The debut of IBM Partner Plus marked a significant evolution from the previous PartnerWorld program, specifically designed to accelerate partner business velocity in a rapidly changing cloud adoption landscape. Key to this launch were interconnected enablers such as insider access to sales and training materials, a focus on competitive and transparent incentives, and enhanced support for skill development in critical areas like AI and cloud. The program also introduced a simplified IBM Partner Portal offering real-time incentive visibility, an automated deal share engine, and increased co-marketing and co-sell support investments. These initial steps laid the groundwork for the simplified engagement, enhanced partner enablement, and targeted incentives, demonstrating a consistent strategic thread from the program's inception to its current manifestation in driving AI and hybrid cloud adoption through the ecosystem.

By establishing a program designed for diverse partner models and emphasizing transparency and support from the outset, IBM Partner Plus created an environment conducive to the "Build, Sell, Service" pillars and the incentivization of high-growth areas like Software as a Service (SaaS) and AI. The program's foundational goal of aligning with partners expanding their cloud market presence directly correlates with the current strategy to leverage the ecosystem for broader reach and deeper client engagement in AI and hybrid cloud solutions. This continuity underscores IBM's sustained commitment to its partners as central to achieving scale and success in these transformative technology areas.

The strategic alignment with partners, crucial for success, reflects the fundamental reality that in the dynamic world of enterprise technology at the intersection of AI and hybrid cloud, scale is paramount, and achieving this requires not only innovative products but also a robust and interconnected ecosystem. IBM's strategy for driving growth in the AI and hybrid cloud era is deeply rooted in cultivating a vibrant ecosystem – a community of diverse participants, including value-added distributors (VADs), resellers (VARs), service partners, and independent software vendors (ISVs), working harmoniously towards mutually beneficial outcomes.

The objective of IBM's ecosystem strategy is straightforward: to work hand-in-hand with partners to scale the IBM technology business in a way that benefits everyone involved. This requires a deep understanding of each partner type's diverse needs and drivers and aligning those towards common goals, specifically seizing the significant opportunities presented by AI and hybrid cloud.

Core Pillars of IBM's Ecosystem Engagement: Build, Sell, Service

IBM's Partner Plus program acknowledges the multifaceted nature of its partner ecosystem, recognizing that many organizations operate across various business models. The program is structured to engage partners along three key dimensions: Build, Sell, and Service. Importantly, Partner Plus fully supports partners who participate in two or even all three of these models, reflecting the reality of their diverse capabilities and market reach.

  1. Build: IBM provides partners with critical technologies that they can efficiently consume to build innovative solutions for their markets. A prime focus area is Agentic AI, leveraging offerings like watsonx Orchestrate. But this extends beyond new AI capabilities to embedding AI within classic IBM products (like DB2, Maximo), evolving database technologies (watsonx.data), enabling seamless integration across hybrid clouds (WebMethods hybrid integration), providing next-generation infrastructure (LinuxONE Emperor 5), and offering tools to preserve and modernize enterprise Java applications. By providing these foundational technologies and tools, IBM enables ISVs and other Build partners to create value on top of the IBM stack or integrate IBM capabilities into their own offerings. By providing access to innovative core technologies and development tools, IBM empowers partners to build differentiated solutions efficiently, open new revenue streams, and address emerging market needs.
  2. Sell: IBM is focused on enabling partners to drive growth through cross-selling and upselling opportunities. This includes leveraging in-product merchandising within IBM software to highlight potential complementary solutions, such as promoting Turbonomic within Instana based on usage data. IBM is also introducing specific go-to-market incentives, such as a bonus program for new SaaS client acquisition and additional bonuses for deployment and adoption, aligning partner compensation with desired customer outcomes. IBM's focus on enabling cross-selling, upselling, and providing targeted go-to-market incentives directly benefits partners by creating expanded opportunities to increase sales volume and earn higher margins.
  3. Service: A major priority is helping Service partners de-risk their projects and accelerate delivery through IBM technologies within the partner’s services offering or practice. This is achieved by providing technology and tools that directly enable project execution. The modernization of enterprise Java applications is a compelling example, where IBM offers AI-based tooling for discovery, planning, and execution. This tooling has been validated internally and with partners like Wipro and TCS, demonstrating significant efficiency gains (e.g., 99% savings on the discovery and planning phase). By providing advanced tools and technologies that streamline project execution and de-risk deployments, IBM enables Service partners to deliver projects more efficiently, accelerate time-to-value for clients, and enhance their profitability.

Enhancing Partner Engagement and Operations

Beyond these specific areas, IBM is implementing several go-to-market advancements to simplify engagement, personalize interactions, and enhance partner enablement. Simplification is a key theme, addressing historical friction points. IBM is leveraging Agentic AI to power a live AI system within the partner portal, assisting partners with tasks from password changes to checking proficiencies. It is automating operations with VARs and streamlining the onboarding process for new partners, drastically reducing the time it takes to get partners from acquisitions like HashiCorp and Apptio operational. Contracting for SaaS marketplaces has also been simplified with a single contract model. Personalization is being introduced through features like personalized dashboards in the partner portal, providing real-time earnings data to help partners navigate program tiers and maximize benefits. Enablement and Skills are paramount; IBM is providing increased access to technology resources via platforms like Tech Zone and is streamlining the education journey to ensure partners have access to the latest skills information.  IBM helps partners build technical expertise and eminence. We offer all registered partners access to the same training and enablement as IBM sellers at no cost to them, and we’ve seen over 348,000 completed badges since the program's launch. (as of May 2025).

Incentivizing SaaS Adoption and Growth

IBM is offering specific incentives as part of a new program to drive SaaS adoption through its partners. A key element of this program, effective from April 1st and running through the end of the year, is a new client acquisition bonus incentive. For every new SaaS client a partner brings in, defined as a client who hasn't spent anything with IBM for the last three years, partners can receive a 10% bonus incentive on top of their standard incentive stack. Beyond just the initial sale ("land"), the program also focuses on the crucial steps of deployment and adoption ("expand"). To encourage partners to focus on these aspects, IBM is introducing an additional 15% incentive specifically for deployment and adoption, measured over a 12-month deployment cycle starting from the deployment date. This approach benefits partners because it aligns their drivers with IBM's towards mutually beneficial outcomes. It provides a new learning opportunity for partners engaging with new SaaS clients and is designed to accelerate growth in the marketplace. The incentives reflect an understanding that success in SaaS, particularly in AI, is not just about the initial transaction but the ongoing deployment, adoption, cross-selling, and up-selling, forcing a much deeper and continuous interaction with clients.

Navigating the AI Adoption Landscape Within the Partner Ecosystem

This focus on partner incentives and enablement is particularly relevant given the current landscape of AI adoption within the partner ecosystem. Specifically, Techaisle's global survey of 2500 partners indicates that only 41% currently offer GenAI solutions, although 46% plan to do so. Regarding the more specific area of Agentic AI, the survey suggests that only 14% of partners offer it, and only 11% are trained enough to offer these services. Additionally, Techaisle data shows that 59% of partners are deriving 70% of new revenue from “expand” opportunities. IBM's initiatives, such as the new incentive program, the focus on simplifying engagement, personalizing interactions, and enhancing skills, the introduction of the Agent Connect program for partners to build and integrate their domain expertise via AI Agents, and efforts towards providing training and specialization for services partners, may help address these current adoption and training levels within the partner community, potentially bridging the gap between planned adoption and actual delivery capability in GenAI and Agentic AI solutions.

Cultivating an Open and Collaborative Ecosystem

IBM's ecosystem strategy is characterized by an open and collaborative approach. Recognizing that no single vendor can provide everything a client needs, IBM is committed to integrating the "best solutions" from a wide range of Strategic partners. These partnerships are not merely transactional; they are deeply integrated and account for nearly 50% of IBM Consulting's revenue. Key partners include AWS, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, Adobe, and Palo Alto Networks.

Specific examples of these collaborations highlight the depth of integration:

Addressing Challenges and Navigating Complexity

Despite the strategic focus and advancements, IBM acknowledges the challenges in navigating the complex ecosystem landscape. One significant challenge is feeling overwhelmed among clients, who are already grappling with the wave of new technologies, particularly agents, from various vendors. IBM's goal is not to add to this complexity but to help clients navigate it by connecting the dots between their existing investments (e.g., Oracle Fusion, Salesforce, Microsoft Copilot, AWS, GCP, SAP) and IBM's offerings.

Ensuring IBM products work seamlessly with native services from hyperscalers and other ISVs is critical. This means developing integrations like DB2 for RDS or ensuring watsonx.governance works well with Amazon Sagemaker. IBM recognizes that if its products don't integrate effectively, clients won't adopt them, regardless of their individual merit. Furthermore, ensuring partners see IBM's offerings as complementary rather than competitive is vital for gaining their advocacy.

Another challenge is providing flexibility (allowing clients to run and procure where they want) without adding to the confusion. The difficult conversation is convincing clients that an additional investment in IBM's solutions will help them extract value from their existing investments.

IBM recognizes that a significant challenge in the current technology landscape is effectively reaching and serving the vast and diverse customer base, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, which often requires a more expansive and localized presence than a single vendor can achieve alone. To address this, IBM has strategically initiated efforts to strengthen and leverage its partner ecosystem. This involves simplifying engagement models, such as streamlining onboarding and contracting for various partner types, including those from recent acquisitions, and introducing targeted incentives like the new SaaS client acquisition bonus. These initiatives are explicitly designed to empower value-added distributors, resellers, service partners, and ISVs to extend IBM's reach into new market segments and customer accounts that would be difficult or inefficient for IBM to address directly, thereby driving broader adoption of its AI and hybrid cloud solutions.

Conclusion: The Orchestral Approach to Success

Ultimately, IBM's ecosystem strategy is underpinned by recognizing that success in the AI and hybrid cloud era requires deep collaboration and integration across the technology landscape. By simplifying engagement, empowering partners with technology and skills, and fostering an open ecosystem that integrates the best solutions, IBM aims to help clients navigate complexity, unlock value from their data and existing investments, and drive mutual growth in this transformative period. The cultural shift towards a consumption-based model, where value is built over time through successful smaller engagements, is also a key element in evolving partner relationships. Through this orchestral approach, IBM and its partners strive to turn the potential chaos of rapid technological change into the choreography of successful innovation.

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