Bronze Drum Consulting Gains $210,000 In New Business With Ibm Partnerworld Benefits And Resources

IBM PartnerWorld Business Partner: Bronze Drum Consulting

Bronze Drum Consulting gains $210,000 in new business with IBM PartnerWorld benefits and resources

Information technology is both a powerful value-add tool for achieving business objectives and a resource requiring continuous maintenance and support. Companies of all sizes grapple with this dual nature and the impact on the composition of their IT staffs, but the issue is particularly acute for small and medium businesses (SMB). Lacking the resources of their larger counterparts, SMB companies are compelled to choose between organizing their staff around routine IT management duties or freeing them to exploit IT for maximum business advantage. Increasingly, they are offloading their IT maintenance and support to third parties.



Bronze Bro B Br ro r o Drum Consulting®

How IBM Business Partner Benefits helped Bronze Drum Consulting business: • Telemarketing campaigns generated new business worth

That trend toward outsourcing represents opportunity for Bronze Drum Consulting, an Advanced IBM

Bronze Bro B Br ro r o Drum

® Consulting $150,000 and qualified opportunities worth $600,000

• IBM Sales Connections resulted in $60,000 win

Business Partner, headquartered in

• A sophisticated marketing plan

New York, New York. Bronze is both

• Critical consultation and training provided remotely via

an independent software vendor and a

IBM Virtual Innovation Center

regional systems integrator for IBM.

The primary configuration and

worsen and one that produces

deployment solution of Bronze Drum

immediate savings for SMB

is DeployAgility, which accelerates

businesses. That offering is the IBM

IBM WebSphere® application

Express Services™ Portfolio.

deployment throughout a business. Bronze Drum is also a provider of

“Marketing IBM technical services

software and services relating to

helps us meet that IT outsourcing

Lotus® collaboration offerings and

need among SMB,” McCallion said.

server consolidation.

“With IBM specialists taking care of IT management, our customer can focus

“Our MRM helps us develop our marketing

As an IBM Business Parter, Bronze

its staff on optimizing the business

Drum has taken advantage of

value of IT,” explained McCallion,

marketing benefits and technology

who sees strategic advantages for

resources to improve and expand

his five-person company as well.

its business. Marketing campaigns

“The IBM service offering mitigates

generated new business worth

the cyclical nature of our business

$150,000 and qualified opportunities

and, bottom line, gets us in the

plan with IBM marketing

worth $600,000. IBM Sales

door and introduces Bronze Drum

benefits at its foundation.

Connections yielded a $60,000 win,

Consulting as a resource for smart

an IBM marketing specialist helped

technology ideas,” he said.

We have a much more strategic approach to the market.” Brian McCallion, president, Bronze Drum Consulting

Bronze Drum develop a marketing plan and the IBM Virtual Innovation

McCallion added, “IBM Sales

Center provided Bronze Drum

Connections helps us establish a track

with consultation and training on

record of success with IBM, gets us

technology matters. Bronze Drum

noticed by other IBM sales executives

officials meet with an IBM Sales

and Business Partners and helps us

Connections client executive monthly

establish productive, long-term selling

to review sales opportunities.

relationships with IBM.”

In late 2008, as the full impact of

Using the IBM offering as its entrée,

the economic downturn set in, Brian

Bronze Drum engages the company

McCallion, president of Bronze Drum,

on its areas of specialization.

augmented the Bronze Drum portfolio

McCallion said his company converts

with what he calls a “counter-cyclical”

30 percent of its IBM services

offering from IBM, one that enjoys

customers into Bronze Drum software

more demand as economic conditions

and services customers.

PartnerWorld® benefits form

In another campaign, 1,000 phone

foundation of marketing plan

calls were paired with direct mail

Bronze Drum, an IBM Business Partner since 2002, serves healthcare, retail, banking and professional services businesses throughout the East Coast of the United States. The company became an Advanced PartnerWorld member in 2007.

invitations, produced through IBM Campaign Designer™, to encourage attendance to a Webcast spotlighting IBM technical services. “IBM manages everything – compiling lists; providing the telemarketing team; customizing, printing and fulfilling the direct mail; hosting a registration page and the

McCallion meets with his IBM marketing resource manager (MRM) twice monthly. Beyond monitoring marketing efforts and identifying IBM PartnerWorld benefits available to Bronze Drum, McCallion said his MRM continually challenges him to elevate his marketing ambitions. “Prior to MRM involvement, we didn’t even have a marketing plan, because we didn’t have the resources or expertise. Now, our MRM helps us develop our marketing plan with IBM marketing benefits at its foundation. We have a much more strategic approach to the market,” McCallion explained. Bronze Drum began with a series of IBM-facilitated telemarketing campaigns designed to launch its IBM Express Services Portfolio business, with 2,500 phone calls being made. Those efforts meant $150,000 in new business and an additional $600,000 in qualified opportunities.

Webcast; and providing a presenter,” said McCallion.

“IBM Sales Connections

“We’ve never hosted a Webcast. This is an example of how our MRM got

helps us establish a track

us to move beyond our comfort zone,”

record of success with

he said.

IBM, gets us noticed by

Noting that opportunities uncovered by the telemarketers are viewed by both inside IBM salespeople and field reps, McCallion is leveraging IBM Sales Connections to establish relationships with customers and IBM reps and executives. Already, through IBM Sales Connections, McCallion introduced an IBM salesperson into one of its new accounts, a New York City-based financial services company. “Together, we were able to transition the account from a limited technical support engagement to $60,000 in software, hardware and services revenue for Bronze Drum,” McCallion said.

other IBM sales executives and Business Partners.” Brian McCallion, president, Bronze Drum Consulting

Access to training via the IBM

the customer buys software from us.

Virtual Innovation Center

It’s less risk and it allows us to focus

An IBM technical manager guides the Bronze Drum technical staff through

on the early stages of the sales cycle,” he said.

the range of IBM resources available through the IBM Virtual Innovation Center, including architectural consulting and training programs.

“These programs and the expertise of our IBM resources even the playing field for small firms like ours and enable us to generate excitement

“We’re integrating DeployAgility with IBM Tivoli® Maximo, and the IBM

in SMB for both IBM services and DeployAgility,” McCallion said.

technical experts gave our developers a much better understanding of its

For more information

integration points,” said McCallion,

Please contact your IBM sales

Further, “I’ve accessed online

representative or IBM Business

IBM WebSphere and Lotus sales

Partner. Or you can visit us at:

enablement workshops and testing

ibm.com

via the Virtual Innovation Center,” he said. “It equips me to make a

More information about the benefits

more effective IBM pitch,” he noted.

and resources offered through the IBM Business Partner program is

Bronze Drum also earns financial

available at ibm.com/isv

rebates through the IBM Software Value Incentive Program, which

For information about IBM Virtual

enables Bronze Drum to receive

Innovation Centers, go to

incremental margin - up to 30

ibm.com/partnerworld/iic

percent - on the IBM software deals in which Bronze engages a prospect,

To find out more about Bronze Drum

even if that prospect makes the final

Consulting, visit bronzedrum.com

purchase from another company. “The program rewards us for doing what we do best, which is provide personal attention to mid-market customers,” said McCallion. “We can engage customers and get paid for the value we provide regardless of whether

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