News

DUBAI, ARMONK, NY and MIAMI, – 6th May 2009: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a broad portfolio of offerings designed to help midsize companies tap into the power of today's interconnected, instrumented and increasingly intelligent world. Leading the way are the new Comprehensive Data Protection Solution and BladeCenter Express servers incorporating the latest IBM POWER6 microprocessors to create the foundation for a highly efficient, dynamic infrastructure needed for today's rapidly changing global economy.

IBM is strengthening its long-standing commitment to the midmarket with solutions specifically designed for midsize businesses that are making the promise of a smarter planet, a reality for this critically important market. In particular, these latest offerings address the growing need for dynamic infrastructure, business intelligence, energy efficiency and solutions for smarter work. Through its Express Advantage strategy, IBM continues to apply its unparalleled combination of research capabilities, industry skills, technology innovation and global business partner ecosystem to help midmarket companies succeed in today’s environment.

“There is an increased need to improve company infrastructure to make our customers more efficient, cost effective and smarter,” said Takreem El Tohamy, General Manager, IBM Middle East and North Africa. “The skills, technologies and solutions that business partners and IBM are delivering as part of the smarter planet campaign are enabling customers to gain better insight into their businesses to become leaner more effective and smarter organisations.”

Building a smarter midmarket with dynamic infrastructure
Vantage Deluxe World Travel, a leading tour operator offering high-quality, affordable travel programs for travelers in the mature adult market, is benefiting from a dynamic infrastructure. To improve delivery of travel services to their customers, Vantage needed to streamline its outdated ordering process, orchestrating a massive set of business rules for handling online travel bookings that includes a complex set of travel options and alternatives.

Vantage engaged IBM to implement an online commerce solution using IBM WebSphere Commerce Express software on an IBM System x3455 platform running the Microsoft Windows operating system. This system was put in place to efficiently manage high-volume customer travel requests in a personalized manner and improve the customer experience. As a result of this implementation, that company saw tremendous return on their investment. Vantage call center agents increased productivity by 80 percent; In addition, they were able to increase their revenue by 140 percent over the last year and are projecting corporate revenues will double in five years.

"As our business grew, it was important to implement a new infrastructure that would save time and money by improving the service in our call centers while improving our customers’ satisfaction," said Peter Groustra, director of Information Technology for Vantage Deluxe World Travel. "IBM enabled us to streamline our order processing system and develop a strong online presence to better reach our customer base."

“Organizations need to find ways to not only make the most of IT investment, but build an infrastructure that creates enhanced business value” said Jean-Christophe Knoertzer, IBM’s director global business partners for the Middle East and North Africa. “Dynamic infrastructure is an all-important foundation which helps organizations reduce total cost of ownership, improve service levels and manage risk”

Selling to the CFO
IBM is offering new training and education to enable Business Partners to take the sales conversation all the way to the office of the CFO – making these Partners aware of the challenges that CFOs are facing today and what goes into their purchase decisions today. With this new education program – “Selling to the CFO” – IBM’s Business Partners are better able to discuss the value of a smarter infrastructure rather than simply its technical elements.

They will also be able to identify ROI, and intelligently discuss financial metrics that go into a purchase decision. These are the financial selling skills Business Partners need in order to succeed in today’s environment, and the skills that will enable them to bring the promise of a Smarter Planet to their customers. In this educational program, Partners will learn: fundamental financial metrics with an overview of income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow, how to assess each client's value drivers and buying decision criteria, enabling tailored solutions aligned with each client’s needs CFO perspectives and the challenges that CFOs face in an uncertain economy as well as how to offer the right financing options to meet a customer’s budget constraints.

IBM Global Financing
While market and credit conditions are evolving, IBM Global Financing continues to lend to qualified customers. IBM Financing Advantage offers a comprehensive portfolio of financing solutions to help address the requirements of midsize businesses to fund their IT agendas, maximize working capital, recover technology value and manage risk.

Business Partner Incentives Enhance Earnings & Profit Potential in Midmarket
IBM Business Partners can derive several benefits by leveraging midmarket software incentives from IBM. Business Partner sales of IBM software to midmarket customers may be eligible for increases up to five percent in both the existing midmarket rebate and the Value Advantage Plus rebate — an overall improvement of up to 10 percent in available rewards. This uplift reflects an overall rebalancing of focus and increased IBM Software Group investment toward the high growth midmarket segment.

Join IBM’s Express Advantage online social media communities:

• Facebook: IBM Express Advantage group on Facebook
• Twitter: IBM Express Advantage channel on Twitter
• YouTube: IBM Express Advantage YouTube channel
• LinkedIn: IBM Express Advantage group on LinkedIn
• Slideshare: IBM Express Advantage slidespace

Press Contacts:
Suha Seikaly or Alec Harden
Spot On Public Relations
Tel: +971 4 3491686
Fax: +971 4 3493245
E-mail: suhas@spotonpr.com or alech@spotonpr.com