IBM to Improve Offerings for Small Business

International Business Machines, conceding that its smaller business customers frequently get lost at Big Blue, will announce today a set of products and services targeted at them and will spend $100 million to market the program.

While businesses with fewer than 100 employees buy about one-fourth of all the information technology products sold worldwide, IBM gets far less than 25% of its revenue from such companies, said Peter Rowley, IBM’s general manager for global small business.

“We plan to grow that [at] a faster rate in the future,” Rowley said.

The offerings, to be combined with ongoing piecemeal efforts, include 15-minute financing approval for purchases of as little as $1,000 and training for a fixed fee on various subjects over the Web.

“Small businesses don’t know how to navigate around IBM,” Rowley said. “We really want to confirm our relationship with them.”