BOULDER, Colo.--May 5, 2003-- IBM Printing Systems joined with 160 of its top business partners from Europe, Canada and the United States last week at its 9th Annual Business Partner Conference. "In today's competitive environment, business partners need to be smarter and more focused on solution selling," said Jerry Rafferty, Printing Solutions Sales, Denver Solutions Group, an IBM Business Partner. "Throughout the conference, IBM showed its commitment to helping their business partner community expand their value-nets and enable them to provide the most comprehensive solutions possible to better satisfy customer requirements." IBM challenged attendees to move up the value chain from pure commodity product providers to integrators of print and document management content. "Companies are realizing that their revenues are being weighed down by too many under-utilized desktop units with deceptively cheap initial price tags but exorbitant ongoing costs," said Paul Depa, director, distributed output solutions, IBM Printing Systems. "IBM believes in an alternative total solutions approach that focuses on printing less, and printing for less. We believe our Business Partners can help customers save up to 30 percent of total output costs by building device consolidation, print management and workflow software and strategies for smarter utilization of print assets into every sales engagement," he said. Alignment with IBM SMB Advantage program Another part of its plan for success, IBM Printing Systems is now more closely integrated with the IBM Small and Medium Business (SMB) Advantage initiative, including SMB demand generation, marketing investments, incentives for growth and enhancing Business Partner tools. IBM Printing Systems now has the opportunity to expand on its route to market through Business Partners that sell an array of IBM offerings. "Consider the number of print centers, data centers and warehouse manufacturing facilities in the Americas alone, and you're looking at a multi-billion dollar opportunity for the channel," said David Williams, vice president, Americas, IBM Printing Systems. "We're proud to be supporting our Business Partners in making the most of that opportunity with about 90 percent of IBM's workgroup and industrial print solutions being sold through the channel. "This year's conference has been about arming our Business Partners with the tools and strategies they need to be successful, and exploring ways we can support each other better. I'm looking forward to a very successful 2003," he concluded. Innovative Print Solutions IBM's recently released range of powerful color and monochrome workgroup laser printers and MFP Options were also a major focus of the event's product education program. A solutions center was set up on site at the conference to give attendees hands-on access to the newly expanded portfolio (see news release on www.ibm.com/printers for more detail). The modular, flexible design of the MFP Options gives IBM a sharp edge over competitive hardware offerings, with significant customer benefits. Upgrading a printer by attaching an IBM MFP Option extends the capabilities of the unit, and optimizes the use of space, time and technology. With consolidated capabilities on a single device, supplies and service costs can be reduced, as well as user intervention and consumables management.