quality Software Configuration Management (SCM) capabilities to support complex development needs. This sales kit features a collection of sales guides, case studies, presentations, demos and white papers to help you meet with customers and prepare client materials.

Rational Synergy sales kit.

Now it’s easier than ever to stay up-to-date on all the news from IBM Rational.  Download the desktop widget today and get news, sales kits, marketing news and more delivered to your desktop. The search is over!

Download the widget today.

Requirements Done Right! The Requirements Definition and Management Playbook is designed to help you leverage key tools, messaging, education/training materials and best practices to help you conduct a targeted go-to-market campaign to help generate new business. Your campaign can be a webinar, seminar, direct mail, e-mail or Web marketing.

Learn more.

The Reduce the Cost of Quality Playbook has been updated. It now includes DOORS (system messaging/content), a Quality Management Business Partner Incentive, IT Quality Health Assessment Tool and more.

Check out the updates.

We’re proud to offer another outstanding element to our Preferred Partner Program—the new Sell On Demand Marketing Campaign Program.

What Is It?
A fully automated, easy-to-use fulfillment system that allows you to co-brand marketing materials to maximize your partnership with Toshiba, while showcasing your unique brand to your customers. Simply select and customize the marketing elements that best suit your company’s needs. Choose campaigns that help you:

•  Generate leads
•  Increase overall sales
•  Reduce marketing costs
•  Raise brand awareness
•  Respond quickly to sales opportunities
•  Better educate prospects
•  Improve customer loyalty

Already a Toshiba Preferred Partner? In less than 30 minutes, you could be well on your way.

Not a partner yet? No problem. Sign up today
or get more program details here »

Read more about our
security innovations here »

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*Three displays include: Laptop display, external display connected to the laptop, external display connected to the dynadock.