Arrow ECS IBM Group Newsletter

IBM Top Gun Update... Face-to-Face & Virtual Classes - 2Q2010

Sales, Solutions and Competitive Training
www.ibm.com/systems/fielded


March 8, 2010


This note outlines IBM Top Gun face-to-face and virtual learning sales training classes for the second quarter of 2010.   

Important Changes to SVI that Benefit Arrow Partners

Conference call on March 12 to provide details
 

Announcing Value Recognition for SVI!

In an effort to reward IBM Software Business Partners who provide value in IBM software sales, effective May 15, 2010, IBM is changing the special bid process for North America IBM Software Business Partners.

All qualifying IBM Business Partners have access to standard volume discounts in Passport Advantage. However, if a special bid is requested by the customer, it will be made available only to qualifying Business Partners who meet criteria for special bids and it is possible that only one partner on a bid can qualify for special bid discounting.

WW STG PartnerWorld Assessments & Migration Factory Webinar

Companies are constantly looking for ways to improve their business and gain a competitive edge. Often, these newfound opportunities for improvement have the potential to affect a company's basic IT infrastructure and may require the migration of core applications and databases to a new environment. However, where do you start? Where should you target to migrate first? What should you migrate first to give you the best return on investment (ROI) and lowest total cost of ownership (TCO)? We can help you answer those questions. IBM has built a world-class migration capability to help customers move from their current non-IBM platform to IBM Systems. Come learn about how IBM's Assessment programs and Migration Factory can help you create a successful migration to IBM. We are offering a webinar on this topic the following two dates and times. Please pick the best time for you to attend and join us for one the most important webinars you can attend ALL year! February 26, 2010, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm ET. Register here! March 11, 2010, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm ET. Register here! You will be provided the conference call in numbers one you register! So register now!

“IBM Smarter Cities Virtual Leadership Forum”

Invite Your Clients To Experience Smarter Cities from the Comfort of Their Office February 23rd at 10:30 a.m. EST

Invite your clients to the “IBM Smarter Cities Virtual Leadership Forum” on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010!  This online gathering builds on the success of our Smarter Cities events in 2009, and allows us to extend our reach beyond the face to face venues. The event kicks off with a welcome by Bridget van Kralingen, IBM General Manager, North America, and keynotes by The Honorable Bev Perdue, Governor of North Carolina, and Joseph M. Rigby, Chairman, President and CEO, Pepco Holdings, Inc.

This unique interactive program is designed to foster dialogue with and among executive clients and potential clients, and will appeal to:

• Line of Business and C-Level Executives from Private Sector and Public Sector
• Government Leaders and Policy Makers from Public Sector
• State Governors, Economic Stimulus Directors, Secretaries of Commerce / Education / Health and Human Services / Transportation / Energy
• County Commissioners and City Mayors, Managers, and Council members
• Key influencers and decision makers from nonprofit organizations and leaders from civic organizations
• Executives from associations / technology councils and associations
• Clients of IBM Business Partners  

I encourage you to leverage this event to get 2010 off to a great start.  Invite your clients today!   A registration link and client-ready invitation are available in the tabs below.  Please contact Jeremy Dies/Cambridge/IBM with any questions or for additional information.  

Smarter Cities Virtual Leadership Forum Date:  February 23, 2010 Time:  10:30 am EST   Location:  Your Desktop Cost:  Complimentary Click Here to Register Now!

The agenda for this virtual experience includes six breakout sessions with expert speakers: (All times shown are Eastern Standard Time) 10:30am Show Opening 10:45am - 12:15pm General Session: Welcome by Bridget van Kralingen, IBM General Manager, North America Keynotes by The Honorable Bev Perdue, Governor of North Carolina, and Joseph M. Rigby, Chairman, President and CEO, Pepco Holdings, Inc. 12:15pm - 12:45pm Question & Answer Session 12:45pm - 1:00pm Break 1:00pm - 1:45pm Breakout Sessions: Smarter Transportation Smarter Government Smarter Energy 1:45pm - 2:00pm Break 2:00pm - 2:45pm Breakout Sessions: Smarter Healthcare Education for a Smarter Planet Smarter Public Safety 2:45pm - 3:00pm Show Closing Smarter Energy:   Todd McGregor, Advanced Metering Infrastructure Program Manager for Pepco Holdings,  Inc. Guido Bartels, IBM General Manager, Global Energy & Utilities Industry Smarter Transportation:   Pat McCrory, Sr. Director of Strategic Initiatives, Moore & Van Allen; Partner, McCrory & Co; and former Mayor Charlotte, NC Bob Kingston, Director of Aviation Facilities, McCarran Airport, Las Vegas Gerry Mooney, IBM General Manager, Global Government and Education Smarter Government: Barbara Ramsey, Assistant Director Unemployment Insurance Tax, Oklahoma Employment Security Commission Don R. Edwards, Assistant Agency Director, Administration and Information Services, Alameda County Social Services Agency Nicole Gardner, IBM Vice President, Social Services, Global Business Services Education for a Smarter Planet: J.L. Albert, Associate Provost and CIO Information Systems & Technology, Georgia State University Sharon P. Pitt, Executive Director, Division of Instructional Technology, George Mason University Mike King, IBM Vice President, Global Education Industry Smarter Public Safety: Stephen Hollifield, CIO, City of Richmond Police Pat McCrory, Sr. Director of Strategic Initiatives, Moore & Van Allen; Partner, McCrory & Co.; and former Mayor of Charlotte, NC George Cruser, IBM Vice President, Global Business Services Public Sector Smarter Healthcare: Dr. Daniel Martich, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Chief Medical Information Officer Asif Ahmad, Vice President for Diagnostic Services and Chief Information Officer, Duke University Medical Center Patrick Boyle, IBM Director, Public Sector East Region Solution Sales

"Information Management Introduction to Cognos Hot Topic Call"

Agenda:

Why Business Intelligence

Introduction to Cognos and CX

Brief Synopsis of Software ValueNet Processes

 

Date: March 19th 12:00 CT, 1:00 ET

 

Target Audience is: Current Business Intelligence Practice or Partners of Oracle, Business Objects, Hyperion, Micro Strategy, Microsoft, QlikTech

Geographic Target is: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Western Canada (Alberta: Edmonton and Winnipeg and British Colombia: Vancouver) Missouri, Wisconsin, Texas (particularly Dallas/Austin), Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas
Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington S. Virginia, North & South Carolina, Northern New England (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine)

Expertise Target is: Data-warehousing, Analytics,  Oil/Gas, Healthcare, Government, Financial Services, IBM applications/solutions that closely complement Cognos.

Guest Speaker is: Amy Richards

Register here:

US Dial-in number	1 800 219.3192
Passcode:	912 241 76#

https://arrow.webex.com/arrow/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=710413827 

Storage 1Q 2010 Announcement! In case you missed the Storage education, here's replay information

REPLAY CALL:  Feb. Information Infrastructure Launch Overview – Replay from Feb 3
Please attend this important education call. We have some very exciting new offerings to help you grow your sales in 2010.
See details for IBMers and IBM Business Partners.

REPLAY CALL:  IBM TS7680 Deduplication Gateway for Sellers – Replay from Feb 4
Selling Deduplication to Open Systems users provides the seller with an approximate 7:1 return, i.e. $7 of additional hardware, services revenue for each $1 of deduplication software sold.  This type of return is now available to System z  sellers with the announcement of the TS7680 Deduplication for the z Series.  Please join us to learn what the TS7680 product is, how it works, the value props, the competitive advantages and how to identify and qualify a prospect.  See details for IBMers and IBM Business Partners.
 
REPLAY CALL:  IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage for Sellers – Replay from Feb 4
Understand how IBM Scale Out Network Attach Storage is a new category of storage that increases operational efficiency, reduces management complexity, and enables new business opportunities. This next generation multi-petabyte enterprise class storage offering can benefit customers with massive scalability and global access to data in a single name space. Don't miss this opportunity to grow your sales in 2010!  See details for IBMers and IBM Business Partners.

CALL:  IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage Technical Update – Replay from Feb 10
At the end of this IBM Scale Out NAS technical teleconf, the attendees should be able to:  describe the Scale Out NAS marketplace technical requirements, pain points, describe IBM's strategic approach to Scale Out NAS and Cloud Storage using SONAS; describe IBM SONAS architecture; describe IBM SONAS hardware structure (management nodes, Interface nodes, Infiniband switches, storage pods, disk drive choices); describe how IBM SONAS changes the way customers manage their data, using SONAS as a global virtual file server (including high performance parallel read, write, scan; intelligent load balancing, dynamic thin provisioning; parallel simultaneous access to single file by heterogeneous clients, clustered CIFS and NFS with transparent failover; automated Tiered Storage (Integrated ILM / HSM), storage pools, policy engine; CLI, GUI, Health Center, security; high availability and backup/restore with TSM;  HSM to tape with TSM/HSM); describe basic IBM SONAS performance, usage, sizing, configuration, and installation; and describe target markets.  See details for IBMers and IBM Business Partners.

CALL:  IBM TS7680 Deduplication Gateway for System z Technical Overview – Replay from Feb 11
Attend this session to get a technical deep dive about the new IBM Systems Storage TS7680 Deduplication Gateway for System z. The session will include details on the TS7680 product and how it works; competitive advantages; characteristics of a good prospect; and how to qualify opportunities. See details for IBMers and IBM Business Partners.

Arrow ECS's Popular SWAT Workshops Make Their Return

With the launch of Software Value Plus, IBM's authorized software reseller program, partners are required to achieve brand certifications to secure and maintain their authorizations to resell IBM Software.

Arrow has remained lock-step with these changes and is bringing our SWAT (Software Accelerated Training) Workshops back this year. These workshops will cover sales mastery training and testing in all five IBM Software brands (SWAT) and technical sales mastery in high demand brands (TSWAT). 

Here is what Arrow ECS will be offering March 2-4, 2010 in the Alpharetta, GA office:

• March 2^nd – TSWAT Classes Data Warehousing M30 (8:00 am - NOON) and ITM M02 (1:00 pm - 5:00 pm) *
• March 3^rd & 4th – SWAT Classes Tivoli, Rational, WebSphere, Lotus and IM (8:00 am - 5:00 pm on March 3rd; 8:00 am - 3:00 pm on March 4th)

*M30 Data Warehouse counts toward the Information Management Data product group and Tivoli Monitoring counts toward Tivoli Business Automation product group for technical certification.

To register for any or all of these classes, please go here: https://www.onlineregistrationcenter.com/registerlist.asp?m=135&p=2&S=7&sb=1

Class Descriptions:

Tivoli Monitoring M02: This class is designed to give the attendee the necessary knowledge to pass the technical sales mastery test.  The class will cover; components that comprise ITM (IBM Tivoli Monitoring), benefits of monitoring, using the Tivoli Portal, Administration, and customer use scenarios. 

Information Management C-Class Infosphere Warehouse M30: This class is designed to give the attendee the necessary knowledge to pass the technical sales mastery test.  The class will cover; value proposition, features, architecture, installation, and administration.                                          

Information Management Sales Mastery SWAT Class: This class is designed to give the attendee the necessary knowledge to pass the Information Management sales mastery test.  The class will cover many of the products in the IM product family.  It is designed to give the sales person a good overview of the products, how to identify opportunities and positioning them.  The class will have an associated test which will require a system with Internet access and a browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox.                                        

Lotus Sales Mastery SWAT Class: This class is designed to give the attendee the necessary knowledge to pass the Lotus Portal sales mastery test.  The class will cover many of the products in the Lotus product family.  It is designed to give the sales person a good overview of the products, how to identify opportunities and positioning them.  The class will have an associated test which will require a system with Internet access and a browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox.                                               

Tivoli Sales Mastery SWAT Class: This class is designed to give the attendee the necessary knowledge to pass the Tivoli sales mastery test for storage, automation or security.  The class will cover many of the products in the Tivoli product family.  It is designed to give the sales person a good overview of the products, how to identify opportunities and positioning them.  The class will have an associated test which will require a system with Internet access and a browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox.                                       

WebSphere Sales Mastery SWAT Class: This class is designed to give the attendee the necessary knowledge to pass the WebSphere sales mastery test.  The class will cover many of the products in the WebSphere product family.  It is designed to give the sales person a good overview of the products, how to identify opportunities and positioning them.  The class will have an associated test which will require a system with Internet access and a browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. 

Rational Sales Mastery SWAT Class: This class is designed to give the attendee the necessary knowledge to pass the Rational sales mastery test.  The class will cover many of the products in the Rational product family.  It is designed to give the sales person a good overview of the products, how to identify opportunities and positioning them.  The class will have an associated test which will require a system with Internet access and a browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox.    

Great CUSTOMER Webinars from IBM Power Systems

With so many POWER7 Announcements, Webinars, and education, it is hard to keep track of them all. Below are some of the Great CUSTOMER Webinars from IBM Power Systems that we wanted you to be aware of! These webinars are also great for your customers, so pass them along! Some of the webinars can be taken ANYTIME, and some have specific dates. Check all the details below!

POWER7 Announcement, The Next Generation of Power Systems - Feb 25

POWER7 Announcement, The Next Generation of Power Systems

Event Date: 02/25/2010 02:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

In February, IBM will introduce the next generation Power Systems™ — the first of a family of systems and storage designed to meet the demands of a smarter planet. From the chip and virtualization capabilities all the way through to the operating system, middleware and energy management, Power Systems from IBM are integrated to help support the complex workloads and dynamic computing models of a smarter planet.
Registration details

How to Write a Winning Value Proposition -- BP Marketing Forum Feb. 11

Join Mid-Market and Channels Marketing on February 11 to learn how to write a compelling value proposition to stop your prospects in their tracks. Guest speaker Nima Parikh of Mezzanine Consulting will take you through the process of writing a value proposition.

Details:  https://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/mem/chcomm/pageDisplay.jsp?doc=/sales/ssi/rep_bm/n/5/CN0912-555USEN/index.html

On the agenda:
- what is a value proposition and how does it relate to your business
-the building blocks of a winning value proposition
-common pitfalls to avoid

Mark your calendar
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Noon - 1:00 p.m. ET.
No registration required.
Audio dial in: (800) 475-4945 or (773) 799-3307. Passcode: VALUE
LotusLive Meetings link: www.lotuslive.com/join .Webcast ID: 3163634
Presentation can also be found on the day of the call at: www.ibm.com/partnerworld/marketingforum

Replay
A replay will be available until April 11, 2010 at (800) 216 3051 or (402) 220-3759. Passcode: 1700.
Charts can be found at www.ibm.com/partnerworld/marketingforum

For questions contact Claire Colle at ccolle@ca.ibm.com