IBM Helps Business Partners Reach New Markets With Netezza Appliances

ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Capitalizing on the successful integration of its Netezza acquisition, IBM (NYSE: IBM) has launched a global initiative to help its Business Partners expand their analytics portfolio with IBM Netezza appliances. The initiative includes sales, marketing, and technical resources to make it easier for partners to market and sell Netezza into industries with strong demand for business analytics such as financial services, healthcare, and energy and utilities.

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Netezza appliances are an attractive entry point into business analytics for IBM partners. Unlike competing appliances, Netezza can be up and running in 24 hours and analyze petabytes of data significantly faster at a lower cost per terabyte.  The simplicity and ease-of-use of Netezza allows partners to quickly place analytics directly into the hands of business users within every department of a client's organization including sales, marketing, product development and human resources.

With today's news, IBM partners can help credit-qualified clients finance Netezza appliances through IBM Global Financing with fast approvals on zero percent financing for 12 months. Clients can also take advantage of flexible payment options and terms including competitive 24 and 36-month rates with options that let them match payments to anticipated cash flow. Credit-qualified IBM partners in North America can take advantage of a new 24-month lease to place Netezza inside their data centers for demonstration, development, testing and training purposes.*

"Netezza appliances provide IBM resellers, systems integrators and independent software vendors with a unique opportunity to grow their business," said Arvind Krishna, general manager, IBM Information Management. "Business analytics is going mainstream and IBM's goal is to arm its partners with the right skills and support to help our clients take advantage of this trend.  These resources are geared to make it easy for our partners to quickly infuse Netezza into their business model."

Netezza Resources for Partners

• Global Skills Bootcamps: IBM partners have access to more than a dozen no-charge skills bootcamps to gain hands-on training on how to set up, manage and maintain Netezza appliances. These four day bootcamps cover both technical and business best practices and participants can earn mastery certification upon completion of the course. Bootcamps are scheduled at client sites and IBM locations in key markets including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Argentina, Columbia, Belgium and Poland. Additional markets will be scheduled throughout the year.

• Proofs of Concepts: IBM partners can bring clients into any of IBM's global network of 40 Innovation Centers to test Netezza appliances. Partners can also build and optimize a new generation of business analytics applications to run on top of Netezza appliances.

• Software Value Plus (SVP): On October 1, qualified IBM partners can become authorized to resell Netezza appliances under the Software Value Plus program. SVP is IBM's authorized distribution model which offers partners the potential to maximize profits by reselling Netezza and other IBM products based on client needs and a partner's investment in skills. Authorization will help ensure that clients get the right technology, reduce the risk inherent in any deployment and increase return on investment. Benefits to partners can include incremental co-marketing funds to drive new leads, the use of a mark to distinguish partners from their competitors, joint go to market planning, and financial incentives rewarding industry solution sales.

• Software Value Incentive (SVI): On October 1, qualified IBM partners can earn fee based incentives for identifying new sales leads and actively engaging in Netezza sales. SVI rewards partners for their contribution throughout the sales process with a focus on midmarket opportunities.

IBM partner Fuzzy Logix is a predictive analytics software and services company that enables clients to embed analytics directly in their business processes, enterprise applications, mobile devices and Web services using in-database analytics that run inside the data warehouse. "Fuzzy Logix will use these resources from IBM to uncover global business opportunities and deliver higher value services to our clients," said Mike Upchurch, COO at Fuzzy Logix. "Our company has a long history of working with Netezza and our joint technologies are proven to help businesses quickly realize the benefits of analytics."

Netezza appliances are workload optimized systems based on IBM BladeCenter Technology. A workload optimized system is integrated hardware and software designed for industry-specific needs. Just as Netezza defined the data warehouse appliance market, IBM defined workload optimization with decades of experience building vertically integrated systems.

IBM partner Aginity specializes in reselling large databases and high-performance analytics to help clients turn their data into intelligent, profitable and actionable insight. "Aginity relies on IBM Netezza technology to help our clients bring big data and analytics together to create actionable and operational customer intelligence, especially in the retail and media industries," said Ted Westerheide, Chief Architect at Aginity. "We welcome IBM's extensive business analytics portfolio as we add depth to our offerings and expand into new markets."

On September 15, IBM will host a worldwide Webcast that details how IBM Business Partners can take advantage of these resources to market and sell Netezza appliances.  For more information on this and additional Netezza Webcasts for partners, visit: https://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/swg_com_sfw_data_netezza_webinar.

For more information on IBM Global Financing, visit: http://www-03.ibm.com/financing/us/lifecycle/acquire/itsoftware.html.

For more information on IBM Netezza skills bootcamps, visit: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/im/IBM+Netezza+Bootcamp.

For more information on IBM Innovation Centers, visit: http://www.ibm.com/isv/spc.

* Additional terms and conditions may apply. IBM Global Financing offerings are provided through IBM Credit LLC in the United States and other IBM subsidiaries and divisions worldwide to qualified commercial and government clients. Rates for credit-qualified clients and are based on a client's credit rating, financing terms, offering type, equipment type and options, and may vary by country. Other restrictions may apply. Rates and offerings are subject to change, extension or withdrawal without notice. Software financing is for one-time charge items only and is provided by means of a loan.

Contact:
Payal Patel Cudia
IBM
508-382-8373
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM