IBM’s Collaboration Marketing Efforts to Tap into China’s Market
Utilizing collaboration marketing, IBM and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories have entered into a joint venture to penetrate into China’s call center market. Although IBM and Genesys have been working together for many years, this is the first time they will engage in a joint venture to market call center technology in China.
Capitalization on each partner’s strength
The joint venture will bring Genesys and IBM together to create, implement, and market their new call center solution in China.
IBM has a very strong reputation in China, which will be a strategic advantage to the sales of Genesys’ products to new customers. In addition, this collaboration with IBM will also give Genesys’ current clients enhanced value and branding for their solutions.
According to Michael McBrien, the senior VP of Asia Pacific at Genesys, “we are now tapping into IBM’s sales and marketing expertise to expand our presence in the Greater China market.”
The VP of Strategic Partnerships at IBM, Mark Hanny, commented that the joint venture with Genesys for call center technology will allow both partners to achieve greater market exposure in the continuously growing Chinese market.
This joint venture together will also increase the strength of their sales in other collaboration arenas in China, such as the telecommunications, banking, government, and insurance sectors.
Collaboration marketing analysis
As evidenced in many collaboration marketing efforts, one partner has a stronger branding value, while the other presents a specialization, either in products or service. In this case, IBM’s widespread market recognition lends this marketing collaboration greater exposure – especially for Genesys’ sales of its specialized contact center technologies.
If you are considering utilizing collaboration marketing or a strategic alliance to take your business to the next level, determine what your strengths are as a partner. Do you have strong branding or widespread market penetration? Or, does your company offer specialized services or products that could be easily synergized with a powerful brand? When you understand where your strongest contributions as a partner are, you can then target your offerings strategically – leading you to the most beneficial collaboration marketing partnership combination.