IBM outlines channel e-commerce plans

Big Blue will later today outline a partner initiative aimed at its channel partners and divided into three tiers. PartNerWorld will have a ciommon tiered structure of three membership levels: advanced, premier and member across all models, brands and offerings. IBM will also provide a common set of terms and conditions (Ts&Cs) and the same technology infrastructure, which will include support and tools across financing, software, services and IBM hardware. According to Big Blue, its channel, so-called 'business partners', will be able to take part in e-business marketing campaigns. Big Blue is predicting that by 2002, customers will spend $600 billion on e-business technologies. ®