A new IBM value-provider customer program, introduced today, will give resellers access to IBM's most skilled engineers and marketing staff for state-of-the-art information on integrating and selling IBM hard disk drives (HDD).

Designed to meet the specific needs of HDD resellers, the program is intended to ease and speed the delivery and adoption of storage solutions using IBM hard drives. Available today, the new program is steeped in the IBM tradition of technical excellence, offering one of the industry's most advanced technical assistance and sales and marketing support programs.

The program uses the Internet as the primary source for customer interaction and features an online technical library as a one-stop resource for technical information. In addition, an advanced Q&A tool offers frequently-asked information as well as specific responses from high-level IBM engineers. Resellers can also obtain web-based diagnostics tools from IBM's value-provider web site to install, analyze, monitor and, if needed, restore the health of IBM hard drives. Furthermore, a related initiative called Developer's Corner gives resellers direct access to one of the most technologically advanced labs in the world for integration and testing of their hard disk drive solutions.

"The singular focus of our new program is to provide resellers with comprehensive support at their fingertips, so they can accelerate IBM hard disk drive products to their customers," said George Silva, vice president, worldwide sales and support, IBM Technology Group. "We've opened up the IBM technical treasure trove to offer an elite array of technically advanced mechanisms for supporting our reseller customers."

The basic support program is available to all IBM hard disk drive and resellers. The premier program is provided to select resellers through an application process available on IBM's value-provider reseller web site. Through these programs, IBM will also make available a host of marketing and sales initiatives such as co-development of strategy and go-to-market plans, joint promotion and communication programs, and related training.

IBM provides these services through multilingual support, initially in English and will later expand to include French and German. Additional information on IBM's HDD reseller program can be found at http://www.storage.ibm.com/tgreseller.