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ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM today announced that industry analyst firm IDC has ranked it the worldwide leader in Information Technology (IT) Consulting.

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According to the report, which ranks the top 10 worldwide and U.S. IT consulting vendors according to IT consulting revenue, IBM continues to own the top position worldwide for 2008. This is the second consecutive year that IBM has ranked first in this category, increasing market share year-over-year.

"In this economic environment where there is a relentless focus on ROI, enhancing our clients' competitiveness and creating new sources of economic value from technology is critical," said Adam Klaber, general manager, global consulting services, IBM. "This ranking confirms IBM's proven capabilities in delivering high-value consulting services to our clients and our ability to enhance our skills and offerings to meet the new economic realities."

In addition to the traditional IT consulting offerings such as IT performance analysis, governance and SOA, IBM offers a variety of more non-traditional IT solutions in emerging areas such as Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud computing. With IBM's recent addition of its Business Analytics Optimization service line to its Global Business Services consulting organization portfolio, the company's IT consultants are also providing clients with value-added business analytics solutions that use technology to collect, analyze and use business insights to make strategic decisions in real-time. The transformation of IBM's services business to a higher-value, higher-margin orientation is fueling investments in emerging areas like analytics and smarter planet solutions.

IDC defines the IT Consulting market segment as IT strategy, assessment and planning and design and architecture services.

The IDC report titled "Worldwide and U.S. IT Consulting 2008 Vendor Shares: IDC's Top 10 Vendors for 2008" (Doc # 219272) was authored by Ali Zaidi.

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   Linda Hanson Hunt
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   lindah@us.ibm.com

SOURCE IBM

Website: http://www.ibm.com