The vice president of marketing and strategy for IBM software group Scott Hebner said yesterday the company is expanding last year’s investment of $1bn, that was used to create the IBM PartnerWorld Industry Network for ISVs (PWIN), by supporting more customers in more vertical sectors.
Speaking at IBM’s PartnerWorld conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Hebner said PWIM would now also address education and learning, fabrication and assembly, media and entertainment, and wholesale distribution.
Additionally, IBM is dedicating a further 1,000 sales people, with specific industry and geographic expertise, to work with ISVs. Hebner did not provide numbers, but called the expansion: An escalation of the investment we made last year.
Hebner used the announcement to stress IBM’s credentials as a partner for application providers through programs like PWIM and ISV Advantage. IBM’s software strategy is to provide platforms and middleware for ISVs’ applications to run on.
IBM is taking a counter stance to rival Microsoft Corp, who has a history of entering new markets and threatening partners like business applications.
Hebner did not cite Microsoft by name yesterday, but said: Rather than build applications we partner. Our focus… [is] on business consulting, hardware and storage, and middleware. What’s unique about our approach is we are doing this via a partner network.
