IBM to Resell Bytware Messenger Products
A challenge for any software company in the AS/400 space is to get AS/400 resellers signed up to sell its products. Bytware Inc. (Grass Valley, Calif.) has overcome most of that hurdle with its entry into IBM's Software Vendor Marketing Program (SVMP).
IBM has selected Bytware's AS/400 monitoring and paging solutions to supplement those functions provided by the AS/400 Division to leverage the systems management infrastructure provided by IBM. IBM will promote Bytware's Messenger solutions by referencing them in customer briefings and industry events. Resellers will then have incentives to sell Bytware products.
"It allows IBM channels to refer our products and get a commission for doing so," says Christine Grant, VP of marketing and sales at Bytware. Grant says the alternative would be for Bytware to individually recruit resellers to sell Bytware's Messenger products like the Messenger Plus AS/400 monitor and paging system and the MessengerNet multisystem monitor for networked AS/400s.
"Over the last five years, we've been building our relationship with IBM, and this is one more relationship we're adding," says Grant. Grant says Bytware, an IBM solution provider, is also a member of the AS/400 Client Series program. The company develops exclusively for the AS/400.
IBM representatives were not available to comment on Bytware entering the SVMP, but the program is generally used to extend the AS/400 with solutions that IBM doesn't already provide. The idea is to sell more AS/400s by making it a more complete solution that's more attractive to customers. That in turn helps increase revenues for the ISVs in the program.