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Alliance Tech Makes IBM's Partnerworld 2006 Event a Win-Win for Valued Business Partners

Alliance Tech helps IBM go paperless – a first for Partnerworld event – and gives IBM’s business partners tools for success

AUSTIN (May 12, 2006) — Treating business partners well is paramount in any business, and no Fortune 100 company knows that better than IBM. After all, IBM Business Partners contribute more than 30 percent of IBM revenue – totaling more than $32 billion in 2005.

At the company’s Partnerworld event – an exclusive gathering of IBM’s valued business partners – the company rolls out enhancements to the program, all designed to make its partners more productive.

That’s why knowing what their business partners all over the world really want – whether technology resellers, consultants or integrators, or independent software vendors – is crucial for IBM, not only to its future success, but also to success of each and every one of its business partners.

IBM hosts Partnerworld each year to make sure they’re delivering the services and technology solutions their business partners need – and they rely on Alliance Tech for the kind of insight that tells them exactly how they’re doing.

For more than 10 years, Alliance Tech has worked with “Big Blue” to deliver complete, hosted software solutions that give IBM a view from the top for all of its event marketing. In the beginning, IBM used Alliance Tech’s general conference management system – a turnkey system for managing calls for technical papers, seamless session and exhibitor organization, and highlighting key conference events.

Now, the company takes advantage of nearly everything Alliance Tech offers – and much of that has to do with IBM’s internal goals.

“For Partnerworld 2006, moving toward a paperless, information-on-demand system was a big initiative for IBM,” says Art Borrego, president and chief executive officer of Alliance Tech. “It was all about helping attendees connect, network and essentially extend their market reach.”

In 2006, IBM added Alliance Tech’s Networker tool to make communicating easy – encouraging attendee networking and meetings before, during and after the conference. The result? An IBM business partner who was developing software in Germany is able to join forces with an IBM reseller partner in Latin America – before Partnerworld ever begins.

IBM also used Messenger, a complete electronic conference messaging tool used onsite, as well as Feedback for electronic evaluations, session surveys and interactive polling. While keeping its business partners happy and productive is IBM’s goal, knowing what their preferences are for future Partnerworld events is priceless insight.

The Ultimate View

That’s why IBM chose to use Alliance Tech’s RFID (radio frequency identification) Attendance Reporter.

“IBM wanted insight into attendee traffic flow and preferences, so we used it at the 2005 Partnerworld event,” says Borrego. “They got such big value out of it in 2005 that we used it again in 2006.”

The value of RFID really comes from a very high-level insight into attendee behavior – data that simply has not been available to companies in the past. Because of Alliance Tech’s products and services, IBM knew, in real-time via data and reports, which events were most popular, which exhibitors held the most value, what products their business partners were most intrigued with, and much more.

“We gave them the reports and the data they were looking for – they got better reports, higher accuracy and faster turnaround,” says Borrego. “Alliance Tech really exceeded their expectations with our streamlined applications and by reducing their overall cost for the event.”

Via a simple tag on the back of an attendee’s conference badge, IBM can easily capture, track, and analyze the traffic patterns of conference attendees. Attendee information is kept private, since no personal information is actually stored on the tag, and it’s proven to be an incredibly accurate way for IBM to measure conference ROI and overall event success.

Valuable information for IBM means a better Partnerworld

The success of any large event depends on the feedback and experience of attendees, and Alliance Tech – and IBM – is well aware of that. That’s why the kind of reporting Alliance Tech offers is so valuable – and why IBM has demanded more of it in recent years, and why Alliance Tech has delivered.

“As a company, we have really focused more on reporting feedback and analytic reporting in the last two years, so we’re able to offer that service,” says Borrego. “With IBM, it has been increasing the overall value of what we provide for them.”

Determining that value happens much quicker, too. In the past, IBM had to wait months for market research firms to analyze the data collected at each Partnerworld event – far too long for the information to be useful, since planning for the following year’s event happens almost immediately after the previous one ends. By using Alliance Tech, not only do companies get initial reports on site, but they also get much more detailed reports just a week after the event. Plus, the data Alliance Tech gives them integrates easily with most databases.

“We’ve worked with other groups within IBM on analytics, and they’ve been most impressed with our responsiveness, timeliness, and the smoothness of our execution,” says Borrego. “We integrate with their business processes, and customize our solutions to fit how they work – and it works.”

About Alliance Tech, Inc.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Alliance Tech is a leading provider of marketing performance measurements for the meetings, conference and events industry. The company was the first to offer a complete integrated event management solution that includes online attendee networking, RFID attendee tracking, lead tracking, event content management and event analytics. Alliance Tech solutions give companies the ability to measure event effectiveness, understand attendee behavior and, deliver more qualified leads. Customers include IBM, SAS, Dell, Cisco, NCR and  Redken. Alliance Tech is a privately held company in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit www.alliancetech.com.