Transforming the partner experience with innovative tools and ongoing feedback
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IBM: transforming the partner experience with innovative tools and ongoing feedback
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Mike Fino, Vice President & COO, IBM Partner Ecosystem, discusses the solutions driving enhanced sales operations for its business partners and the potency of client feedback
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BM’s illustrious and prolific history has made the company synonymous with both technology and innovation. However,
Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners at IBM, says that IBM’s pedigree is never a foregone conclusion. “Our business partners have many 04
choices, and we want them to feel that partnering with IBM gives them access to the best technologies, the most effective experience, and the most efficient way for them to take care of their clients,” he explains. “While we are well on the transformation journey we began with our partners in 2017, there is never a point in time when we’ll say that we’re done improving, evolving our processes, or making tools better. The IBM Partner Ecosystem is a growth mindset environment.” Over the past year and a half, IBM’s Partner Ecosystem team has transformed its tooling and overhauled partner engagement. They implemented a Global NPS (Net Promoter Score) solution that has since been propagated across IBM’s Global Partner Ecosystem, and the insights gleaned from the resulting client and partner feedback have been
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“ We want our partners to feel that partnering with IBM gives them access to the best technologies, the most effective experience, and the most efficient way for them to take care of their clients” 06
— Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners, IBM
instrumental in improving the partner experience. “We use the feedback to help us set our priorities for transformation investment. Then, as we transform, we continue to use ongoing NPS feedback to ensure that we’re moving in the right direction,” says Fino. Once a partner provides feedback, IBM responds within 24 hours to quickly establish a line of communication. “We may not have all the answers in 24 hours,” adds Fino. . “But within that time we let them know that we heard them and we are working on a response.” Extensive, systematic audits are
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘IBM PARTNERWORLD – COMPTA EMERGING BUSINESS OUTSMARTS WILDFIRES AND PROTECTS LIVES WITH IBM WATSON’ 07 conducted on the returned engage-
but they can also connect with other
ments themselves to ensure they are
partners with whom they can share
of a certain quality, and that responses
complementary skills. From a single
address specific raised concerns.
sign-on, IBM’s partners can leverage a
“This is where the power of NPS
trio of powerful tools in the IBM Partner
becomes apparent,” enthuses Fino.
Ecosystem that each enable them to
“Making client feedback a way of life
maximize their sales potential: Partner-
is really what moves the needle, and
World, Seismic, and Skills Gateway.
we’ve seen that over the past year
While each solution is powerful on its
and a half for the ecosystem.”
own, they provide exponential potential
Engagement with this feedback has
when used together. They are designed
enabled IBM to hone its partner
to be interoperable, enabling seamless
platform in such a way that partners
interaction between the three. Skills
are not only able to access vital
Gateway provides sales training,
information whenever they need it,
courses and tests; Seismic offers the w w w.i b m . com
IBM
08 platform for client engagement as well as supportive sales collateral (kits, plays and assets) that is designed to enable partners to progress sales opportunities; and PartnerWorld serves as an onboarding and enablement tool that links with the cutting-edge, AI-driven Business Partner (BP) Connect solution, which facilitates collaboration among partners. “BP Connect is where the scope really becomes exponential,” says Fino. “You’ve got your skills, your sales collateral, and now you want to find an IBM Business Partner with adjacent or ancillary skills that can fill gaps in your
“ It’s a mantra for how we live in support of the IBM ecosystem: a burning desire to never be done, to always want to be better” — Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners, IBM
own expertise. By collaborating with another IBM partner, you can quickly and efficiently bring a solution together for a client without necessarily having to become an expert in all things yourself.” Powered by IBM’s proprietary Watson artificial intelligence (AI) solution, BP Connect intelligently banks and cross-references partners’ skills to provide matches to the most appropriate and complementary partner for their own needs. Through Skills Gateway, partners can broaden and 09
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Mike Fino Mike Fino is Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, IBM Partner Ecosystem, where he has overall responsibility for transformation and operations across IBM’s dynamic global ecosystem of business partners. Mike leads agile teams that deliver measurable results, which are validated using client engagement tools, such as Net Promoter Score (NPS). Mike has 25 years’ experience leading key functional areas of integrated operations at IBM. Prior to his current role, he led enterprise transformation, sales operations and strategy for the channel. Before starting his position with the partner ecosystem, Mike served in leadership roles within supply chain management operations.
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“ Our competition is moving quickly, which means we need to move even more quickly” — Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners, IBM
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“ By partnering with another IBM partner, you can quickly and efficiently bring a solution together for the client without necessarily having to become an expert in all things yourself” — Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners, IBM
deepen their skillsets; their completed training is recorded by BP Connect and makes them a more attractive prospect for others looking to collaborate on a project. “If you’ve advanced your skills from one discipline to four disciplines, you become that much more appealing – in terms of the different body of work or knowledge that you have – for other partners who may be seeking that expertise,” says Fino. IBM has also infused additional AI capabilities into the ecosystem. The company uses AI to match its business partners with business leads that are
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘BUILD CUSTOMER LOYALTY WITH WATSON MARKETING’
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IBM
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“ We’ve built a system called SCORE which continually learns based on feedback, win-rates, and which partners are excelling at particular skills and capabilities” — Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners, IBM
appropriate for their skills and their historic performance with similar opportunities. “We’ve built a system called SCORE which continually learns based on feedback, win-rates, and which partners are excelling at particular skills and capabilities. It then considers all that information in near real-time and uses it to select and pass a lead to the partner that is best positioned to win or advance that opportunity.” In sum, these components comprise a deeply powerful sales ecosystem that is designed to enable partners to
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make the most of every lead, develop
bring to the table each and every day,
their skills, and build up a network of
that helps to ensure that, when choices
partners with whom they can develop
get made, the partners and clients
symbiotic sales relationships. The
prefer our business model over
powerful combination of these tools
everybody else’s. It’s a mantra for how
gives IBM a unique competitive
we live in support of the IBM ecosystem:
differentiator, proving to be an excep-
a burning desire to never be done,
tional asset in the marketplace. “Our
to always want to be better.”
competition is moving quickly, which means we need to move even more quickly,” concludes Fino. “Our partners always have choices. It’s about continuing to be relevant in the minds of our partners. If they see the value we w w w.i b m . com
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