News from IBM, Factiva, Idealstor, MiraLink, Plexus Systems

IBM of Armonk, N.Y., will provide on-site customer sales support from its hardware, software and services sales experts to its small and midsize business partners.

Within three days of partners submitting an online request pertaining to a specific sales opportunity, giving the prospective customer and the benefit of the joint solution, IBM pledges to engage a regional territory sales manager to help close the deal.

Other assistance offered includes a joint customer meeting to present the benefits of the joint solution with the partner.

The move effectively expands the 10-month-old IBM Sales Connections pilot, which was initiated to help IBM partners increase profitability with on-site customer sales support, marketing and technical assistance.

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Factiva, a New York company that offers XML-based and Web services-enabled technology platforms, has introduced a partner program geared toward systems integrators. By adding systems integrators to the company's partner network, the company hopes to better target more vertical industries and expand sales channels.

The first systems integrator to join the program is Quilogy Inc., a St. Charles, Miss., company that develops role-based information solutions built on the Microsoft Office 2003 platform.

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Idealstor, a manufacturer of removable disk-to-disk backup solutions, based in Gaithersburg, Md., has signed distributor Bell Microproducts Inc. of San Jose, Calif.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bell Micro will market and distribute the Idealstor Backup Appliance, FrankeNAS, Ibac data protection software and other storage products to its base of resellers.

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MiraLink Corp., a vendor of disaster recovery solutions based in Portland, Ore., has introduced a new channel program designed to provide its partners with marketing and sales tools, trials and discounts.

Certified partners receive product and maintenance discounts, sales and technical training and up to 20 percent discounts on product and maintenance sales. Premier partners receive additional benefits in the form of co-marketing opportunities and up to 30 percent discounts, while Platinum partners also receive increased discounts on products and services and insight into future product development, as well as up to 40 percent discounts on all pre-registered sales.

Along with the new program, MiraLink also introduced a new family of remote data mirroring appliances based on the Internet Protocol. The new plug-and-play products offer a way to mirror data from a server or a storage network remotely across any transmission media to any remote location while transmitting block-level data changes to a remote site and automatically managing interrupted transmissions. The products work with any database or business productivity tools.

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Plexus Systems LLC, an Auburn Hills, Mich., provider of online business solutions for manufacturing companies, has introduced its channel partner program.

The program provides authorized resellers with the ability to resell the Plexus Online Web-based software, an integrated manufacturing information system, either as a full suite or as individual modules that integrate with existing solutions such as Microsoft Business Solutions, Oracle Solutions, QAD and SAP. Other partner benefits include marketing materials and a user conference.

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