News

Singapore – 14 May 2009: IBM Singapore today announced an IT makeover challenge offering up to US$30,000 of IT products and solutions as part of a comprehensive suite of activities from now till end of the year, to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) work smarter, tackle disasters and succeed in today’s challenging times.

Amid the downturn, IBM is strengthening its long-standing commitment to the mid market with a host of activities designed for SMBs in Singapore between May and September this year. These include an IT makeover contest, a series of workshops and a business continuity seminar with the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and Singapore Business Federation. These activities aim to help SMBs here explore ways they can work smarter and build smarter businesses; to emerge profitable, competitive and cost-efficient in these challenging times.

Entitled “The IBM Business Reality Challenge”, the makeover contest requires SMBs to describe in 100 words or less, their biggest IT challenges and how the USD30,000 prize will help build a smarter business for them. The Challenge will run between May and June with registrations closing on 26 June 2009. The Challenge sees participation across the ASEAN region where one SMB from each country will win USD30,000 of IBM IT products and solutions including IBM hardware, software and consulting services. All entries will be evaluated by an IBM panel and the winners will be unveiled in July 2009.

“The SMB market in Singapore is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in IBM and we are committed to making it easy for these businesses to leverage the technical innovations that deliver business differentiation and spur growth. Through the IBM Business Reality Challenge, we aim to deepen our understanding of SMBs’ biggest business and technology pain points and providing them with the solutions to work smarter than their competitors and succeeding in good and challenging times,” says Claudia Tan, General Manager, General Business, IBM Singapore.

Eligible to participate in the Challenge are businesses with staff strength below 1,000, who are keen to empower their employees through collaborative tools to increase productivity, secure key data and business processes, and keep operational costs low; and game to generate higher ROI within a shorter runway.

Business continuity and security as critical to SMBs as large enterprises
Small and medium sized businesses have many of the same business and technology challenges as large corporations but must solve them with limited resources, time and access to capital. Business continuity is one such challenge.

Today, business continuity planning is no longer a luxury that only mega-businesses can afford. In the face of recent global disasters and pandemics, it makes business sense for SMBs to plan for disruptions as without any business continuity structure in place, a small or mid-size company may risk losing revenue it cannot afford to lose. To help prepare SMBs for impending disasters and disruptions, IBM is providing complimentary assessments and health checks of the business resiliency and security levels of companies who sign up for the Challenge.

Another pain point of SMBs is the security of their IT infrastructures. According to Gartner Inc., small businesses must compensate for having fewer resources than their larger competitors by deploying cost-effective, right-size IT solutions. Gartner predicts that by 2010, 90% of new infrastructure protection security spend for businesses with less than 500 employees will go to security platforms. In a very real sense, the global economy is dependent on IT, making the security of IT infrastructures and data more important than ever.

To help mid-sized businesses minimise business risk and maximise business efficiency in a global economy, IBM announced in April 2009, the latest additions and enhancements to its mid-market solutions and Express Advantage offerings. Additions to the Express Advantage portfolio include two offerings designed to address the growing need for mid-market business continuity solutions -- a security-rich offsite data backup and recovery service, and an e-mail continuity and archiving service. Also available today are a suite of recently announced Internet threat mitigation services and new POWER6™ and Intel processor-based servers, providing increased application choice and reduced energy and administration costs (see factsheet for details).

“Many home-grown brands familiar to Singaporeans including Awfully Chocolate, Sheng Siong and Donut Empire leverage IT innovations to work smarter. IBM is committed to bringing technology closer to Singapore’s small and medium sized businesses, to empower them with agility, scalability and adaptability to fly in today’s marketplace,” IBM Singapore’s Claudia Tan adds.

Last year, the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCCI) and IBM Singapore launched the IBM Mobile Express at the 10th Annual SMEs Conference 2008 on 15 May, at the Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre. Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr Chua Thian Poh, President of SCCCI, Ms Teresa Lim, Managing Director, IBM Singapore and Mr Sky Chiew, Managing Director and Founder, Donut Empire officiated the launch. IBM Mobile Express is a demonstrational “bus-load” of IT solutions tailored to help SMEs in Singapore catapult their business for success. It aims to facilitate SMEs learn about technology and innovative business solutions. To do so innovatively and at the SMEs’ convenience, IBM retrofitted a bus with IBM’s SME business solutions, where the bus made door-to-door visits across SME premises island-wide.

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For more information about the IBM Business Reality Challenge, visit www.ibm.com/sg/smarterbusiness.

For more information about Express Advantage and the new Express Advantage offerings, visit www.ibm.com/expressadvantage.

For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com.

Media contact:
Ryp Yong (Ms). IBM Singapore. Brand and Communications.
E-mail: yongryp@sg.ibm.com. DID: +65 6418 1144. Mobile: + 65 9750 6292.

Fact sheet

1) New Express Advantage Business Continuity solutions:

IBM Information Protection Services – Remote Data Protection Express (US) is an automatic, security-rich and offsite data backup and recovery service for Windows servers and PCs. This turnkey service for distributed/remote environments includes all of the hardware, software, monitoring and management that mid-sized businesses need to implement an effective data protection strategy. The Remote Data Protection Express service is based on capabilities and expertise gained through IBM’s recent acquisition of Arsenal Digital Solutions, an emerging worldwide leader in on-demand data protection.

IBM Information Protection Services – Data Retention and Archival – E-Mail Management Express (US) enables Business Partners to choose from a newly expanded portfolio including e-mail continuity and e-mail archiving, both with features and options that can be combined to help support diverse e-mail management needs hosted by IBM. With the e-mail continuity service Business Partners gain an on demand backup e-mail system designed to provide consistent and reliable access to their vital e-mail communications while ensuring uninterrupted access to critical e-mail tools and data.

2) New Express Advantage Security offerings:

• Express Penetration Testing Services – services that uncover an organisation’s vulnerabilities by simulating a real network attack and mimicking the techniques used by malicious attackers.
• Express Multi-Function Security Bundle – new services that provide the most complete do-it-yourself protection against network threats, vulnerabilities, worms, viruses, spy-ware and spam in a single Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution.
• Express Managed Multi-Function Security Bundle – for clients who prefer a fully managed multi-function security solution, IBM is delivering a suite of products that provide 24/7 comprehensive protection, monitoring, and support a broad array of security services including: firewall, VPN, behavioral & signature antivirus, intrusion prevention security (IPS), anti-spam, and Web filtering.
• Express Managed Protection Services for Servers – services for affordable 24/7 protection for servers from the broadest array of threats as well as monitoring and management services.

3) About IBM Express Advantage:
IBM Express Advantage combines a comprehensive portfolio of technology offerings, business solutions and financing options with a network of local IBM Business Partners and dedicated Concierge customer support service to create a powerful, end-to-end approach for helping the mid-sized customer increase efficiency, advance their innovation agenda and grow. IBM continues to leverage these capabilities to differentiate itself in the marketplace and drive growth in the $253 billion mid-market, one of IBM’s largest and fastest growing market opportunities.
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