Bingo. Going to an IBM VAR/Partner is really the only decent/sane way to navigate the IBM sales bureaucracy unless you're talking about US$(high 7-figure plu

Bingo. Going to an IBM VAR/Partner is really the only decent/sane way to navigate the IBM sales bureaucracy unless you're talking about US$(high 7-figure plus) orders. It's also really the best way to get the best price, because the VAR will work to figure out all the discounts and such a customer might be entitled to. On an IBM sales team, the left hand doesn't always know or care what the right hand is doing. When I worked at IBM, I usually called in a favor from friends at a local VAR whenever I needed to order something to get a BoM, because even internally the process was opaque.