PARTNER ACCOLADES

Top 10 Partner Events of 2007 | Top 10 Partner Programs for 2007

Partner update on IBM partner programs.

THE PARTNER PINNACLE AWARD

The Partner Pinnacle Award is now accepting applications for outstanding business partner and VAR programs. The Pinnacle Award is a recognition for manufacturers which offer progressive, innovative and mutually rewarding business partner programs. Nominations and applications will be accepted through April 30th. The award finalists will be notified by May 15th and the award winners will be announced on June 1. Applications are open to all companies which operate a business partner, OEM, VAR or comparable indirect channel program.

Margin Pressure

Value Added Resellers (VARs) in the business and information security software sectors are facing increasingly greater pressures due to declining growth, commoditized solutions and shrinking manufacturing margins. For the prior three years, software margins have declined an average of 4 percent per year and show no change in the coming year. Manufacturers cite increased research and development (R&D) costs, manufacturing costs, business development costs, distribution costs and partnership program costs as the primary culprits which chip away at their own operating margins.

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 The Partner Proliferation Problem

Partner programs are flexible with lead referral and geographical exclusivity options available for international partners with sufficient dollar volume committments. Alliance software as a service (SaaS) VAR programs are intended for tier 4 hosting companies or application service providers (ASPs) to directly host enterprise ERP and CRM software systems. The program offers hosting companies significant opportunities to deliver enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software systems on a global basis.