Does it have the high-value services to transform your business?

• None of IBM's investment decisions over the last six years have been made in isolation—from the acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, to the creation of Business Analytics and Optimization; to investments in SOA; to innovative breakthroughs like intelligent energy grids and congestion charging. They build upon each other to create a unique proposition for IBM clients.
• Patenting activity is another indication of the emphasis a company places on innovation. IBM has finished first on the list of most US patents earned each year for the last 15 years.

Does it have leading expertise and insight for your business and your industry?

• IBM Global Business Services has grown into an $18 billion business in 2007 through an expansion of resources focused on high-value, transformational projects addressing a wide variety of needs, such as congestion charging, intelligent power grid management and currency risk management for the world's top banks.
• IBM is also the world's leading information technology services provider. In 2007, IBM Global Technology Services enjoyed its strongest growth in years, driven by strength across all geographies, industry sectors and lines-of-business, with worldwide revenue of $36.1 billion.

Does it have a resource portfolio of global skills that can do work wherever it needs to be done?

• IBM's global operations are accelerating our company's growth. IBM today does business in 170 countries and enjoys an increasingly broad-based geographic distribution of revenue. In 2007, 63 percent of our revenue came from outside the United States.
• IBM's focus on 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.
• IBM has been practicing and refining a global business model, supported by a global employment model, for decades. In that time, the company has built a global delivery network capable of supporting clients in every corner of the globe.

Does it offer flexibility to finance technology services or unlock working capital?

• IBM lends to customers where many of its competitors do not: to more than 125,000 clients in over 55 countries, thanks to a technology lending base of over $38 billion in assets, making IBM Global Financing the largest technology financier in the world. In 2007 alone, IBM Global Financing had originations of $15.2 billion, compared to $4.4 billion for Hewlett Packard Financial Services.