WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. and STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 6, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- IBM and International Business Systems (IBS) AB (XSSE:IBSB) today announced a significant expansion of their global strategic alliance to provide fully integrated and consolidated supply chain solutions to help medium- sized companies lower costs, improve supply chain efficiency and increase profitability.
Joint marketing and sales world wide As part of the extended agreement, IBM and IBS will jointly market and sell solutions to target segments and customers worldwide. IBM's worldwide sales force will market the combined offering, further extending IBS' market reach. IBM will also have dedicated consultants to support application development, testing, optimization, tuning and other development activities. IBS will also work closely with IBM Global Services and IBM Global Financing in selected marketing and sales activities.
Customers attain clear business value from the alliance Since its founding in 1978, working with IBM, IBS has successfully delivered IT-solutions that provide business value to more than 5,000 customers worldwide. Cramo, Europe's third largest equipment rental company, selected IBS Virtual Enterprise to minimize total procurement costs, optimize logistics, simplify routines, improve functional efficiency and build long-term supplier relationships. Investing in a collaborative procurement solution with EAI capabilities and equipped with business logic was vital to remain competitive.
"The use of IBS Virtual Enterprise will eventually result in reduced average inventory investment and less overstocking and has already today brought reduced costs and closer supplier relationships. We now have a strong procurement process in place," said Hans Konig, IT-Director at Cramo.
Magnus Wastenson, CEO and President of IBS comments on what the extended agreement means to IBS customers. "The Alliance with IBM, with world leading middleware and hardware, provides a solid foundation for IBS to build further success with our demand driven business application solutions. We will continue to develop and support existing and new customers with integrated IT solutions that increase their profitability and customer service and deliver measurable business value."
"Collaborating with leading ISVs is at the core of IBM's strategy to support medium-sized businesses with on demand solutions that address business issues," said Marc Lautenbach, general manager, IBM Global SMB. "Midmarket customers in the wholesale and industrial sectors seek open solutions that are cost effective, and easy to install and integrate across their own companies and with their customers and suppliers. Strengthening our strategic relationship with IBS will enable us to provide integrated supply chain solutions that better meet our customer needs in an on demand environment."
Fast development, implementation and integration of joint solutions As part of the alliance, IBS will optimize its core ASW Suite and IBS Virtual Enterprise supply chain applications on IBM's open standards- based software and hardware. Standardizing IBS applications on IBM's open infrastructure hardware and software will enable fast development, implementation and integration of collaborative enterprise solutions that can run on different computing platforms at a lower cost. Providing companies with solutions that can be accessed by a network of customers, partners and suppliers are a vital component to becoming an on demand business.
IBS will optimize the ASW suite and IBS Virtual Enterprise with IBM WebSphere* Application Server and WebSphere* Application Server Express, WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Portal Express, DB2* Universal Database, and Lotus Domino. IBS will also promote IBM eServer* iSeries* and xSeries* hardware as well as IBM middleware as its technologies of choice and optimal reference platforms in marketing and sales activities.
The IBS supply chain management (SCM) software suite, ASW, enables efficient supply chain management, customer service, demand-driven manufacturing, financial control and Business Intelligence. IBS Virtual Enterprise software is a Collaborative Commerce solution with the additional abilities of EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) software. It is further enhanced through its utilisation of superior business logic for advanced, cross application business models. IBS solutions are targeted to large and medium-sized business customers in the wholesale distribution and industrial industry sectors and offers advanced functionality for performance measurements.
For further information, please contact:
Magnus Wastenson, CEO and Stefanie Molzberger, ISV & Developer
President, IBS AB Relations
Tel. +46 (0)8 627 2515 IBM Deutschland GmbH
Mobile: +46 (0)70 627 2515 IBM EMEA Media & Analyst Relations
magnus.wastenson@ibs.net Mobile: +49 (0)172/7235 919
molzberger@de.ibm.com
About IBM
With 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate, IBM is the world's largest information technology company. IBM is a leading provider of e-business solutions and is dedicated to helping companies, Business Partners and developers leverage the potential of the Internet and network computing across a wide range of businesses and industries. The company offers a host of cross-industry and industry specific solutions designed to meet the needs of companies of all sizes. For more information on partnering with IBM, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld
About IBS
IBS AB, (XSSE: IBS B) International Business Systems, is a leading provider of business software for supply chain management, business intelligence, financial control, and demand-driven manufacturing. IBS' primary focus is mid-sized and large wholesale distributors as well as sales and manufacturing companies in international groups, especially in pharmaceuticals, electronic parts and equipment, automotive parts and supplies, machinery, industrial supplies and consumer durables. For more information about IBS, visit www.ibs.net.
* Denotes a trademark or registered trademark of the InternationalBusiness Machines Corporation.
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