CSI Growth FundProgram

Europe Geography

Process Scope

This guide is published to support the IBM Business Partners System Integrators and is applicable to all IBM SystemsHardware brandsacross countries operating within the Europe Geography.

Last updated

15 March 2017

KEY FACTS

Program Objective and Overview

The CSI Growth Fund Program (henceforth called “the Program”) is an expense based investment program for IBM System Integrators (SI) coveringzSystems, Power and Storagehardware brands. It is intended to fund fully documented pre-approved activities that have been submitted by the IBM System Integrator.

Process Overview

The Program has been designed by the WW SystemsHardwareChannels Managementteam, and its execution is owned by the MarketCSI Leader or, where not available, by the Market Global Business Partners (GBP)Leader. It is the responsibility of the Marketowner to ensure that the Program is implemented in accordance with the guidelines.

CSI Growth Funds committed to the IBM System Integrators without using the approved process as defined in this document will be treated as an unauthorized commitment.

Throughout this document, the below abbreviations will be used with the following meanings:

SI = System Integrators

CSI = Computer Services Industry

SISC = System Integrators Sales Centre

CMC = Co-Marketing Centre

CSI CPM = CSI Co-Marketing Program Manager

For the rest of the abbreviations, please see the glossary at the end of the document.

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CSI Growth Fund Program_v16_EXTERNAL_15 March 2017_upd

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Roles and Responsibilities

3. Program Rules

4. Important Notes

5. Approvals

6. Tools Supporting the Process

7. Contact Names

Appendix 1: Glossary

Appendix 2: General Terms & Conditions

Appendix 3: Ineligible Activities & Expenses

Appendix 4: Detailed Spending Category Guidelines

1. Executive Summary

System Integrators, especially the global and large national System Integrators (SI), play a significant role in influencing and recommending the Information Technology spending choices of businesses.

In doing so, the SI Business Partners may have to invest resources in developing technical capabilities on the IBM hardware productsor promote IBM hardware products to their end-users.

IBM is pleased to assist by contributing to SI Business Partners’ efforts to win business with IBM content. The primary aim of this Program is to reimburse funds spent by the SI Business Partners for pre-approved activities that subscribe to the goal described above.

The Growth Funds will be granted where the SI Business Partners can demonstrate accomplished activities for developing technical capabilities or promoting IBM hardware products.

IBM is committed to integrity in everything it does and in no circumstance, can we take any action which could in any way potentially be construed as an attempt to influence a business decision in our favour. The practice of paying fundsto other parties assisting IBM in gaining a business advantage can present us with increased legal risks especially in the light of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and any equivalent or similar legislation in other countries. As such, IBM needs to be very careful that there are suitably robust business cases in place to back up any decision to pay a System Integrator a growth fund under the CSI Growth Fund Program.

SI Business Partner is responsible for ensuring that any and all funds earned under this program are used only for lawful purposes and in compliance with the terms of the IBM Business Partner Agreement, SI Business Partner Code of Conduct, the Supplement to IBM PartnerWorld Marketing Funds Attachment (Co-Marketing Program Terms Conditions)and this document. This includes, for example, ensuring that all business amenities (e.g., gifts and meals/refreshments) offered or provided are lawful to offer and provide under all applicable laws, including, without limitation, local and agency government regulations and ethics policies, as well as all anti-bribery laws (such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act).CSI Growth funds will be reimbursed through the IBM Co-Marketing Centre tool (CMC) and subject to the Co-Marketing Program Terms and Conditions .

SI Business Partner represents and warrants to IBM that it will fully comply with all such applicable laws, including, without limitation, local and agency government regulations and ethics policies and all anti-bribery laws (such as the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) and that neither SI Business Partner nor any of its employees will, directly or indirectly, make or offer bribes, kickbacks or other payments of money or anything of value (including travel, offers of employment, gifts or entertainment beyond what is allowed under co-marketing terms and conditions) to anyone, including any Government Party or any other person, to obtain, retain or direct business.

A "Government Party" includes any officer, director, employee or representative of any:

  • country, federal, national, provincial, regional, state, municipal, territorial, local or other level of government, including any department or agency of any such government, or
  • government enterprise or instrumentality, including any government owned or controlled entity, such as any:
  • public hospital, school, utility or organization licensed to provide public services,
  • public international organization (e.g., the United Nations or World Health Organization), or
  • other entity, whether privately held, publicly traded or otherwise constituted, if a government, a public international organization or a Government Party owns or has the ability to exercise control over such entity.

Additionally, SI Business Partner is responsible for ensuring that any and all advertising being performed hereunder and/or by use of funds provided by IBM hereunder shall comply with any and all applicable laws regarding advertising including, without limitation, any local laws in the country/ies in which such advertising will take place.

Activities related to Public Sector and Government Owned Entity (GOE) End Users do not qualify for this program. And this program is not applicable to IBM Business Partners which are part of a Government Owned Entity (GOE). For a definition of what IBM includes as a GOE, please link here:

Please see Appendix 2 for additional terms and conditions applicable to this program.

2. Roles and Responsibilities

2.1. Growth Fund requests submitted by System Integrators

CSI Growth Fund - Activity Registrations

Role Responsible / Task
System Integrator / System Integrator
  • Complete CSI Growth Fund Request Form with appropriate activities
  • Submit form to respective country IBM CSI Lead and CSI CPM().
  • Accept the Incentive Offering and Co-Marketing Program Terms & Conditions in CMC.
  • Submit the individual pre-approved activities in CMC for approval.

CSI CPM /
  • Check if the SI listed on the CSI Growth Fund Request Form is eligible to participate in the program (see section 3.1.)
  • Review CSI Growth Fund Request Form for accuracy and completeness. The review will also aim to identify ineligible activities and exclude them from the GF request as much as possible before going to approvers.
  • Upon satisfactory review, send the CSI Growth Fund Request Form to the relevant approvers
  • Obtain approvals from the Market Systems Hardware Leader and the Market CSI Leader. If there are any discrepancies between the activities approved and rejected by the two approvers, notify the other approver and ask him/her to agree in writing.
  • Any changes required by the approvers must be also communicated back to the SI asked to be complied with
  • The result of the approval process (approval or rejection) will be communicated back to the SI copying the Client Manager (for SI requests). In case of rejection, the reasons behind that decision should be included.
  • On approval of request form approval, arrange for loading the funds in the CMC tool.
  • Communicate to partner and request the partner to submit the individual activities in CMC tool.
  • Approve the individual activities in the CMC tool after reviewing against the co-marketing terms and conditions.

Pan-Geography SISC / Review the request form for CSI events organized by IBM at Market level from own initiative
  • Obtain approvals fromthe MarketSystemsHardwareLeaderand the Market CSI Leader.

MarketSystemsHardwareLeader (or delegate) / Activity Approval
  • Approve the CSI Growth Fund activities, ensuring they are in line with the Program Rules (see section 3).
  • Return CSI Growth Fund Request Form and approval or rejection to the CSI CPM and for IBM Internal activities submit the same to Europe SISC, including a reason for any rejections. If some activities are approved and some are rejected, ensure that this is clearly noted.

MarketCSI Leader (or delegate) / Activity Approval
  • Approve the CSI Growth Fund activities, ensuring they are in line with the Program Rules (see section 3).
  • Track the expense requested against the overall budget available.
  • Return the CSI Growth Fund Request Form and approval or rejection to the CSI CPM and for IBM Internal activities submit the same toEurope SISC, including a reason for any rejections. If some activities are approved and some are rejected, ensure that this is clearly noted.

CSI Growth Fund - Claims

Role Responsible / Task
System Integrator /
  • Submit the individual claims in the Co-Marketing Centre tool as soon as the activity is completed.
  • Provide proof of performance as per co-marketing terms and conditions execution of the activity

BPSO Co-Marketing Claim Administrator /
  • Validate the CSI Growth Fund activity claims as per the co-marketing terms and conditions.
  • Recommend claim for approval to the CSI CPM
  • Follow the standard payment process and pay the SI
  • Charge the applicable amount to the applicable accounting details of the Market ledger.
  • Make payment to partner through appropriate pay

CSI CPM /
  • Approve the claim after BPSO Claim validation.
  • Co-ordinate with BPSO and CSI partners to help in clarifying queries on claims, if any.

Pan-Geography SISC /
  • If claim is approved:
  • For Market CSI claims – apply the charges against the Market’s accounting codes
  • Inform the SI or the Market CSI requesterif their form is approved/rejected (including the reason), copying the Client Manager.

3. Program Rules

3.1. BP Eligibility

3.1.1. This program is open for active CSI IBM System Integrator Business Partners with Remarketer and/or Complementary Terms attachments, who are authorized to sell at least one of the eligible brands: z Systems, Power andStorage.

3.1.2. CSI System Integrator Business Partners operating under Complementary Terms need to have at least one Strategic Project Plan for fee reward approved by IBM in the last year preceding the Growth Fund requestfor any of the hardware brands and CSI Business Partners operating under Remarketer terms need to have at least one active opportunity registered with an opportunity management system (SalesConnect/GPP/etc.) in the last year preceding the Growth Fund request for any of the hardware brands.

3.1.3. The program is not applicable to IBM Business Partners which are part of a Government Owned Entity (GOE). Further to that activities related to Public Sector and Government Owned Entity (GOE) End Users do not qualify. For a definition of what IBM includes as a GOE please link here:

3.2. CSI Growth Fund Activity Applications

3.2.1. Planned activities must match one of the Co-Marketing Program approved spending categories as follows:

  • Non-Event Demand Generation Activities such as Advertising, Digital Marketing, Direct Marketing & Telemarketing.
  • Event Demand Generation activities such as Customer Conference, Marketing Seminar &Trade Shows.
  • Development & Demonstration Equipment (DDE)
  • Education or Certification
  • Enablement
  • Solution and Product Support
  • Training Event Travel (only IBM Led Enablement Events)
  • Innovation Centre

Further to that, eligibility of activities will be determined by IBM in line with standard IBM Co-Marketing ProgramTerms and Conditions valid for a respective country.

3.2.2. The activities mustcomply with the Co-Marketing Program Terms and Conditions.

3.2.3. The activity must not have been started before the Marketing Activity Plan (MAP) is approved in CMC by IBM. The MAP should be submitted by the SI in the CMC at least 7 working days before the start of the planned activity to allow time for collecting the IBM approvals.IBM will not reimburse costs of an activity which was not fully approved in CMC before being started.

3.2.4. All activities must document a completion date. After that date if the initiative or activity has not been completed, the System Integrator will need to re-applyor ask for period extension, which cannot exceed the end of the year when the Growth Fund application was initially submitted.Activities must be performed and completed during the current calendar year.

3.2.5. Activities related to Public Sector and Government Owned Entity (GOE) End Users do not qualify for this program. And this program is not applicable to IBM Business Partners which are part of a Government Owned Entity (GOE). For a definition of what IBM includes as a GOE, please link here:

3.3. CSI Growth Fund Claims

3.3.1. All claimsin the co-marketing tool must be submitted in CMC by SI within 60 dayscalendar days from the date of activity end date.

3.3.2The same claiming period applies for claims related to events organised by the IBM Montpellier Lab, which must be submitted to the SISC task ID.

3.3.3. Claims must be submitted with the required proof of performance to establish that the activity has been completed. (See the applicable Spending Category guidelines in Appendix 3.)

3.3.4. The reimbursement being claimed must relate only to costs actually incurred in this activity.

3.3.5. All activities must have been completed before the documentedcompletion date.

3.3.6. Once the Growth Fund claim is approved and the SI BP is informed, the SI has to send an invoice for the approved reimbursement payment in maximum 30 days from the date it was communicated for the claim amount approved in the co-marketing claim form.

3.3.7For the activities organized and performed by IBM Montpellier Lab, the payment will be done through internal transfer without SI involvement.

4. Important Notes

4.1. CSI Growth Fund budgetcannot be used to fund activities which IBM has rejected.

4.2. By submitting a CSI Growth Fund Request Form with applicable activities, the IBM System Integrators must accept and comply with the Co-Marketing Program Terms and Conditions. The IBM System Integrator remains solely and fully responsible for its expenditures and any associated 3rd party claims or obligations, including compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

4.3. If a SI starts an activity prior to gaining approval, itsclaim will be rejected.

4.4. All activities should be focused on and limited to Marketing, Channel Development and Sales Support of IBM Systems Hardware products andservices.

4.5. Ineligible activities and expenses as defined in the co-marketing terms and conditions will not be funded nor will any expense incurred that does not directly support the intent of the spending category.

4.6. All claims are subject to validation by IBM.

4.7. In the case that an invoice is submitted as proof of performance to multiple funding programs (ex. System Integrator Growth Fund and Software Group Program), it should be clearly noted which specific expense is associated with each funding program. The same expense can not be claimed and submitted to multiple funding programs.

5. Approvals

GF Registrations:

By email (using the CSI GF Request form)

-Market Systems Hardware Leader

  • Approves activities in line with the System Hardware strategy

-Market CSI Leader

  • Approves activities in line with the CSI strategy and tracks the spending of the GF budget.

Through CMC:

-Market Systems Hardware Leader - Program Funds Approvers

  • Approves Incentive Offerings.
  • Approves the Incentive Offering budget uplifts.

-CSI CPM or back up approver- Marketing Activity Approver

  • Approves the individual activities based on the overall CSI GF request approval provided by the above mentioned approvers.

GF Claims:

Through CMC:

-BPSO - Co-Marketing Claim Administrator

Validates the GF claims in line with co-marketing terms and conditions and recommend for final approval.

-CSI CPM - Claim Approver

  • Approves individual claims based on the pre-approved conditions and BPSO recommendation.

It is the responsibility of the CSI partner to submit the individual activities in CMC after the overall plan approval and get them approved before execution in the co-marketing tool.

5.1. All approvals must be in place before the related communication goes out to the SI, the IBM requester or any participant to the approved activities.

5.2.Growth fund activity overlapping two different years:
In case a SI wishes to apply for an activity to be performed partly during year n (e.g. 2017) and partly during year n+1 (e.g. 2018) then the following rules apply:

a)Funding: Funding is only known and available for the current year, therefore the Growth Fund request must be split in 2 parts: the Growth Fund supporting the cost of the activity to be performed in year n (e.g. 2017) and the part to be performed in year n+1 (e.g. 2018); in 2017, accruals will only be possible for the cost of the activity to be performed in 2017. The cost of the activity to be performed in 2018 will be supported by the 2018 Growth Fund.

b)

c)Growth Fund Application: The Growth Fund application can be approved for the current year or less. This is due to growth fund budgets visibility, which cannot go beyond one year. IBM cannot commit for budgets that are not yet approved (e.g. for year n+1). Should the SI Company have an activity that covers 2 years, the SI Company has to submit a separate Growth Fund request for each separate year. These requests will also be separately approved by the approvers.

6. Tools Supporting the Process

Name of Tool / Location of Tool
Co-Marketing Centre Tool /

Notes:

The names of the CSI Growth Fund Approvers are stored in the EMEA CSI Team Room.

7. Contact Names