BlueStar and Big Blue Enter Outsourcing Partnership

BlueStar Solutions, an enterprise application outsourcer that specializes in SAP services, announced yesterday that it has signed a channel partnership agreement with IBM. The partnership is designed to combine BlueStar’s capabilities to manage and host SAP solutions with the broad reach of IBM’s Global Services organization.

Under the terms of the agreement, IBM will sell Cupertino, Calif.-based BlueStar Solutions’ outsourcing services to companies at the high end of the mid-market (i.e., companies with $1 billion and less in revenue).

The partnership fills a void in the enterprise application outsourcing space, said Jessica Goepfert, IDC’s AppSourcing program manager. “The mid-market sees outsourcing as a means to reduce costs and offload IT burdens, but companies need assurances that they’ll get the service levels they need at attractive pricing.”

According to IBM and BlueStar, the partnership will provide customers the security of IBM’s market leadership with BlueStar Solutions’ technical and IT outsourcing expertise. BlueStar Solutions reports that it has more than 50 customers and 35,000 hosted users in 20 countries.

“The mid-market is very important to IBM,” said Joanne Olson, vice president of Alternate Channels at IBM. “We selected BlueStar Solutions as an alternate delivery channel for our Global Services portfolio because of its proven reputation as an SAP outsourcing leader.”

“We anticipate the global reach of the IBM sales organization and the strength of its brand will help us increase market share, accelerate our growth and build new relationships with companies looking to take advantage of applications outsourcing services,” said Thomas F. Kelly, chairman and CEO of BlueStar Solutions.

BlueStar Solutions has received Premier Level status in IBM Service Providers for e-business initiative and has been approved as an xSP Prime Hosting Participant, which means that it has undergone an on-site review and is approved in all areas of service delivery.

IBM and SAP are listed by ASPnews as Top 30 Service Enablers.

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