IBM's New Alliances to Boost Revenue by US$1B

BOSTON (07/05/2000) - IBM Corp. announced Wednesday new alliances with five application developers that company officials say will bolster revenue by US$1 billion over the next three years.

IBM will partner with:

-- Intentia International AB and Industrial and Financial Systems AB, two Swedish ERP (enterprise resource planning) software vendors;-- IT Design Ltd., a Dublin, Ireland-based social services application provider;-- Mincom Ltd., a Brisbane, Australia-based transportation application provider; and-- Aspen Technology Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based industrial supply application provider.

The agreements mean the new partners will commit to IBM's server platforms, middleware and services, while Big Blue will assist them with the selling and marketing of their products -- part of IBM's PartnerWorld for Developers initiative.

Bob Timpson, IBM's general manager, developer relations, said the new partnerships continue the company's efforts to forge alliances with developers in a variety of geographic locations and industries. Including Wednesday's deals, IBM has signed 22 alliances worth $7 billion in revenue over three years and Timpson said more are planned in future.

Working with ISVs (independent software vendors) was not always the tradition for IBM, Timpson said.

"Frankly, our competitors do this (partner with developers) very well," he said. "It has been key to their growth. We use to write our own software. We decided last year that wasn't a good idea (for IBM to write application software) and we decided to partner with the industry. We are now winning back from Sun (Microsystems Inc.) and Oracle (Corp.) some of the marketplace."

During late 1999, IBM forged an alliance with CRM (customer relationship management) software vendor, Siebel Systems Inc. Since that time, IBM also has partnered with such companies as Ariba Inc. and i2 Technologies Inc. [See "IBM, Intentia, Siebel to Form Airline Services," June 6, and "UPDATE: IBM Strikes Biz-to-Biz Deal with i2, Ariba," March 8.]IBM, in Armonk, New York, can be reached at +1-914-499-1900 or at http://www.ibm.com/. Intentia, in Danderyd, Sweden, can be reached at +46-8-5552-5000 or on the Web at http://www.intentia.com/. Industrial and Financial Systems, in Linkoping, Sweden, can be reached at +46-0-1320-1500 or at http://www.ifsab.com/. IT Design, in Dublin, Ireland, can be reached at 353-1-496-7766 or at http://www.itdesign.com/. Mincom, in Brisbane, Australia, can be reached at http://www.mincom.com/. Aspen Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, can be reached at +1-617-949-1000 or at http://www.aspentech.com/.

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