Monday Morning Impact – May 13

IBM Services Forges Alliance with Lenovo, Using Cognitive and Blockchain

IBM has announced that it will support Lenovo’s Data Center Group with Cognitive and Blockchain-powered field service solutions in over 200 countries, extending a multi-year agreement shared by the two companies since 2005.

This collaboration is intended to take customer care to the next level. When a customer connects with an agent for Lenovo’s server, storage, or networking services, IBM’s Virtual Assistant for Technical Support uses its natural language capabilities and contextual recognition to personalize the conversation. It is designed to ask targeted questions about service issues and obtain solution advice. It will also access key customer information, aligning to Lenovo’s focus on driving a fast, effortless, and proactive customer support experience.

These IBM services are designed to integrate the global coverage and capacity of IBM’s Customer Engagement Centers’ field service solutions, and parts and logistics services around the world, with the help of Blockchain technologies, a virtual assistant to augment tech support, analytics/trend analysis, and real-time shared videos.

“Data can have an unprecedented impact on the enterprise, and artificial intelligence can take customer service to a whole new level of personalization,” said IBM General Manager of Technology Support and Services, Vivek Mahajan. “This global collaboration with Lenovo further strengthens our long-standing relationship and will help to empower technicians in every corner of the globe to help deliver service excellence using the power of Blockchain and Cognitive Computing.”

IBM Technology Support Services receives more than 50 million service requests per year in over 200 countries worldwide, and provides support for over 30,000 IBM and non-IBM products.

Channel Impact^®
Over the years, a host of new technologies have been developed to deliver higher quality support in the most cost-effective ways. This initiative expands the capabilities of IBM and Lenovo to deliver on that promise.

Dell Reflags and Updates Partner Program

The Dell EMC Partner Program has been rebranded as the “Dell Technologies Partner Program,” as the Texas-based company seeks to encourage partners to cross-sell and procure products and solutions across the full Dell Technologies portfolio.

“Our partners asked us to make it easier to do business across our full Dell Technologies portfolio, so we made it a top priority,” said Joyce Mullen, president, Global Channel, OEM and IoT. “By providing our partners with a clear roadmap and investing in training and development, partners will win even more deals and grow their business.”

In February the company announced that VMware solutions purchased through Dell would count toward Dell EMC Partner Program tier requirements. This has now been expanded to include all sales from strategically aligned business transacted through the Dell Technologies Partner Program.

The roll-outs include two new solution badges composed of already in-market certifications to validate a breadth of capability to support, and deploy across a solution. These new solution badges support Cloud Platform and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, respectively.

The company is also announcing a new cloud competency that will be composed of the Cloud Platform Badge and a few other certifications, including Services Delivery Competency on VxRail. Full certification requirements are expected in Q3.

Specific discounts on storage products have also been adjusted.

Channel Impact^®
The introduction of the new program comes as the company significantly expands its partner focus around storage and cloud, encouraging the channel to do more business with transformational solutions.

Swimlane announces Channel Program, Technical Alliances Program

Swimlane, a Denver-based security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) vendor, has launched a new channel program and technical alliances program. The company also announced that its SOAR solution is now available on Linux with support for Docker and Kubernetes, allowing for an improved DevSecOps approach to cybersecurity.

DevSecOps merges development and operations with security practices in an effort to remove silos and boost information sharing. With Swimlane 4.0, users can install Swimlane on Linux, with support for Docker and Kubernetes and configure the platform in a way that best suits their needs.

The new channel program includes a tiered certification program that provides training, variable discounts and a simplified pricing model based on the number of end users with no cost for alerts, actions, or integrations. The program also enables partners to more effectively leverage demos and proof of concepts (POCs) in the sales process. Based on their level of engagement, partners can also be trained to provide professional services for the Swimlane platform.

Meanwhile, the technical alliance program is designed to help the company’s technology partners get better access to the team, product and community, allowing vendors to create integrations faster and fostering stronger bonds with technology partners.

“As we launch this program, we hope to take an even more collaborative approach to security,” said CEO Cody Cornell. “SOAR is an impactful solution that provides the automation necessary for any enterprise to keep up with an ever-evolving threat landscape.”

Channel Impact^®
Swimlane has vocally supported a collaborative approach to cybersecurity, including extensive information sharing among security operations centers. The two programs included in this announcement tend to support that perspective from both a technical point of view and a sales point of view.