Global Client Centres
IBM has over 450 Client Centres worldwide to help you recommend and sell IBM based solutions to your clients. These centres and their highly skilled people represent a valuable resource that will help you reduce solution development, product integration and sales engagement delivery times.
These centres vary in capability, but are a great resource to hold briefings, demonstrate solutions, run workshops, and bring to bear real experts that demonstrate the value of IBM. Each centre brings its own unique value to the table and satisfies a specific business need. In some cases, several ‘centres’ are in actuality part of a ‘global centre organisation’ with the same executive reporting chain, or multiple organisations sharing a location and/or leveraging the same resources. With these ‘multiple mission centres’, IBM is able to leverage the infrastructure and resource investment of the centres, develop and maintain a critical skills mass to address client needs. Using these centres shows dedication to your client’s success and at no other time in the sales cycle do clients willingly invest a half day or more with you in an IBM setting where you and IBM fully control the experience.
Below is a listing of the type of client centres and the services they offer. If you are interested in a centre or want to know locations of centres in other parts of the world, please contact your IBM sales representative for more information.
Executive Briefing Centres (EBCs) offer sales organisations a powerful tool to help shorten the sales cycle, grow opportunities and close deals. Briefings are customized to the sales objectives. Subject matter experts (SMEs) provide expertise in product, brand and services. Appropriate audiences at an EBC are client C-level executives, line-of business (LOB) executives and senior IT management. IBM offers the following EBC’s:
- IBM Systems Technology Group (IBM hardware) Briefing Centres
- Locations in Germany and France
- IBM Software Briefing Centres
- Locations in Germany, France, Italy and England
IBM Technology Centres focus on solutions leveraging and highlighting STG and SWG products with a primary mission of driving sales and client acceptance of those products. Characteristics vary by type of centre, but could include
- architecting and designing client solutions and transformations
- benchmarking to prove and measure solutions; create plans for industry benchmarks and assist in the marketing of results
- validating and reviewing solutions based on industry requirements while highlighting IBM technology
- proofs of concept and performance demonstrations
- high-availability assessments and designs to help clients achieve availability and resiliency goals of their end-to-end IT infrastructure
Technology Centres are grouped into four types:
- STG System Centres
- Benchmark, PoC, high availability, design, performance marketing, solution integration
- Locations in Germany, Scotland and France
- SWG Technical Exploration Centres offer hands-on demonstrations of IBM software solutions for Business Partners.
- Locations in Austria, Switzerland, Germany (System z), Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Nordic, Sweden, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Italy, BeNeLux, Spain and Russia
- Dynamic Infrastructure Leadership Centres focus on seven technology pillars: virtualization and consolidation, energy efficiency, business resiliency, security, information infrastructure, service management and asset management
- Locations in France and Germany
- Alliance Centres highlight key partnerships between IBM and other IT Industry vendors. These partnerships focus on hardware, software and middleware solutions and provide: executive customer briefings, workshops and education, solution design support and proofs of concepts
- SAP Centre located in Germany
Industry and Solution Centres are a broad spectrum of centres that provide sales support to IBM client teams from early in the sales cycle to delivery. These centres offer industry-specific and/or cross-industry solution expertise and capabilities. They demonstrate IBM’s thought leadership in delivering innovation solutions to the marketplace, help clients solve their critical business problems, show how to align business with IT, and bring IBM together in front of the client. For example, the Industry Solutions Labs (ISLs) provide unique environments where clients and business partners engage with IBM Research and industry experts to explore innovative solutions and new technologies. IBM offers the following type of Industry and Solution Centres:
- Centres focused on industry solutions
- Centres focused on solution areas that cross multiple industries
- Locations vary by industry type, check with your IBM client representative
IBM Forum Centres build and operate innovative events and collaboration experiences for clients and partners. They also provide executive-level conference facilities. Experiential solution demonstrations supported by marketing messaging, and dedicated staff for logistical, IT/AV and event management support, ensure a superior client experience. IBM Forum Centres can be multi-purpose or multi-mission for single or multi-client and Partner events.
- Locations in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom
Business Partner Centres are owned by IBM or an IBM Business Partner. IBM-owned Innovation Centres (42 WW IIC centres) provide your Business Partners with customised assistance to help build solutions, grow cutting-edge skills and explore the latest open-standards-based and open source technologies. IBM-owned Centres also provide Business Partners with access to IBM technical, marketing and sales experts worldwide. Business Partner-owned Centres offer a consultative approach to solution selling and strategic initiatives. These centres focus on cross-selling to increase the clothing rate for hardware, software and services.
