BluePhoenix Adds AS/400 Experience to Business Partner Program

Published: March 3, 2008

by Dan Burger

The business partner and strategic alliance program at BluePhoenix has added a heavy hitter to the lineup. Alan Zwiren, a former IBM channel executive responsible for worldwide information management channel sales has taken the position of vice president of partners and strategic alliance sales for the application modernization tools and services company. Zwiren is no stranger to the System i, which figures to be a positive factor for ASNA, the System i application tools vendor that was acquired by BluePhoenix in August 2007.

Zwiren is coming off seven years at Big Blue and is a 20-year veteran of the enterprise software industry. Prior to joining IBM, Zwiren was the vice president of strategic relations at Magic Software, a provider of development tools and integration software for System i servers as well as other platforms. His experience also includes a stint as the director of global IBM relations at Synon, an OS/400-based application development vendor that now exists under the CA banner, and manager of business development for Information Builders, a software company that specializes in business intelligence and enterprise integration software.

In 1988, Zwiren was selected to be a consultant to IBM's AS/400 Division, and he participated in the launch and worldwide rollout of the AS/400. During his time at Synon, he was involved in the launch of Obsydian, a product that extended Synon's application development tools to the Microsoft Windows platform. With BluePhoenix, Zwiren will be working in a similar environment--one that integrates IBM's midrange and mainframe systems with Windows. At Magic Software, he was part of the team that launched products into the Linux space. At IBM, he managed worldwide channel sales for mainframe, Unix, Linux, and Windows platforms.

"Because I have a strong channels background in both AS/400 and other marketplaces, I will be responsible for all BluePhoenix alliance and channel activities," Zwiren says.

Since joining BluePhoenix, Zwiren says he has been "highly impressed" with the existing strategic partner and alliance relationships, which consist of hardware vendors, software vendors, and system integrators that among the largest in the world and those that are comparatively small and regionally based.

"What I've found to be even more impressive is the list of people who want to work with us," Zwiren says. Since joining BluePhoenix, he says over a dozen requests from potential strategic partners have been received, and many existing partners want to expand their relationships.

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