IBM Establishes Global Information on Demand Technical Centers of Excellence in Germany and Japan

New Centers Will Tap Into Cognos and Other Strategic IBM Acquisitions



ARMONK, NY - May 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has established two global Information on Demand Technical Centers of Excellence in Kanagawa, Japan, and Stuttgart, Germany, in response to growing customer demand for software and solutions that enable organizations to unlock the business value of their information and drive business optimization.

The new Information on Demand Technical Centers will extend customer access to the more than 35,000 employees across IBM’s global software, hardware, services and research organizations united in support of the company’s global Information on Demand business strategy, aimed at helping customers create new and innovative uses of trusted business information.

With a focus on database optimization, enterprise content management, data warehousing, information integration, master data management, business intelligence and performance management, the Centers will provide customers direct access to a new group of resources dedicated specifically to working with them on their information management needs. This will enable customers to work with local technical and industry experts to promote more successful IT projects, and deliver better access to information within their organization.

"New market dynamics have created growing customer demand for deeper exploitation of information to improve business performance" said Ambuj Goyal, general manager, IBM Information Management. "The Information on Demand Technical Centers of Excellence will closely align IBM’s most talented technical resources from our worldwide labs with customers to help them rapidly tap into our expertise to solve their specific industry challenges"

The new Centers of Excellence support and further IBM’s Information on Demand strategy, announced two years that has delivered results through consistent earnings growth, hundreds of new customer wins, strategic acquisitions and industry-first software offerings.

IBM’s global Research and Development team, local services expertise and recent acquisitions will support each Center. This effort is expected to help customers rapidly take advantage of IBM’s information management software and technologies, including new capabilities from IBM’s recent acquisitions, such as FileNet and Cognos. IBM will use these Centers to expand the reach and expertise from both of the acquisitions into these regions including ongoing work with customers such as Fiducia IT AG, Deutsche Post WorldNet and VR Kreditwerk.

The Information on Demand Technical Centers of Excellence will be based in the IBM Yamato Software Development Lab, Kanagawa, Japan, and in the IBM Boeblingen Lab near Stuttgart, Germany. With hundreds of researchers already focused on Information on Demand technologies in these two labs, IBM plans to continue to expand the number of resources focused on customer engagements in these facilities throughout 2008 and beyond