IBM has unveiled a series of measures designed to help stamp out grey market activity in its channel.
Big Blue announced at CeBIT last week that it has harmonized hardware pricing, boosted transparency in its supply chain and is “systematically extending” compliance programmes.
It has also joined the Alliance for Grey Market and Counterfeit Abatement (AGMA), whose existing members include Cisco and HP.
IBM said that harmonized pricing, especially for options such as storage modules or hard disks, will reduce the scope for arbitrage business in the grey market by minimizing regional price differences.
The vendor also announced that supply chain control via barcodes and serial numbers has now been extended to options and accessories. This is designed to help it identify products in the grey market that originally came from other transactions.