Edit: There is still value to be found with your IBM Business Partner. I updated the link at the end to take you to a Business Partner search tool.
Originally posted July 15, 2008 on AIXchange
Something needs to change on your raised floor. Maybe you need to implement a SAN, MetroMirror or FlashCopy. Maybe you need to virtualize and consolidate, or maybe you need to look at blades. Maybe you’re not sure what you need.
Yours was once a small shop, but you’ve been continually growing. The business is making more acquisitions and you’re struggling to keep up. Nobody seems to know where these servers came from over the last few years, but the raised floor is now full of critical production stand-alone machines. They all have internal disks and their own tape drives. Space is an issue. Heat is an issue. Maintenance and backups have become painful. How do you get out of this mess? What’s the rest of the industry doing? What are best practices? Where do you go for advice?
Business partners can be a lifesaver when you’re making these decisions. They know what works and what doesn’t, because they know what other shops are implementing. Best of all, creating lasting customer relationships is their priority. After all, what good is selling new equipment to a customer that has no idea how to install and maintain it? That would only lead to frustration, and complaints about the machines not working as advertised. Then, when it came time for the next upgrade, that customer would likely look elsewhere.
Good business partners do more than sell. They keep you abreast of IT’s constant changes. They take you to briefings, and bring in people to educate your staff. The customer/business partner relationship really is meant to be a partnership. Both sides should work together. Your business partner should bring you new ideas and solutions to help you address real business needs. These should not be cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all solutions, but solutions that are geared toward your organization’s unique needs and individual skill sets. You should be confident that the IT equipment you purchase from your business partner will work as designed, allowing you to concentrate on your own customers and business challenges rather than dwell on IT issues.
Business partners don’t want to be vendors. Although they might make some money on a single transaction, they focus on the long-term — at least that’s what they should be doing. If you’re finding this isn’t the case with your business partner, maybe it’s time to sever the relationship.
If your company is looking for a business partner, IBM provides this search capability.