IBM Middle East extends PartnerWorld success at annual business partner conference

The two-day event is set to take place on the 5-6th April at Dubai's Jumeirah Beach Hotel and will have a strong focus on IBM's world renowned PartnerWorld channel enablement programme which was launched in the Middle East at BPEC last year.

The PartnerWorld programme aims to provide selling, marketing, research, certification and technical support for IBM resellers, partners and developers through a comprehensive marketing and enablement programme designed to build broader access to technology skills, services and capabilities for business in the Middle East.

"Since our launch last year, PartnerWorld has grown tremendously in the region with new partners coming on board as a result of the unique benefits we provide. With more than 400 partners on the programme today, we anticipate even further growth as we continue our increased focus on pushing IBM's volume products into the market," said Mourad Zohny, BPO Manager, IBM Middle East, Egypt and Pakistan.

"BPEC will allow us to share with our partners details on IBM's channel strategy in the region, as well as brief them on our latest standards-based hardware and software technologies. In light of Lenovo's recent global deal with IBM's PC division, this year's BPEC will also feature a focused session on Lenovo's channel strategy in the region, which we believe will be of particular interest to the region's retail channel market."

The first day of the conference will cover key topics related to IBM's global and Middle East channel strategy, case studies from IBM business partners and insight into the value-added offerings that IBM provides to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and system integrators in the region, the highlight of which will be the ISV solution fair that will be hosted at the event for the first time.

The second day will kick off with sessions on PartnerWorld and Lenovo and break out to two separate tracks where one will focus on IBM's Express software offerings, TotalStorage and BladeCentre technologies and the second will cover IBM's PC products, including ThinkVantage technologies, ThinkPad notebooks, ThinkCentre desktops and its range of Intel-based xSeries eServers. The event will wrap up with a PartnerWorld fair that will allow new channel partners the opportunity to meet with IBM executives and get information on how to register for the programme.