IBM Rolls Out Smarter Commerce Channel Program

IBM today extended its Smarter Commerce initiative with not only a series of new cloud-based offerings, but also the formal rollout of a channel program for those specific services.

Unveiled today at the company’s first annual Smarter Commerce Summit, the IBM Smarter Commerce for Business Partners program is intended to accelerate the adoption of a series of e-commerce centric services that IBM is rolling out on a global basis.

IBM declined to detail any of the details related to compensating solution providers in the program. Like most vendors IBM is struggling with how to compensate partners that sell cloud services that come with multi-year contracts. The challenge being that channel partners are typically paid based on the revenue generated by a product sale versus the delivery of a service that may be cancelled at any moment over the life of the contract.

Craig Hayman, general manager for IBM industry solutions, did say that IBM is setting a high bar-including the ability to demonstrate actual commerce expertise via reference customers - for Smarter Commerce partners, which may account for why there are currently only nine solution providers in the entire Smarter Commerce partner program.

At the same time, IBM has dedicated over 1,000 employees to create Smarter Commerce centers of excellence around the globe, which indicates the level of commitment the company has to this particular initiative.