Obviously the highlight for the event (ok for me) is the keynote by Sam Palmisano. I’m sitting in the crowd right now as everyone files in. After hearing who they brought in, it was the IBM A team for Sam handlers. I’ve even noticed the other Keynote speakers near the front row to hear what he has to say….here goes.

Sam says that partners touch half of all the business that IBM does. What we are tying to do is say that the world is changing and that we need to shift in investments to capture the opportunity.

The economy shifts are real like the emergence of the global economy. It represents a phenomenal skill pool and an economic expansion.

There is an emergence of a new computing model, the PC model is (has been) receding in it’s relevance. This is enabling the global economy and emerging opportunities to come online.

There is a client focus on innovation and integration. How do we integrate ourselves on a global scale. Humor came in when he took shots on CEO’s about having little patience and always an opinion.

Are we training executives to be able to connect or to be powerpoint experts. Author: I agree with that one. I loathe presenters that can’t live without slides. In fact I loathe powerpoint.

Are we nervous about the political turmoil that the news reports? No, it is a tremendous opportunity, Author: I love capitalism….thanks Sam. IBM has made a decision to be a global company and have invested accordingly.

IBM has moved to a space different than consumer electronics like Green, SOA and other technologies that have strategic capability to compliment the 7 billion we invest in R&D, and offer better return to our investors. Author: 7 billion in R&D, 95% of companies would like that in just sales. Imagine what they are creating in the shops?

We changed our own processes and organization to enable innovation and growth, which hard to do for a 100 year old company. We did this to better integrate with partners and to innovate.

He asks to the partners “Can you change with us?” There is tremendous opportunity for IBM and partners to growth together, then describes how.

1. Global opportunities in growth markets - 3 billion people will come into the middle market in our lifetime. They need services enabled by IT. 3000 new partners in the BRIC’s. Go Sam, he mentions our innovation centers which IDR runs…my division gets a mention!

What about the BRIC’s? We just celebrated our 90th anniversary in Brazil. IBM understands how to operate in other countries locally. We understand that Brazil is different than China. We get demographics. We expanded the international aspects of our partner programs. The issue is a point of expertise, it is not just about low cost or the trends would be in one direction….they fluctuate.

2. New solutions for the mid-market. IBM outperformed the industry in this area. Services grew in double digits, the rest of what we do grew in single digits. This tells us what is growing, and what the locals are good at and where they need help.

We introduced Vertical Industry Programs - 1 billion in revenue for IBM this year. Not bad for a strategy.

Sam introduces the Blue Business Platform (BBP) - a new way to deliver IT for the IT industry. He talks about Louts Foundation Start….both products I’ve worked on for over a year. We are creating an application marketplace, it will be a hybrid model of cloud and on-premise. We are going to work with our partners on this marketplace.

2. The data center is now the point for optimization. We’ve been good in the past, but we will be good in the future as we will change what hasn’t been managed well. It now costs 3 times more to support the hardware than to procure it, not counting the network. Companies will have to revamp their data centers in the near future.

IBM’s point of view here is to solve the problem end to end. Not a piece part like a router or a front end x86 server. This doesn’t solve a CEO/CIO’s problems. Again, this an opportunity. Cloud computing has a role, but it is not the whole issue. Don’t dumb down the problem for a CEO. Workload balancing and scaling down are parts of the Green offerings. We have to solve the overall problem.

Companies have many of the same issues, how can we put a value proposition on the table that solves problems for 10’s of thousands of companies. Companies that come in trying to solve a problem with x86 servers will get thrown out by CEO’s, along with their powerpoint presentations.

People will invest where there is growth, just look at IBM’s earnings in the emerging markets. Skills and knowledge are what companies want. They desire solutions that are real, not powerpoint presentations.

He asks, “is this plausible?” He gives examples like SOA solving problems and addressing a 160 billion opportunity.

IBM and partners provide concrete, differentiating value to the businesses and institutions of a growing world. IBM has global reach and scales, is stronger in high growth segments, is able to deliver complete solutions, is mature, experienced and disciplined and has the financial strength and flexibility.

together we must invest in the sills and capabilities required to seize it and provide clients with a differentiating level of value and success.

Sam kids that he’s looking forward to be 100 years old (IBM’s anniversary as a company). He’d rather be looking down at the grass than looking up at it. IBM will come through any economic downturn better than most, so partners should stay with us. We were not troubled by the dot com bubble. Like Watson did, we invested in times of downturn. He mentions that we need to do it together with our partners. (I heard Gerstner say this a few years ago and I believed in both him and his strategy. History proved it does work).

I love that he is optimistic about the change and global opportunity. It is not as bad as the media tries to present it (any reader of mine knows I don’t trust the MSM).

He talked about how well we work with Google with little overlap in almost anything, except we are grounded in values and things like skills and cloud computing.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google then spoke and realized from talking with Sam that IBM has already done a lot of what they wanted to do in a meeting a few years ago.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 1:37 pm and is filed under ibm, partners, partnerworld. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.