As per IDC, IBM is the only vendor to attain a positive year-on-year revenue growth of 4.3% (Q1 2009 over Q1 2008) in the India non-x86 UNIX Server market. IBM also emerged as the leader in the India non-x86 UNIX Server market in terms of Factory Revenue in Q1 2009 (JFM 2009 quarter), as per IDC's Asia/Pacific Enterprise Server Tracker, Q1 2009, June 2009 release. IDC also has tracked that IBM was the leader in India's x86 Blade Server Market in revenue terms in Q2 2009. VARIndia has had the opportunity to interact with Shailesh Agarwal, Vice-President, Business Systems, STG , IBM India/South Asia, to know about IBM's strategy.

For decades, the Mainframe was inarguably the leading data processing machine in the world's largest corporations. Some believed it would eventually become obsolete, but IBM continues to prove them wrong. Today, most of the world's largest enterprises rely on Mainframes for their mission-critical transaction processing and data serving. About 80% of corporate data resides or originates on the Mainframe due to its superior security, virtualization and collaborative processing capabilities. IBM has gained market share back to what it was back in 1992, which was the pinnacle of its success.

Mainframes are extremely relevant today as trends like cloud computing are encouraging customers to consolidate on larger systems. This is playing to System z's strength because of its unmatched ability to manage all aspects of transactions, in an integrated manner. IBM continues to open up the System z mainframe to new workloads - Linux, Java, XML, data analytics, etc. Customers can run more of their business on z than ever before. And the z10 is the equivalent of nearly 1500 x86 servers, with an 85-per cent smaller footprint.

Shailesh says, "We established the Mainframe Centre of Excellence to enable enhancing mainframe skills and are addressing the skills issue for zOS through our academic initiative."

IBM is taking the lead in developing the next generation of mainframe engineers in India by launching many initiatives, one of which is the IBM Academic Initiative: System z Programme. This is a joint programme with 230 universities worldwide that is designed to train 20,000 mainframe engineers by 2010. It provides colleges and universities with educational resources to enhance the IBM System z skilled resource base and help students develop practical skills that enable them to find good jobs quickly upon graduation. This also helps Clients and Business Partners have access to qualified mainframe talent, strengthen collaboration with academia, and develop targeted work-study programmes. In coordination with SHARE, IBM also has zNext Generation, a global community for mainframe system veterans and new mainframe professionals to come together, exchange ideas and learn from each other.

He adds, "In May this year, we launched the new generation of System x and BladeCenter servers based on the Intel Xeon processor 5500 (HS22 Blade Server, the 3650 M2 and the 3550 M2). With this launch, IBM engineers addressed key challenges in today's datacenter, where hefty costs for power usage and IT management pile-up, while processors sit idle or under-utilized."

To help enable a more dynamic infrastructure, IBM's four new x86 rack servers and blades feature unique designs - such as lower wattage requirements - that can slash energy costs up to 93 per cent. IBM is also introducing "Express" models of three systems that are designed for midsize companies. Two rack-mounted servers, the System x3650 M2 Express and x3550 M2 Express, which deliver twice the virtualization performance and use up to 60 per cent less power than previous generations.
· Customer Benefits:
· Significantly lower power savings - over $100/server/year
· Reduce operating costs by 90%
· Achieve 9:1 server consolidation
· Drive server utilization up to 80%.

There are significant investments being made into the System x portfolio particularly with the launch of the new generation of System x and BladeCenter servers based on the Intel Xeon processor 5,500 across the System x and BladeCenter Portfolio. We also continue to be one of the largest investors in Open Source technologies which predominantly run on x86 platform.
Today, as per IDC, with a whopping 22.6 points revenue share increase YTY, IBM led the x86 Blade server market segment in Q2 2009 with a 50.9% share.

"We feel that the strong customer validation demonstrated in these reports only reinforce what customers demand most in the current economic environment – best-of-class technology from a trusted long-term technology partner. IBM is making impact with our approach of providing clients innovative infrastructure and technology solutions that help them overcome the business challenges they are facing. IBM Systems and Storage offers industry-leading performance, cost optimization and energy efficiency through the integrated framework of dynamic infrastructure. We also continue to strengthen our ecosystem with Business partners and ISVs so as to increase our reach, as well as choice of business solutions for our clients in Enterprise and SMB marketplace," said Mukul Mathur, Director - Systems and Technology Group, IBM India/SA.

Shailesh adds, "We have also increased our focus on POWER6, Blade and DI offerings. IBM’s POWER6 (and POWER6+) processors running at a speed of 5 GHz are the fastest chips in the world. Overall, IBM Power Systems with POWER6 technology have recorded more than 70 industry-leading performance benchmarks. IBM also plans to offer the new Power7 processors which will offer two to three times the performance of Power6 using the same amount of energy. IBM will release Power 7 based Power systems in 2010. Power7 is a successor to Power6 and will come in 2, 4 and 8 core versions."

IBM is committed to the server and the storage market and believes in the growth potential that this segment holds. According to Shailesh, the company continues to invest in state-of-the-art technologies and market-leading products, solutions and services. Additionally, it has made substantial investments in research and development using commercially available products to deliver the most reliable, highly available, energy-efficient platforms for customers at competitive prices.

There is no one-size-fits-all system that can adequately meet the varied needs of today's businesses. By taking a comprehensive view of IT operations, we help transform IT infrastructure into an agile operation to help customers meet their strategic goals and in a budget that they can afford. In the past three years, more than 1,500 customers globally have used our migration services to migrate off Sun, HP and other competitors. The Sun DTH win was a significant win against competition, where the client chooses to partner with us owing to the sheer breadth of our solutions and industry expertise.

He adds, "We have increased our focus on the mid-market. We find that clients, especially in this segment, are increasingly conscious about ‘value’. To address this, we are working with our Business Partners on building and enhancing their skill levels to help them showcase the value proposition of our solutions to medium sized businesses. At a time when our competitors are cutting back on resources for partners, IBM continues to invest in its partner’s success - to the tune of $2.5 billion this year, globally. We continue to increase our marketing and demand generation programme spend in India so as our Business Partners can effectively address the needs and demands of our customers."

He maintains, "In partnership with IBM Global Finance (IGF), we also help arrange flexible payment terms for our clients and partners. With IGF, our aim is to help our clients manage their IT acquisitions and operational costs, allowing them to invest for growth. Business Partners can exploit the power of their inventory and cash flow to obtain low-cost working capital for their business. By doing so, they can increase IT purchasing power and conserve financial resources for their core business requirements. IGF's web-based financing tool for Channel Partners (Rapid Online Financing) is specifically aimed at providing solution for lower size deals. This tool provides a convenient way for Channel Partners to obtain quotes right through to contract preparation."

IBM takes the growth of the Business partners seriously and for this the company has enablement initiatives like periodic training on products, sales incentives, as well as various platforms that give them direct access to the company. IBM's learning and training programmes for its channel partners have helped the company to steadily take specific technologies to customers - large and small. Shailesh adds, "Our initiatives are unique and different because we understand their primary growth drivers and their evolving needs and establish a two-way communication channel with them. We work closely with our Business Partners and enable them through learning and training, skill enhancement, finance options as well as innovative marketing outreach.

The Partner Sales Support Centre designed to provide IBM Business Partners throughout India with services specific to sales opportunities. The Partner Sales Support Centre is a centralized team operating from IBM that will help business partners with product positioning, competitive updates, customized customer configuration, and customized product pricing. IBM teams based in the North, South, East and West will help business partners in those regions determine the best technologies for their customers and will help strengthen collaboration with IBM.

BP Seller Eco-link Model is designed to enable co-selling and co-delivering with Business Partners on highly customized solutions that include a combination of IBM and Business Partner sales and technical skills. The Eco-Link is a cross-IBM function and cross-IBM partner business network that promotes Partners’ collaboration to come up with a compelling value proposition to the customers. The advantage of the eco-system is that it enables ISVs in getting market reach to new geographies and new customers with the help of IBM value-added resellers and system integrators.

According to Shailesh, from a technology/product standpoint, IBM has always taken the lead in the market. For example, they have launched a unique offering, IBM Smart Business in the marketplace. Smart Business is IBM's next-generation integrated IT platform that delivers pre-loaded and pre-integrated applications with IBM software. Currently, there are 30 ISVs who have ported their applications on IBM Smart Business Platform.

Financing enables partners to sell more by making solutions more affordable and overcoming the clients' cost and budget objections. IBM Global Financing can help make Channel Partner business more profitable, more productive and more competitive in the marketplace.

He adds, "We will continue to invest in marketing, Business Partner skilling, technology roadmap and innovative marketing initiatives like BladeCenter Express Bus and Widget. In association with our BPs, we recently launched the BladeCenter Express Bus to bring the IBM BladeCenter technology closer to our customers/prospects and to be able to showcase real-time the benefits of the BladeCenter." Widget offers instant access to all partner-related communication in one window. With the help of the Widget, partners can access any partner related communication, tools, programmes, offers, pricelists, etc. Another major initiative is "The Mobile Price Tracker" which allows Business Partners to access the latest information on IBM Run-Rate products, options, prices, schemes and rebates - on their Mobile Phones. It can also help Business Partner reps to configure base models with required options and arrive at a final price - all with a few clicks on their cellphone. In addition, IBM has also invested in tools like Global Partner Portal (GPP) and Online Price Request Application (OPRA), which allows partners to pass on their leads and incorporate price requests online.
As far as verticals are concerned, the company has over the years seen continuous growth across its platforms and verticals like the telecom, BFSI, public sector/government vertical, education, among other sectors. The company has been extremely successful with its strategy of providing innovative end-to-end offerings tailored for specific business purposes and verticals.

Similarly, keeping channel in good humour is another focus area for IBM. Sheilesh says, "We continue to recognize and reward outstanding contributions from our Business Partners. Teamworks Solutions Private Limited, a premier business partner of IBM, specializing in developing products for streamlining and optimizing internal business processes, was recently named winner of the award for 'Excellence in Mid-Market – Asia-Pacific Growth Markets' in the 2009 IBM Beacon Awards competition for delivering outstanding value and innovative approaches to helping clients address unique business challenges."

In addition to the other incentive programmes, the company has also instituted the IBM Value Rewards programme for ISVs. As part of this programme, contracted ISVs receive a rebate on the total deal value of IBM hardware brands on influencing the closure of deals either through a sales or marketing activity.

Finally....

IBM is well positioned to lead the industries transformation and will continue to push forward with an aggressive strategy and harness the potential of the market with leading edge products, solutions and services. A dynamic infrastructure is designed to help clients integrate the growing intelligent business infrastructure with the necessary underlying design of a flexible, secure and seamlessly managed IT infrastructure so that organizations can respond quickly and successfully to changes as dynamically as they occur. Building a more dynamic infrastructure is not just an operational imperative; it is a financial and competitive necessity. With proven experience in thousands of successful client engagements and the use of established reference architectures, IBM is focussed on helping clients avoid costly missteps. Shailesh concludes, "We provide the guidance needed to identify and implement initiatives that can help companies achieve their objectives more quickly by: Leveraging what is already in place; Simplifying the infrastructure to better accommodate new technologies (consolidation and virtualization, for example); Deploying the best blended sourcing strategy options for service delivery; Capturing savings within a defined payback period and Increasing return on any new investments."