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Vision Solutions achieves record revenue and profits, expands into emerging markets using IBM Business Partner benefits
Vision Solutions, a leading worldwide provider of high availability and disaster recovery software for IBM Power Systems (including System i™ and System p™ servers), just had a banner year with record revenue, profit, lead generation, and new customer acquisition.
The company, a Premier IBM Business Partner headquartered in Irvine, California, is also making great strides in its global expansion into emerging markets, including Brazil, China, Russia, and Vietnam, countries where Vision Solutions expects its lead generation to increase about 120 percent in coming months.
Vision Solutions attributes much of this success to its close relationship with IBM and its use of a number of IBM Business Partner benefits. "One of the main reasons we're successful is because we've completely aligned our go-to-market model to be in synch and synergistic with IBM," said Edward Vesely, Vision Solutions' senior vice president of marketing.
Vision Solutions works closely with IBM to target similar markets and geographies, to stay in step with IBM product releases, and to adopt IBM strategic plays. The company is aligned with IBM business resiliency, Information on Demand, and virtualization (Go Green) initiatives, and aligns with IBM across industry verticals and geographies to support these efforts.
While Vision Solutions supports small and large enterprises, nearly 85 percent of its current customers are in the highly desirable, high-growth midmarket space, due largely to the effectiveness of IBM Business Partner offerings.
"Our top priority is to build a worldwide marketing program that supports rapid, sustainable, high-volume growth, and teaming with IBM is the cornerstone of this strategy," Vesely explained.
As a key part of its formula for success, Vision Solutions participates in the IBM PartnerWorld® Industry Networks, which offer a rich set of benefits to all PartnerWorld members who want to build their vertical market capabilities, expand their partner network, and attract customers in the markets they serve.
Vision Solutions also accepted an IBM invitation to participate in the ISV Advantage Initiative for Small and Medium Businesses, designed to drive the success of independent software vendors serving the midmarket who are committed to achieving a majority share of their business on IBM platforms and to going to market with IBM.
Vision Solutions embraces these IBM Business Partner offerings because they provide an industry-by-industry focus with scalable benefits that can be leveraged worldwide, enabling Vision Solutions to augment its own marketing capabilities and extend its reach into existing and new markets.
The company routinely uses a number of industry network resources and services, including IBM Sales Connections, which connects Vision Solutions with IBM sales representatives worldwide to help close deals faster. For instance, Vision Solutions is currently working with IBM representatives in Germany to introduce its solutions to the Power Systems reseller network.
Vision Solutions also uses IBM lead generation, direct mail, and telemarketing services; joint client briefings, which help generate new opportunities and close deals; and case studies that are researched and written by IBM.
To help recruit new partners, as well as maintain existing partner relationships and sell directly to customers, Vision Solutions brings people together at IBM Innovation Centers whenever possible—another resource offered through the industry networks. "It's a tremendous benefit to be able to hold briefings at such state-of-the-art facilities," Vesely said.
Vision Solutions conducted a dozen education-oriented sales and marketing seminars at IBM Innovation Centers around the world in the past year. In addition, the company often flies chief information officers to centers for briefings.
They also maintain a close relationship with IBM product development to help ensure their solutions work with the latest IBM releases. This includes quarterly meetings with IBM to gauge the progress of technology integration and look at the road ahead.
"We make sure we align our efforts, so when IBM releases a new version, we release a compatible product at the same time," said Maria Ramos, Vision Solutions' senior manager of territory marketing. "Making sure our technology is always compatible with the very latest IBM products provides a huge competitive advantage."
Because each region has its own business culture and marketing needs, Vision Solutions finds collaborating with local partners fundamental to its global expansion strategy.
"The industry networks have helped us tremendously in expanding our reach via partners and penetrating new markets in all the geos," Ramos said. "By using IBM Sales Connections in conjunction with PartnerWorld Value Net Connections, we are finding, prioritizing, recruiting, and enabling new partners around the world."
The Value Net benefit helps IBM Business Partners locate the right counterparts to help build complete solutions for customers and extend their geographic reach via partner-to-partner networking. By connecting with appropriate partners in local markets worldwide, Vision Solutions has been able to pursue joint business opportunities faster and more effectively.
In China, Vision Solutions is in the midst of conducting regional Value Net seminars in six major cities to educate audiences about implementing business resiliency solutions that protect IBM AIX® environments.
"The industry networks have proven again and again that the benefits are highly customizable on a regional basis and not one size fits all," Vesely said. "This flexibility is crucial because it lets us think globally on a strategic level and then act locally to go to market and drive sales."
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