Global integration is reshaping the world's economies and societies—and giving rise to very new kinds of enterprises and institutions. Customers needing global know-how prefer a partner like IBM so they can leverage the length and breadth of technological innovation, skills and financial strength.

• IBM applies its global skills across different industry sectors, combined with innovative technologies to boost its customer's business efficiency and performance. IBM's expertise spans deep into 17 industries in virtually every country and culture worldwide.
• IBM has teams all around the world that use the best learning from Japan, China, India, Europe and the Americas. IBM experts do not have to fly-in to combine global expertise and leadership practices with local presence and knowledge—they're already right there on the ground.
• IBM's focus on emerging geographic markets—or countries with high economic growth potential—has accelerated. These countries represented 18 percent of IBM's geographic revenue in the second quarter of 2008, and together grew 21 percent. In addition, the Brazil, Russia, India and China subset grew 31 percent in the second quarter, led by explosive growth in India.
• IBM is winning major transformational projects in growth markets around the world. For example, IBM has deals with the three major telecommunications companies in India, all of them running highly automated IT and business process infrastructures.
• In contrast, EDS is only bringing about 45,000 global delivery resources—worldwide—to HP. The combined company isn't positioned for leadership in high-growth markets; in fact, EDS reported only $1.8 billion in revenue from the Asia-Pacific region in 2007. But IBM has more than 70,000 employees in India alone working in services, serving clients there and around the world.