Kathy Gibson reports – Pinnacle is marking two months as an IBM partner, having won the distribution rights on 9 March.
The distributor expects IBM to make a big contribution to Pinnacle’s goal of growing its enterprise stack to 60% of the company’s revenue.
“We have been getting the structures in place, and we are now transacting,” says Fred Saayman, brand director: enterprise business at Pinnacle. “And we have closed our first IBM transaction.
“The journey with IBM is going to be exciting. We are looking for huge growth and to add value to our partners.
“IBM is a key vendor for us,” he adds. “In our DNA we needed a vendor of size, with the turnkey solutions that IBM brings. It gives our partners an end-to-end solution, from automation to storage and infrastructure.”
Saayman stresses that Pinnacle has logistics in place around the country, and can support partners where they are.
He says the distributor is dedicating internal resources to IBM, while offering partners a range of value-added services.
Ria Pinto, MD of IBM South Africa, explains that IBM has totally transformed its business over the last four years.
“In 2021, 50% of the business was services, with the other half being software and infrastructure. Since then we have refocused to software and cloud.”
As companies around the world look to digitisation, IBM is focusing its solutions on hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven insights.
This maps to customer trends and needs, and aims to deliver business value through leading market solutions.
“Our portfolio is very rich, across many areas. But we are staying focused in the hybrid cloud and AI arena. And making it simpler for customers to consume our technology, and for partners to include it in their solutions.”
Today, IBM has swung away from a focus on direct sales to an indirect model, understanding that partners are best suited to solve customers’ problems.
“We have also moved a lot of our resources to working with the channel,” says Pinto. “Together, we can do a better job of solving clients’ business problems.”