Technology giant, IBM has marked the African small and medium enterprise (SME) sector as a key market for channel partner expansion.

Andy Monshaw, GM for IBM global business partners and mid-market, identifies cloud computing and software as a service technologies as critical to IBM`s strategy to enable SMEs to leapfrog older technologies, cut IT costs and boost productivity.

Monshaw says cloud computing adoption is happening at a faster rate in the SME sector in comparison with the enterprise sector. However, he notes that bandwidth reliability and Internet connectivity are still major hurdles for SMEs looking to deploy this technology.

“The mid-market is a huge business for IBM. We decided that our primary route to the SME market is through our business channel partners. Five years ago, our channel execution was not as strong. Two years ago, we made significant changes to our channel business. This year, IBM is aggressively driving business development and expansion with our partners.”

Monshaw explains that IBM channel partners have moved to a solution-orientated programme. “Our partners are looking to build new skills and capabilities to exploit new markets. They have to deliver a value-added service to the client, particularly as hardware and infrastructure margins go up.”

He adds: “Right now, Africa is at the top of the list of everyone`s attention on how to ensure we invest smartly, and with the right skills. We are taking a structured approach to Africa to make sure that we have the right resources on the ground and we`ve engaged with the local ecosystem.”

According to Monshaw, IBM is leveraging cloud computing into the mid-market space to provide rapid value. In the next two years, “the winners and losers will be differentiated by how they can use their IT systems to leverage information in order to make smarter business decisions”.

Jeannine Jennings, GM for IBM global financing, MEA, says there has been a lot of consolidation in the general IT channel, which has included IBM partners.

“The channel is becoming specialised in many areas. We`ve identified partners that are looking to expand into Africa and ways in which we can support them. Secondly, and in addition, we`ve established branches and infrastructure on a very rapid scale and have opened offices in Angola, Ghana and Kenya.”

Jennings adds that IBM has seen rapid channel partner expansion: “Within six months, we signed a big contract with Bharti Airtel; which has opened us into 16 countries. From the partnership, we now operate in Sierra Leone, which wasn`t on our original list of planned expansion.”

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