Test 000-603: IBM System z Solution Sales V6

Gather Customer Requirements

1. Qualify the customer by confirming their expectations, identifying their decision making process, and ascertaining their compelling reason(s) to act.
2. Determine financial justification for system acquisition (TCO, ROI, customer budget, business goals).
3. Determine customer's growth requirements (current and future performance and capacity).
4. Identify and describe business requirements that can be met by zEnterprise capabilities and technologies including Solution Editions, zBX and Unified Resource Manager.
5. Develop application volumes and requirements.
6. Evaluate existing systems environment

Develop Business Solution

1. Identify resources needed to achieve predictable performance of the customer's requirements.
2. Differentiate server performance using customer application benchmarks, industry benchmarks data.
3. Recognize application sizing elements. (transaction rates, database hits, transaction spikes, CoD)
4. Differentiate IBM System z family members including special models and Solution Editions.
5. Explain Ensemble advantages including Zbx and Unified Resource Manager
6. Compare available System z operating systems.
7. Identify system management tools available for System z (e.g. z/OSMF, Tivoli, Systems Director, Unified Resource Manager).
8. Identify systems management tools available for IBM System z (WebSM, Tivoli, etc.).
9. Guide customer through IBM System z operating systems, middleware, ISV and other applications pricing.
10. Compare IBM system storage options for System z.

Value Proposition

1. Quantify the business value of new System z features and functions or a new or existing customer.
2. Describe zEnterprise architectural advantages to a new customer: Scalability, Clustering, Performance, RAS, Security, Reliability and availabiility, Ensemble Management, and investment protection
3. Describe business value of System z flexibility: z/VSE, z/VM, z/OS, Linux on System z, System z operating systems, Virtualization, zBX and Unified Resource Manager, and Solution Editions

Competition

1. Compare IBM System z competitive advantages: Architecture, Performance, Balanced systems design, Ensemble, zBX and Unified Resource Manager, TCO, Virtualization, to used equipment and other architectures (Sun, HP, and other IBM).
2. Compare z/OS advantages to other operating systems (e.g., Solaris, Windows, HP-UX, Linux).
3. Compare IBM System z terminology with competitive terms.