News

Dublin, Ireland - July 11, 2007: IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced the opening of a new Innovation Centre in IBM Technology Campus Dublin, to accelerate entrepreneurship in Ireland. The new Centre is designed to meet the growing demand from business partners, venture funded organisations and customers looking to harness IBM expertise in technologies such as Services Orientated Architecture, Web 2.0, 3D Internet, Cell Processor and POWER 6 architecture. IBM also introduced a range of new sales and marketing resources to help business partners generate new business.

Additionally, IBM is announcing plans to launch four Innovation Centres across Europe including Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Switzerland.

With the introduction of these new centres, IBM now hosts a network of more than 38 Innovation Centres around the world. Since their inception over ten years ago, IBM Innovation Centres have become a key component of IBM's strategy to help companies build innovative solutions before they expand into new markets.

IBM Innovation Centres offer Research and Development expertise to enable start-ups and small to mid-sized companies create leading-edge software & hardware applications. The centres also provide an entry-point to IBM's Research network, accelerating innovation by providing insights into emerging technologies.

“IBM Innovation Centres provide global support for partners and customers and are independent of their location,” said Chris Howard, IBM Innovation Centre Manager, Dublin. “For example, Innovation Centre in Dallas, USA may be better equipped to meet the specific technical needs of a business partner in Dublin. Using hands-on local support in Dublin and a few clicks of a mouse, that Partner can access the technical resources of another IBM Innovation Centre halfway around the world.”

This model can also be extended to allow business partners remote access to IBM Innovation Centres providing ultimate flexibility in getting to the customized resources needed, where and when needed.

“This initiative further highlights Ireland's position as an integral part of IBM's growth strategy to operate as a globally integrated company,” said Jim Corgel, general manager, ISV & Developer Relations. “Ireland offers a well established and a growing ecosystem with strong collaboration between IBM, the venture capital community, business partners, entrepreneurs, government and academia.”

“This investment to expand our worldwide IBM Innovation Centres is being led by the demand from our partners for increased expertise in their local regions. As the global marketplace continues to expand, we are looking to our partners to ensure our resources are meeting their specific needs."

New Global Marketing and Sales Tools
Recognising the needs of small-to-mid sized companies with limited resources and rising competition, IBM has announced a set of new tools and resources that will allow business partners to tap into IBM's expansive, global marketing and sales resources. The new tools available include:

• Pipeline Generation - Business partners will have access to a global full-service marketing agency to help engage new business contacts, nurture existing contacts, and identify new business opportunities.
• Marketing Resources Managers – Each partner will be assigned a marketing expert to help them build and execute an end-to-end marketing campaign to generate new business opportunities.
• IBM Business Partner Event Plus – In an effort to give business partners more exposure in their specific industries, IBM will help partners jointly participate or co-host in major conferences, trade shows, and client meetings.

Today's announcement further demonstrates IBM's commitment to the success of its business partners.

For more information, please visit: www.ibm.com/partnerworld
Contact details:

IBM Press Contact
Jim O’Keeffe
Media Relations, IBM Ireland
okeeffej@ie.ibm.com
+353 1 815 4124

Text 100 Press Contact
Conor Lynch/Simon Fitzgerald
+353 1 631 6054/631 605