One of the advantages of being part of the IBM/Lotus Business Partner is the ability to get market feedback from other partners. I had a chat with another BP yesterday and during the conversation I asked if they were getting into Foundations. I could understand if they were too busy or didn't click with the concept or even if they didn't think that the SMB market was where they wanted to be. Their response was a bit different to that.
They told me they were avoiding Foundations because:
- the potential revenue for that product didn't make financial sense for their business (that's OK, everyone works on a different set of numbers and only time will tell who guessed right).
- they didn't expect that IBM would support them in that market.
That second point floored me. Now this BP is certainly pro-IBM but this was the first feedback I had heard where someone
didn't think that IBM was into SMB to stay. I think they're dead wrong but hey, it was a friendly conversation and everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion.
Does anyone out there agree with this BP? Has your opinion about IBM and SMB changed in the last six months? Am I sitting here wearing rose-colored glasses?
You can tell me guys... I can take it....
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1 comment:
If you analyze the potential revenue of simply selling units to clients then that is taking a narrow view in my opinion. I jumped on board as a LFS BP because I saw LFS as a springboard for opening revenue streams for development/support of business applications.
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