Overview of validation steps

Welcome!
IBM’s dynamic partner ecosystem is made up of thousands of problem-solving companies like yours from all over the world. This guide will help you become a part of it, so that all of the knowledge, skills and solutions that an ecosystem through IBM can provide are available to you. 
This guide will help you understand the value of working with IBM and lead you through the step-by-step process of creating and validating a solution/service with IBM Hybrid Cloud.  Benefits include:
Co-marketing with us on our new Partner Solution Showcase!  Learn more about the co-marketing benefits.
Co-selling with IBM sellers who are rewarded for making our partners successful!
Each page of this guide has a Next button at the bottom, to allow you to progress through the complete  process.  Additionally, the pages are listed in the left-hand navigation panel.  You will need to complete all of the steps for one level of partnership before moving to the next level.
Let’s get started. 
Who is the audience for this Guide?
The IBM partner program comprises IBM’s overall range of services and offerings for our Partners. It has so much to offer your business, and the full ecosystem of partners within the program offers even more.
IBM’s partner program is organized around three activities:  Build, Service, and Sell.  You might perform one, two or all three of these activities, based on your goals as an IBM partner.  This guide is focused on Build and Service activities.
Sell:  https://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/cloud/ecosystem​
Build with IBM public cloud:  https://www.ibm.com/partners/start/​
Build and Service with hybrid multicloud:  This the guide for you!
Areas of Opportunity 
By partnering together, we can help companies become... 
Data Driven – Many companies still face fragmented data sets which provide limited visibility into how their processes and applications are actually performing. 
We believe companies should be able to easily connect and collect all structured and unstructured data sourced throughout their enterprise, organize, catalog, analyze and mine the data to understand their as-is state, and where they can benefit from automation. 
AI Powered – Many companies have diverse and mismatched skill sets, and typically rely on a few experts for understanding the data, how to leverage the insights, and how to prioritize the work. 
We believe in the power of machine learning and AI, applied to the full set of enterprise data, to visualize the bottlenecks, gaps, opportunities and to create custom KPIs to measure progress and outcomes.
Actionable – Many companies struggle to execute business and IT automation projects because it requires a lot of custom development by teams of engineers and data scientists. 
We believe in using the AI derived insights to quickly and easily automate business and IT processes from directly within the software, giving practitioners the power to automated with low code / no code tooling. 
Agile – The few companies that achieve a level of automation, have difficulty staying there, and often face large re-implementation projects as conditions change. 
We believe in a closed loop feedback system where data generated by automated processes is fed back into the AI model to continuously improve automation efficiency and ensure companies remain agile and resilient.
We believe IBM is uniquely positioned to capitalize on these growing markets, with: 
The only enterprise-wide automation platform that provides a single view across business, IT and development operations. 
The ability to optimize business issues by providing insight into how organizational processes fully work, and visualizing hotspots and bottlenecks. 
Increased productivity and improved operational efficiency by rapidly automating complex and repetitive processes.
Superior customer experiences, provided quickly and easily through continuous process optimization and AI-infused domain specific software.
Eligibility criteria
Use an IBM Hybrid Cloud offering
To be eligible for the benefits described in this Guide, you must be a Build or Service partner whose solution/service adopts, leverages or uses at least one of the following IBM Hybrid Cloud offerings:
Cloud Pak for Data
Cloud Pak for Business Automation
Cloud Satellite
Cloud Pak for Integration
Edge Application Manager
Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps
Cloud for Telecommunications
Cloud Pak for Network Automation
WebSphere Hybrid Edition
Turbonomic Application Resource Management for IBM Cloud Paks 
IBM Observability by Instana APM
Provide assets
To qualify initially, you must provide these assets:
Joint Value Proposition 
1.2-slide elevator pitch of the joint value proposition in our standard "wow" format - Instructions: https://ibm-10.gitbook.io/certified-for-cloud-pak-onboarding/demonstrated-value/wow-slide-deck 
2.5-minute video of someone pitching the Better Together value proposition - Instructions: https://ibm-10.gitbook.io/certified-for-cloud-pak-onboarding/demonstrated-value/demo-the-joint-value-proposition 
Customer-facing slide deck
Customer-facing slide deck outlining the solution/service
Technical Validation
Solution architecture diagram(s) outlining the IBM Hybrid Cloud offerings/technologies that have been utilized
Deployment/Operational Architecture (to demonstrate that NFRs like sizing, performance etc are taken into consideration) · 
Additional supporting material, outlining your approach. The following are suggested topics. You are not required to provide every one of these: o Assumptions o Installation / Configuration o Architectural Decisions (each decision with options available, which option is chosen and why) o Insights derived using AI & ML o AI / ML guidelines or standards o Automation Workflows: Source -> Connector -> Trigger -> Action o Programming Model o Business Model o Operational Model o Data Lifecycle / Model Lifecycle o UX Flow o Integrations / SOR (System of Records) o Rules Objects (BOM) o Storage details / ICN - FileNet o Customization details o API’s used 
Sales kit 
To enable IBM sellers - Instructions: https://ibm-10.gitbook.io/certified-for-cloud-pak-onboarding/go-to-market
Who will access to your assets
We have three levels of visibility:
Customers:  To drive awareness of and demand for your solution/service with IBM Customers and IBM Sellers. This information will be similar to what you have on your website and will highlight the IBM synergy. You control what is published. We don't publish any of your assets automatically. Here is an example Showcase listing page: https://www.ibm.com/partners/showcase/cloud-paks/solution/versafile-docuflow-sap-extension-kit 
IBM Sellers:  To prepare the IBM Sellers (Client sellers, Product brand sellers, and Partner sellers) to talk to their customers about your solution/service. These assets are stored in our sales enablement repository--visible to IBMers only, not other partners.
IBM technical validators:  To perform technical validation of your solution/service.  These assets are only visible to a small team of IBM technical validators. They are stored in an IBM-internal Box folder with controlled ACL.
To retain these benefits
The following additional achievements aren't required to qualify initially, but are required after 1 year, to retain the benefits described in this Guide:
This solution/service drives incremental revenue or consumption for IBM (can be influenced, in addition to direct)
A client reference relevant to this solution/service from the last 3 years that can be used for co-marketing 
A 5-minute client-facing video about this solution/service that can be used for co-marketing
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IBM's automation strategy

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Outline

Welcome!

Who is the audience for this Guide?

Areas of Opportunity

Eligibility criteria