This blog is authored by - Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India/South Asia

Harnessing the strength of collective expertise for our clients and the industry

The importance of partnership has assumed a renewed focus in today’s context. As digital becomes mainstream and all-pervasive… one of the major shifts we are witnessing is the emergence of a strong ‘network economy’. It has redefined the way we conduct our business, work and interact with people and how we connect with the larger community, our customers and our business partners.
 

IBM has always believed in leveraging the power of collective expertise brought in by our partners and we are harnessing it to drive continued value for our clients and the industry. By coming together, we can expand into new markets, engage new clients and explore new opportunities with existing ones.
 

Early this year, our Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna spoke about elevating the role of our partners, investing in the ecosystem, and working with them to strengthen our go-to-market. As summed-up by him, this is a clear Win-Win-Win strategy. ‘Win for our clients' through better technology and capabilities, 'Win for our partners' as they grow their business, and 'Win for IBM’.
 

Our renewed go-to-market approach in 2021 allows us to forge ahead with a laser-sharp focus and drive leadership position in the open hybrid cloud market.

• The new unified go-to-market model brings our ecosystem partners to the center-stage as they assume a more prominent role to Build and Service, in addition, to Sell – all oriented around three important principles: Growth, Innovation and Value.
• For our clients, it means bringing together the best of IBM and its ecosystem partners to deliver a consistent, world-class experience, customised to fuel their digital transformation journeys.
• For the industry it means, collaborating to define the technology and business landscape to drive societal impact

And we are making progress in this direction. Last year, we strengthened our hybrid cloud and AI partner ecosystem which includes IBM’s traditional Value Added Resellers (VARs) and Value Added Distributors (VADs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), Global Systems Integrators (GSIs) - all focused on enabling our partners to be even more successful and deliver even more value to clients. In India, we have expanded and deepened our relationships with partners like Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, TCS, HCL, Persistent Systems and most recently LTI became a part of our open and secure Hybrid Cloud ecosystem.

For IBM, 2021 is about unleashing the ‘Power of Partnerships.’

We have seen accelerated use of digital technologies, transforming existing business processes to drive customer engagement, employee productivity, and business resiliency. The digital transformation journey which would have otherwise spanned over two to three years is now being covered over a few months.

For the IBM Partner Ecosystem, this means finding new ways to capture this market opportunity around the shift to Cloud, Data and AI, Analytics etc -  a need to co-innovate, to develop new revenue streams and to create value for clients.

We are deeply invested in strengthening our partner ecosystem - a $1bn commitment globally to help partners provide their clients with a seamless and secure journey to the cloud and AI. In addition, we are focussing on empowering our partners with the much-needed skills, resources and capabilities to build unmatched expertise in their field and differentiate themselves in a competitive market.

Our partners have responded positively and are excited about the opportunities ahead. This gives us the conviction that we are on the right path and together IBM and its ecosystem partners can pursue the $1 trillion global Hybrid Cloud Market opportunity.

And the key to truly embracing and driving this journey is an entrepreneurial and growth mindset. A sentiment, echoed by some of our key ‘partners in progress’ as shared below… Do take a few minutes to read, think, act and reflect.