IBM System z Top Gun

This four and one half day sales class covers the entire spectrum of System z Qualities of Service, sales strategies, solutions, and competition. It is the foundation course for developing Level-4 product and solutions sales skills.

At the completion of this course, students will be able to articulate System z "Qualities of Service" that allow it to provide four key enterprise-wide roles for IBM customers: (1) Enterprise business resilience manager (2) Enterprise security manager (3) Enterprise workload manager (4) Enterprise Hub for data and SOA. Topics such as System z hardware, High Availability, Disaster Recovery, Virtualization, Operating Systems (z/OS, z/VM, and zLinux), Security, software pricing, emerging enterprise applications, and the Total Cost of Computing (TCO) will all be related back to how they allow System z to fulfill these four enterprise roles. There will also be an emphasis placed on how System z competes in the marketplace. Students will participate in a workshop that will allow them to place values on System z "Qualities of Service" discussed during the class.

IBM System z Top Gun is a 4.5 day class.

IBM Sales Specialists, Business Partners, New Hires, Client reps, eSMs, FTSSs, zITAs, SAs, Pricers, Solution Teams or anyone who spends a good deal of their time selling and supporting mainframe-based solutions from IBM.

Ability to understand, articulate and sell the folowing:

• System z processor platforms
• The four key enterprise-wide roles for System z
• System z operating systems, including z/OS, z/VM, and Linux
• System z High Availability Solutions: Parallel Sysplex and GDPS
• System z Virtualization
• System z Security Solutions
• System z Software Pricing solutions
• SOA and Websphere on System z
• System z Total Cost of Ownership - Cost and Value
• The System z Value propositions

• Understanding of TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) Concepts
• Introductory level knowledge of System z Fundamentals

Click on the date below to enroll in a future class or to view photos of prior class Top Guns!

"This was a great course that provided a solid foundation for me in my new role at IBM". - IBM Financial Services Manager

"Well done, well managed! It was intense and structured and I am 'worn out' but it was a great experience." - Business Partner, USA

"This was unquestionably the best education class I have attended in 31 years with IBM. It is current, up-to-date, and packed with useful information. - Solution team specialist, USA

"The Top Gun concept helps a lot to motivate us to get through the week. Everybody involved did a tremendous job keeping us interested." - System architect, Canada

"Base Top Gun is very, very important for Business Partners!" - Business Partner, Brazil

"Best organized and run class I can remember attending. I also highly recommend international nature--much more interesting." - Client I/T architect, USA

Dave Brown

daveb@us.ibm.com