MaSSSoftech

Recent IBM Study of Midmarket CIOs Shows Making Better Use of Data is Top
Competitive Priority



LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MIDSIZE ENTERPRISE SUMMIT WEST
-- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today introduced new services, software and systems for
midsize companies that can help them gain actionable insight, increase
productivity, and improve collaboration.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )

IBM is introducing Cognos Express business intelligence software, an analytics
solution designed for companies with 100 to 1,000 employees.

Also being introduced is a new offering from IBM Global Technology Services,
the IBM Storage Optimization and Integration Services - transformation
strategy - rapid. In addition, two existing products IBM Mashup Center, and
Lotus Live Engage, have been certified by IBM as "Midmarket Ready." Recently,
IBM also introduced a new storage system, the IBM System Storage DS5020
Express, and updated the SurePOS 500 Express point-of-sale solution.

Cognos Express is designed to deliver essential business intelligence and
planning capabilities purpose built for midsize companies. To read more about
Cognos Express please see this news release. In addition, a virtual event
will be held on Sept. 29 providing an in-depth look at IBM Cognos Express with
product demonstrations that showcase the full range of its reporting, analysis
and planning capabilities. Register here.

Cognos Express helps medium-size companies turn data into actionable insight
which is a top priority for midmarket CIOs looking to improve their companies'
competitiveness, according to a new IBM Global CIO survey of midsize
companies.

After business intelligence, midmarket company CIOs listed virtualization
solutions, risk management and collaboration technologies as their top
technology concerns.

IBM conducted 158 in person interviews with midmarket CIOs from January
through April 2009 to understand their issues, priorities, and views on the
role of IT. The sample includes CIOs from 31 countries across a range of
industries.

"These new offerings hit all the critical areas identified by midsize company
CIOs including technology that will help them more effectively use information
to enhance competitiveness, improve collaboration and increase efficiency,"
said Marc Dupaquier, IBM general manager of the global mid market.

Watch a video with Marc Dupaquier and IBM CIO Pat Toole discussing the midsize
company CIO study findings here.

RFID Innovation
One example of a company that has used information technology to work smarter
is Pacific Coast Producers (PCP), a California-based premium packager of
canned fruits and tomatoes. In response to demands from large national retail
chains the company created an RFID tracking system with help from IBM Global
Business Services consultants and IBM Business Partner OATSystems. The
solution incorporates OATSystems' RFID application software, IBM System x
servers and IBM middleware including MQSeries, DB2 and WebSphere.

"Pacific Coast Producers seized the opportunity to go beyond RFID tracking by
infusing the solution with business intelligence capabilities that help to
improve processes and position the company as a customer-focused supplier,"
said Peter Wtulich,

CIO and vice president for Information Services at PCP. "What began as a
customer mandate became a valuable new source of information and insight that
helps PCP work smarter."

All of the new offerings listed below are part of IBM's Midmarket portfolio.
That means IBM has certified that the offering is appropriate for midsize
companies, has trained IBM sellers and Business Partners on the offering and
has priced the offering so that companies with between 100 and 1,000 employees
will see a rapid return on their investment.

IBM Mashup Center
IBM Mashup Center makes it easy for midsize businesses to combine information
from diverse sources in entirely new ways to unlock business value. A 20 user
license for IBM Mashup Center is priced at $2,600.

Watch an IBM Mashup Center video that demonstrates its power and ease of use.
Additional IBM Mashup Center "How To" videos can be found on the popular
external Lotus Greenhouse site. Lotus Greenhouse is a live community website
where you can use Lotus collaboration products at no charge. Anyone can join
the community to exchange ideas, collaborate with others, and share
information on innovation and collaborative products. Lotus Greenhouse offers
the opportunity for anyone to take the Mashup Center Introductory Tutorial, or
view and create sample mashup pages.

"IBM's Mashup Center helps non-technical people help themselves by making it
easy to assemble quick applications from many different sources like Web
pages, spreadsheets, Web feeds and databases and uses that data to create
valuable information that helps address daily business challenges," Dupaquier
said.

Lotus Live Engage
LotusLive Engage is a cloud-delivered service that enables midsize companies
to network and collaborate beyond corporate firewalls, without increasing the
resources in their IT departments.

The latest new feature is LotusLive Mobile, a new beta offering, that allows
users to attend LotusLive Engage Web conferences via BlackBerry(R) smartphones
and other mobile devices, saving time, money and providing work-style
flexibility. Download the beta offering here.

LotusLive Engage provides browser-based collaboration tools including Web
conferencing, instant messaging, project management, and document sharing.
Pricing starts as low as $15 per user per month. This fall, Lotus Live Engage
will support nine new languages including Brazilian Portuguese, French,
German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and
Traditional Chinese.

See a video demonstration of Lotus Live Engage here.

A complimentary 30-day trial of Lotus Live Engage is available here including
no-cost Web meetings for up to 15 people, file storing and sharing and
business networking capabilities.

"LotusLive gives small businesses access to collaboration tools that can help
them rapidly work with partners and customers at a low price to drive
immediate business results," said Phil Salm, IBM software solutions
specialist, CDW.

IBM Storage Optimization and Integration Services - transformation strategy -
rapid
This new offering helps midsize companies build a detailed and actionable plan
to achieve a best practice state for heterogeneous storage and backup
environments in order to drive cost savings or cost avoidance for staffing,
storage, backup, file systems, and power and cooling.

The IBM Storage Optimization and Integration Services - transformation
strategy - rapid is designed for midsize businesses across virtually all
industries who are experiencing explosive growth in the amount of information
they are dealing with and are looking to reduce or more efficiently maintain
their information and better manage storage operating and capital costs.

This service provides a detailed roadmap to help identify the roots of
unnecessary complexity and cost by using eight key metrics to measure the
efficiency and effectiveness of a customer's interconnected IT and storage
environments.

IBM System Storage DS5020 Express
The IBM DS5020 Express disk system is designed to provide midsize businesses
with the performance, reliability, and robust functionality that large
companies are accustomed to - at an affordable price. Its core features and
dynamic flexibility make it a great fit for a wide range of requirements,
proving piece of mind and exceptional return on investment.

The DS5020 supports all current premium features, including encryption,
partitioning, FlashCopy, VolumeCopy and Enhanced Remote Mirroring.

SurePOS 500 Express
The new IBM SurePOS 500 Express point-of-sale solution features a new slimmer
design and captures real-time information that can be leveraged to implement
new customer service initiatives, manage inventory and deliver smarter
business outcomes.

It also is easy to assemble, easy to use, speeds up transaction times,
significantly reduces power consumption, and is designed to meet the needs of
small and midsize companies.

IBM Business Partners
To support IBM Business Partners selling into the midmarket, IBM rolled out
new skills and training focused on "Selling to the CFO." As the CFO becomes
more central in purchasing decisions, this education enables partners to more
effectively engage the CFO. Since it was introduced in May, 5,000 partners
have completed the training and gained these critical skills. IBM also
recently introduced the IBM Business Partner Development Series where the
company is hosting more than 60 no-cost online classes and 25 Smarter
Planet-themed education and networking events at IBM Innovation Centers around
the world. From San Mateo to Shanghai, the education covers the Smarter
Planet agenda, as well as detailed sessions on dynamic infrastructure, green
IT, new intelligence and smart work.

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.

About IBM
Learn more about new midsized business solutions from IBM.

Midsize businesses now have access to IBM and third party subject matter
experts on infoBOOM!, an interactive IT strategy community that is run jointly
by IBM and CIO.com. infoBOOM! is a place to discuss industry trends, to gain
insights that can help companies improve the way they do business, and to find
relevant and timely information to solve business problems and address the
unique challenges facing midsize companies. You can visit the infoBOOM!
community on CIO.com at http://theinfoboom.com, or join either the Facebook
infoBOOM! group, or the infoBOOM! group on LinkedIn.