Giant vendor expands SME Express Advantage range

IBM has expanded its SME Express Advantage product range to increase sales into the SME market.

The four products are a mixture of hardware, software and services, ranging from a backup service for emails, to a specialist package designed to help end-users to take advantage of grid technology. Each of the products will be sold both directly and through IBM’s channel partners.

Steve Solazzo, general manager of IBM’s global mid-market business, said: “These new Express Advantage offerings provide the latest innovations in Tivoli software, desktop managed services and grid computing. They allow customers to focus on their core business objectives.”

In February, IBM conducted a survey in which it discovered that enterprise-wide security, business continuity and access to capital are among the mid-market’s top business concerns. Following these results, IBM claimed that its four new Express Advantage products are designed to address these concerns.

“Our SME customers have told us that secure, cost-effective and integrated infrastructure solutions are the key drivers of innovation and sustained competitive advantage,” Solazzo added.

Greg Carlow, managing director of IBM VAR Repton, told CRN that Express Advantage allows IBM’s resellers to offer individual parts of larger applications, almost like a modual basis.

“Express Advantage is a way of producing a simplified product set at a lower price point,” he said. “It’s a mixture of different product sets and also includes bundles with services wrapped in too. IBM is attempting to appeal to the SME sector by allowing it to buy just the pieces.

“At certain points in the market this is a good thing for IBM’s VARs.