Doing well by doing good: IBM Study says Businesses Seeking Growth through Social Responsibility

Doing well by doing good: IBM Study says Businesses Seeking Growth through Social Responsibility

ARMONK, NY – 12 Feb 2008: Companies believe that when they are more open with stakeholders and place social responsibility at the core of their business strategy they will be more competitive, attract and retain the best talent, and gain access to new business opportunities, says a global study released today by IBM (NYSE: IBM).

Many companies now see corporate social responsibility as a growth opportunity rather than just a regulatory compliance or philanthropic effort, with 68 percent of those surveyed focused on generating revenue through CSR activities. In addition, 54 percent believe CSR initiatives contribute to giving their corporations a competitive advantage.
Driving these beliefs is the rising influence of customers who, thanks to their ability to research and share information on the Internet, have become highly sensitized to a broad range of issues — everything from concerns about climate change, to product safety issues, to labor practices, to corporate financial accountability, to questions about whether corporations are returning enough of their profits to the community.

While customers are becoming the chief driver of this increased focus on CSR, 76 percent of businesses surveyed admit they don’t truly understand their customers’ CSR concerns. In fact, even businesses that feel they are knowledgeable and prepared to deal with CSR issues may not be. Nearly two-thirds of companies surveyed believe they have sufficient information about the sources behind their products and services to satisfy customer concerns, but half of those admit they don’t understand their customers CSR expectations well.

Fueling the customer focus on CSR, three-quarters of businesses report that the number of advocacy groups collecting and reporting information on them has increased in the last three years as has the amount of information businesses are providing about the sourcing, composition and impact of their products, services and operations.

“The more information these stakeholders get, the more they want to know. This increased visibility of corporate behavior is driving consumers’ decisions on what to buy and whom to buy from, whom to work for, whom to partner with, where to invest,” said George Pohle, VP and Global Leader of IBM’s Business Strategy Consulting Practice. “It’s not only critical for businesses to keep up with the emerging demands of their stakeholders, but to build CSR into the core of their business strategy. That way CSR is not viewed as a discretionary cost but an investment that will bring financial returns. And since customers are changing buying behavior as a result of CSR, the financial impact can be dramatic.”

The survey results are part of a new report released today by IBM Institute for Business Value, titled, “Attaining Sustainable Growth Through Corporate Social Responsibility.” The full study, available at http://www.ibm.com/gbs/csrstudy, evaluates how well companies understand and manage CSR expectations, as well as outlines steps along the “value curve” that companies can follow to strategically align their CSR objectives to its core business strategy. According to the report, maximum benefit from the CSR opportunity takes place when all activities on the value curve — legal and compliance, strategic philanthropy, values-based self-regulation, efficiency and growth — become integrated into a cohesive strategy with leadership driven as much from employees, customers and business partners as from the CEO and senior executives.

IBM Survey Methodology

IBM surveyed senior executives and directors of strategy at 250 companies across the banking, chemicals and petroleum, consumer goods, electronics, energy and utilities, retail and automotive industries. Of the participants, 30 percent are located in North America, 30 percent in Asia Pacific, 20 percent in Western Europe, seven percent in Eastern Europe, six percent in Latin America, and four percent in the Middle East and Africa.

About IBM

For more information about IBM, please visit: http://www.ibm.com

Amdocs and IBM to Help Service Providers Enhance Customer Experience with Master Data Management

Amdocs and IBM to Help Service Providers Enhance Customer Experience with Master Data Management

BARCELONA, Spain – 12 Feb 2008: Today at the Mobile World Congress 2008, Amdocs (NYSE: DOX) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that they will expand their global relationship to help service providers deliver a dramatically improved customer experience. A cornerstone of the recently announced Amdocs CES (Customer Experience Systems) portfolio, the Amdocs Service Provider Information Management solutions will now incorporate several IBM Information on Demand middleware products to create new integrated solutions for the wireline, mobile, cable and satellite services industries.

IBM and Amdocs have teamed up to help solve a vexing problem for service providers — the need for a better customer experience. Service providers’ focus on the customer experience stems from unrelenting competition and consolidation in the wireline, mobile, cable and satellite services industries. These companies cannot rely on cost reductions, technological innovation, or value pricing alone to win in the marketplace. Now, they are honing in on customer experience as the factor that makes the difference. To that end, Amdocs and IBM have joined forces to help service providers to create a single view of customer and product data that can be used to enhance the customer experience and accelerate growth.

Amdocs’ industry-leading portfolio of Customer Experience Systems helps service providers manage core business operations including customer service, billing, ordering, digital commerce, advertising, and service and resource management. Now Amdocs is pre-integrating and deeply-embedding two IBM Information Management Products into its Customer Experience Systems portfolio. Specifically, the companies have integrated Amdocs’ Enterprise Product Catalog and Enterprise Customer Hub with the IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management Server and the IBM Information Server.

Based on industry standards, these integrated offerings apply an industry- specific data model for customer and product information and use the best tools available for solving the crucial problem of information management for service providers. The solutions also span the Amdocs CES portfolio as well as legacy and third party applications. In addition, the solutions reduce the integration challenges between Business Support Systems (BSS) and Operational Support Systems (OSS) applications.
Amdocs and IBM combine deep industry experience with an unrivalled track record of deploying successful industry and technology solutions,” said Guy Dubois, executive vice president at Amdocs. As Amdocs continues to deliver on our Customer Experience Systems Blueprint to guide service providers through transformation to deliver the digital lifestyle, this expanded relationship with IBM delivers superior information management solutions to reduce costs, accelerate growth, and enhance the customer experience.”

Through the new Amdocs Service Provider Information Management solutions, service providers will be able to access a single view of real-time transactional information from multiple systems and use customer information to offer customized products and services to businesses and consumers at a shorter time-to-market and lower cost. From a small pilot implementation to a full-scale data transformation initiative, the companies can deliver a single point of accountability for all solution components, and provide packaged implementation services to assure the rapid delivery of bottom-line benefits.

“Helping clients unlock the value of key business data is what IBM’s Information on Demand strategy is all about,” said Rob Thomas, vice president, Information Management. “Together with Amdocs, we plan to help telecommunications service providers to become more competitive by helping them use their core business data to create a superior consumer experience.”

About the Amdocs Customer Experience Systems (CES) Blueprint

The Amdocs CES Blueprint is the first visionary outline of the operating environment service providers need to establish in order to transform from providers of utility voice, data and video services into purveyors of the digital lifestyle. The blueprint allows providers to deliver a seamless customer experience-personalized, participatory and timely across any service, location and device. The Amdocs CES Blueprint leverages Amdocs comprehensive business process best practices based on real-world scenarios, and transcends traditional business support systems, operations support systems, and service delivery platforms to encompass all current and emerging customer experience business processes. For more information, go to http://www.amdocs.com/Site/Vision/ces.htm.

About Amdocs

Amdocs is the market leader in customer experience systems innovation, enabling world-leading service providers to deliver an integrated, innovative and intentional customer experience(TM) at every point of service. Amdocs provides solutions that deliver customer experience excellence, combining the software, service and expertise to help its customers execute their strategies and achieve service, operational and financial excellence. A global company with revenue of $2.84 billion in fiscal 2007, Amdocs has more than 16,000 employees and serves customers in more than 50 countries around the world. For more information, visit Amdocs at http://www.amdocs.com.

About IBM

For more information about IBM’s Information Platform and Solutions, please http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/ips/.

IBM Introduces Next Generation Storage Offerings

IBM Introduces Next Generation Storage Offerings
First to Market Innovations, Enhancements and New Products Enable Businesses to Simplify and Maximize Resources

ARMONK, NY – 12 Feb 2008: IBM today announced new first-to-market information infrastructure platform offerings and enhancements across a broad range of its disk and tape storage portfolio. Targeting clients that range from small and medium businesses (SMB) to large enterprises, the new solutions allow customers to implement a more efficient tiered storage infrastructure and achieve improved cost savings, integrated data security, and enhanced archival solutions to meet compliance requirements and have an infrastructure that delivers information on demand.

“IBM’s goal is to provide the leading technologies and solutions for storage, servers, software and services – to address the challenges and realities IT customers are facing,” said Barry Rudolph, Vice President, Storage Stack Solutions, IBM. “The new storage offerings and enhancements we announced today will enable customers of all sizes to maintain highly resilient, high-performance, next generation network infrastructures.”

Next Generation N series for Large Enterprises
IBM announced the next generation of the N7000 series as both an appliance and gateway. The new N7700 and N7900 models will allow for improved scalability for large scale data center operations as well as storage consolidation for large open system enterprises and mid-market clients. The new systems offer massive scalability with support up to 1,176 Terabytes of raw capacity for large data center storage needs. The N7000 series enables customers to consolidate SAN and NAS storage needs to a single system that can provide support for primary, near-line, regulatory compliant data retention and archival storage all in single platform.

Further enhancements for N series include:

For the SMB N series client, the N3300 and N3600 can now support SATA or SAS drives in the controller, giving midrange clients more flexibility and options;
The N3300 has the increased scalability of 68TB and the N3600 to 104TB, allowing small and medium businesses to scale along with their growth;
Additional capacity has been added to the N5300 (from 168 to 336 TB), N5600 (from 252 to 504 TB), N7600 (from 420 to 840 TB) and the N7800 (from 504 to 1008 TB); and
SnapManager for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is now available on all N series systems, providing SMB and large enterprises a comprehensive unmatched industry solution for data management.
Next Generation Data Center Director
The IBM System Storage SAN768B establishes a platform for evolutionary growth with high performance computing and future Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) technologies. It is the first director-class product to support 8 Gigabit per second (Gbps) data transfer rates over Fibre Channel (FC) links, which enables a 100 percent improvement in data transfer speed over the previous generation. The SAN768B is the first product in the industry to support true interoperability between b-type (Brocade) and m-type (McDATA) directors in an 8 and 10 Gbps global enterprise FC SAN infrastructure. For m-type and other large enterprise clients that run mainframes with FICON channels, this interoperability provides a roadmap for growth of their existing FICON fabrics. This new technology platform reduces complexity, risk and power consumption with featured scalability of up to 768 ports across two domains.

Enhanced Archive and Data Retention Systems
IBM System Storage continues to invest in the information retention space with the next generation IBM System Storage DR550 v4.5. By leveraging System Storage Archive Manager (SSAM) for policy-based information retention, the DR550 enables the transparent and automated movement of archived data between storage tiers for cost savings without compromising the security of archived data. The award winning system is now available as a single machine for enhanced for ease of customer setup and use, leveraging IBM Director as the unified management system. Clients who are looking to protect business critical information for long term security as well as manage information growth and compliance can choose from two models of the DR550 v4.5: DR1 and DR2. The DR1 is a 25U tall rack, pre-integrated and ideal for mid-market clients. The DR2 is built for large enterprises, packaged in a bigger 36U tall rack and offering single or dual-node configuration options for higher availability and scalability.

Disk Systems Maximized for SMB Telco
IBM announced the new NEBS compliant IBM System Storage DS3300 DC power model 32T which is designed with no single point of failure for high availability and hot swappable redundant components for high reliability in the SMB telecommunications industry. The new features enable telecommunications service providers to deliver everything from basic voice telephony to Internet Protocol television (IPTV), video on demand (VoD), IP multimedia subsystems (IMS) and security.

The DS3300 DC easily integrates into existing IP networks with no distance limitations through iSCSI connectivity, including a dual iSCSI controller enclosure with 12 disk drive bays. The DS3300 has dual redundant DC power supplies and can go virtually anywhere beyond the corporate data center including remote locations. To meet the growing demand for storage capacity and scalability, three EXP3000 units are also available for support of up to 48 SAS and or SATA disks.

New Drives for Linear Tape-Open
IBM introduced the latest generation of the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) tape drive in a half height factor for the IBM System Storage TS3100 and TS3200 Tape Library Express Models, offering savings for cost and space conscious businesses.

The drives are optimal for handling backup, saving, restoring and archiving data in the SMB environments, and provide higher levels of security against physical cartridge loss and theft. Both are designed to offer high capacity, enhanced performance and technology for the midrange open system environment.

IBM is the first company in the storage industry to offer Ultrium 4 Half-High SAS half-high tape drives in entry automation, enhancing tape performance over the previous generation. SMB customers can encrypt and manage data with the industry leading IBM Encryption Key Manager, without the need for additional appliances.

Pricing and Availability
The new N7700 and the N7900 will be generally available (GA) worldwide on April 18, 2008. The N7700 is available with a starting configuration price of $125,000. The new N7900 has a starting configuration price of $190,000. Additional pricing on the N series enhancements can be found at http://www.ibm.com/storage.

The enhanced DR550 DR1 will be generally available on February 29, 2008 with a starting configuration price of $26,000. The DR550 DR2 will be generally available on February 29, 2008 with a starting configuration price of $73,000.

The IBM System Storage DS3300 DC will be generally available on February 29, 2008 with a starting configuration price of $9,495.

The IBM System Storage TS3100 Tape Library Express Model and the IBM System Storage TS3200 Tape Library Express Model will be generally available on March 14, 2008 with a starting configuration price of $8,300.

The IBM System Storage SAN768B will be generally available on February 22, 2008 with an entry configuration price of $390,000

All offerings announced today are available either direct from IBM or through IBM Business Partners.

IBM Global Financing (IGF), the lending and leasing business segment of IBM can provide competitive rates to qualified applicants to access these new offerings. For more information, payment calculators and information about the benefits of financing visit the IGF website, http://www.ibm.com/financing.

For more information about IBM and IBM System Storage, visit http://www.ibm.com/storage.

IBM Delivers Telco Innovations to Improve Consumer Experience

IBM Delivers Telco Innovations to Improve Consumer Experience
New IBM Technologies Mobilize Social Networks, Enable Roaming Health Records

BARCELONA, SPAIN – 11 Feb 2008: At Mobile World Congress, IBM (NYSE: IBM) debuted mobile services of today and the future – from social networking to the built-in security and service quality that telecom customers expect in a digital world.

As consumers increasingly demand convenience, control, flexibility and choice, creating a consistent and innovative customer experience across devices and networks has become a top focus for communications service providers. In a recent IBM survey of more than 250 telecom executives, 60 percent of respondents said they believe they can grow by improving the customer experience across all channels, including online and retail operations.
“Our service provider clients tell us they believe growth in the next five years will stem from converged content services like television and video,” said Mike Hill, general manager, Telecommunications Industry, IBM. “Yet factors like ease of use, simplicity, security and quality—all of which comprise the total experience—are essential to drive these new service revenues. Consumers expect the same carrier-grade service quality for new mobile services as they get from providers today.”

IBM demonstrated some of the ways it is differentiating the next generation mobile experience at Mobile World Congress:

SOCIAL NETWORKS GO MOBILE

IBM collaborated with its client, leading global service provider Vodafone, to extend social networks to any mobile device by taking advantage of communication enablers such as IBM WebSphere Presence Server. Demonstrated for the first time at Mobile World Congress, consumers can communicate with their social network friends regardless of where they are with voice and SMS from either a PC or a mobile phone.

“Working together with IBM, Vodafone developed ‘BuddyComm,’ an integrated communication service for social network users,” said Mike Walker, director of Vodafone Group Research & Development. “This project was a unique opportunity for Vodafone and IBM to bring together research and innovation capability from both sides to achieve goals which neither company could reach by itself, providing real benefit to customers who are active on social networks.”

PRESENCE MEETS THE “GOOD SAMARITAN”

IBM Research demonstrated how mobile phones and “presence” technology combined with health records can provide a potential “good samaritan” with information on how to aid people in critical medical situations. This combination of IBM Research capabilities and IBM WebSphere Presence Server exemplifies IBM’s ability to create enhanced mobile applications for everyday life.

IP SERVICE QUALITY

IBM unveiled new software for communications service providers to monitor, manage and measure the quality of their Internet Protocol television (IPTV), Internet Protocol virtual private networks (IPVPN) and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. The three new software offerings are “commercial off the shelf” versions of IBM Tivoli Netcool Service Quality Manager, each geared toward a specific service – IPTV, IPVPN and VoIP. IBM also announced the upcoming availability of commercial off the shelf versions for short messaging service (SMS) text message and voicemail services.

SECURITY FOR THE MOBILE WORLD

On display for the first time, the new IBM Telecom Integrated Security Solution is an integrated software, hardware and services framework for communications service providers to deliver in-the-cloud services, or “clean pipes” free of malicious traffic, to both businesses and consumers.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE REVEALED

IBM demonstrated new software that will help bring proactive management of each individual customer’s experience. The Customer Experience Management solution will be available in conjunction to the release of the new version of IBM Tivoli Netcool Service Quality Manager – both scheduled to be released next quarter.

For more information, please visit http://www.ibm.com/telecom.

Banks Feel Pressure to Globalize and Offer New Services for Consumers

Press room > Press releases >

Banks Feel Pressure to Globalize and Offer New Services for Consumers
Competition Driving Industry to Specialize and Collaborate to Capture New Markets

ARMONK, NY – 11 Feb 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the results of a global research report that reveals the banking industry is counting on new market expansion, particularly in emerging markets, to fuel growth and efficiency opportunities over the next five years, yet banks say they are not prepared to seize these opportunities.

The report, “No Bank is an Island: Get Global Before Globalization Gets You,” indicates 69 percent of banking executives acknowledge their organization is not operating in a globally integrated fashion. As a result, few banks are positioned to effectively operate outside their domestic markets or compete in key emerging markets such as China, South Korea, India, Ireland, and Turkey where demand for new banking products and services is set for rapid growth.

“The worldwide financial system is expected to quadruple to (US) $1,300 trillion by 2025,” said Shanker Ramamurthy, global industry leader, banking and financial markets, IBM Global Business Services. “Banks of all sizes are feeling the effects of globalization as rising cross-border banking M&A and the proliferation of non-bank, online and mobile banking providers increases competition for customers. The question is: what role will traditional banks play in a globally integrated industry? And will they be able to adapt their business models to take advantage of globalization? We believe banks that specialize and collaborate with other players both within and outside the industry to meet specific consumer needs in various markets will be best positioned for growth.”

The global survey, conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit, includes responses from more than 640 industry executives across 89 countries to determine the impact of globalization on the banking industry. Key findings include:

1) Seventy five percent of banking executives believe universal banks are best prepared for globalization, but said specialists have an edge in critical growth areas of the industry. When asked who has the advantage on creating future shareholder value, banking executives chose specialists on four out of the top six categories including organizational flexibility, knowledge of client needs, consistent service excellence and superior execution — all capabilities that allow specialists to better understand their clients and go to market quickly. Universals were viewed to have the advantage on risk management and capital/financing capabilities.

2) Collaboration will enable banks to build the strategic capabilities they need to target growth and efficiency opportunities. More than half of respondents indicated they are seeking to establish strategic relationships with service providers and vendors outside of the banking industry over the next five years. Unexpectedly, over 40 percent of respondents said they will seek to collaborate more closely with their traditional rivals (other banks). Of the top capabilities banks said they would seek through these relationships, a surprisingly large number plans to augment their strategic front office and corporate effectiveness by partnering for sales (38 percent), strategy and planning (32 percent) and risk management (28 percent) capabilities.

3) Banks are struggling to match their delivery priorities with consumer demands and specialization can help close the disconnect. Industry research shows banking consumers consider consistent service, advice and convenience essential to quality service. However, this study reveals banks continue to divorce convenience from advice and service, with 65 percent of bank executives putting a premium on delivering consistent service, but only 19 percent stating that increasing convenience was among their top delivery priorities. As a result, consumers are finding new ways to access banking convenience and advice through online and mobile specialists. Additionally, nearly 30 percent of respondents said they view online and mobile specialists as a threat to their business.

Taking Action

Study analysis reveals banks can take specific actions to better capitalize on the opportunities of globalization:

— Break away from the herd – Executives recognize the need to measure the risk and reward trade-offs, and fear world-wide windows of opportunity may be closing. Understanding their own strengths against the changing nature of financial sector sophistication in different parts of the world allows bankers to choose the right strategy for their bank. For example, banks that can effectively identify and analyze the potential impact of industry interdependence across the financial services sector (as evidenced by the global credit crisis that began in 2007) will be better positioned to mitigate risk and uncover new growth opportunities as compared to the competition.

— Specialize to gain advantage – Specialist banks, with their targeted strategies and specific expertise, seem to own the advantage in understanding customer needs. New entrants with an ability to empower key customer segments are targeting the base of the innovation S-curve to win the hearts and minds of their customers. Banks must focus and strengthen their key capabilities to be able to compete with these innovators or risk being left behind.

— Globally integrate your capabilities – Banks are struggling to operate in a more agile and global fashion. Fifty-one percent of universal banks rank their global integration capabilities as moderate to poor. The shift toward more fluid, globally integrated enterprises will enable banks to capture opportunities whenever and wherever they exist on the revenue and cost sides.

— Win minds – Executives realize that organizational culture is both the top enabler of global integration and a formidable barrier. Banks must actively win minds and address the cultural cues — both with customers and internally — to better manage for success.

To view a copy of this study and for more information on IBM banking solutions, visit http://www.ibm.com/gbs/globalbanking.

Research Methodology:

IBM surveyed 644 business leaders from 89 countries and 320 firms. We conducted qualitative interviews of 184 executives and surveyed 460 executives in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit. Our respondents were based around the world: 30 percent in the Americas, 32 percent in Asia-Pacific and 38 percent across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Analysis of the research focused on gaining insights from selected banking industry participants including universal banks, national/regional banks, community banks/savings & loans/cooperative banks and building societies, specialist and boutique banks, industry vendors and service providers, non-governmental organizations, academics and regulators.

Study authors:

Cormac Petit, Joint Global Banking Lead, IBM Institute for Business Value

John White, Joint Global Banking Lead, IBM Institute for Business Value

Wendy Feller, Global Financial Services Sector Head, IBM Institute for Business Value

IBM Unveils New Solution to End Security Appliance Sprawl for Telecom

IBM Unveils New Solution to End Security Appliance Sprawl for Telecom
Single framework designed to protect consumers’ mobile phones and global wireless infrastructure against dangerous attacks

BARCELONA, Spain – 11 Feb 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today introduced the new IBM Telecom Integrated Solution for Security to optimize security systems operations and simplify management for both fixed and mobile environments, addressing growing consumer and business concerns about security threats.

Unveiled for the first time at Mobile World Congress 2008, the IBM Telecom Integrated Solution for Security is an integrated hardware, software and services framework for communications service providers to deliver carrier-grade network services free of malicious traffic. The key components of the Telecom Integrated Solution for Security include IBM BladeCenter, IBM Proventia Intrusion Detection, IBM Tivoli Security Operations Manager, the IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus products, along with hardware and software from IBM Business Partners.

Both businesses and consumers are demanding more defenses be incorporated into their voice, video, and Internet services. Mobile viruses like the Symbian OS worm have been actively spreading on mobile phone networks worldwide, proving they are no longer theoretical in nature and more dangerous than ever before. A recent IBM survey showed more service providers are realizing the value of security as a strategic differentiator in a fiercely competitive market. Yet fewer than half of IBM’s survey respondents (46 percent) said their companies had a strategy in place for mitigating security risks posed by next generation networks.

“The delivery of new IP services cannot come at expense of security considerations,” said Mike Hill, general manager, Telecommunications Industry, IBM. “Consumers have high expectations for rigorous security and won’t compromise as they interact with more and more mobile content. Security services are a key way for service providers to add value to their IP service offerings, and IBM is focused on simplifying and accelerating this capability for our customers worldwide.”

As service providers migrate from disparate infrastructures to an all digital, IP-based information flow, many are seeking to streamline and consolidate multiple security functions, reducing space requirements as they transform security operations. Consolidating multiple appliances helps create a security “backplane” that brings together all security requirements into a single framework that enables service providers to realize greater performance and network resiliency at multiple levels. IBM BladeCenter provides the foundation for this new security backplane, helping to reduce complexity and costs associated with appliance sprawl. As an industry leading platform designed for converged IT and networking services, IBM BladeCenter brings together leading multicore microprocessors, 10Gb networking, a multi-terrabit backplane and storage capabilities with new extensions like network processor blades, deep packet inspection blades, and flow control switching and management.

“With the increasing convergence of IT and Telecommunications, we see IBM BladeCenter as a leading platform to deliver Service Innovation in the market place,” said Matt Bross, chief technology officer, BT Group.

The new solution — which has evolved from IBM’s prior Core Infrastructure Security Solution — offers a standard deployment approach on IBM hardware with software and services, combined with a set of third party security applications specifically designed for service providers.

In addition to IBM BladeCenter, key IBM elements of the Telecom Integrated Solution for Security include:

IBM Proventia Network Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) for BladeCenter: This new framework for IBM Internet Security Systems’ flagship threat management product gives carriers a flexible, scalable option for deploying IPS technology to protect their own infrastructure and to offer “in the cloud” protection as a service to their customers. Proventia’s implementation within the solution halts attacks closer to their point of origin, preserving available bandwidth for productive computing.
IBM Tivoli Security Operations Manager: IBM Tivoli Security Operations Manager software provides a real-time dashboard to help customers keep their computer networks and systems up and running despite security threats from malicious outsiders, employees or contractors. The software leverages autonomic capabilities to analyze data from throughout an IT environment to detect security threats, optimizing and automating the process of incident recognition, investigation and response.
IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus: IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus consolidates network and IT operations under a single fault monitoring solution to help organizations improve the availability of their applications and services. The software provides real-time service views, quickly identifies problems before they cause costly outages, and features advanced capabilities for automating corrective actions to common problems.
Compliance and security consulting: From architecture and design services to policy development, assessments, staff augmentation and support for regulatory compliance efforts, the IBM Professional Security Services portfolio provides a holistic approach to the full lifecycle of threat mitigation.
IBM Managed Security Services: IBM also provides a comprehensive portfolio of managed services to both augment carriers’ security operations and enable carriers to sell security services to their customers.
The single framework supports a range of telecom security services, such as DDoS protection, intrusion prevention/detection, firewall, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), deep packet inspection, messaging security, and email security.

A series of IBM Business Partners, including leading independent software vendors and independent hardware vendors, are aligning with IBM to enable service providers to choose the components that best fit their needs over time. Examples include: Arbor Networks, Check Point Software Technologies, Cloudmark, CloudShield Technologies, and Continuous Computing as well as IBM Internet Security Systems.

“By bringing together its broad capabilities under this universal security initiative, IBM is providing a powerful resource to help telecommunications companies simultaneously manage threats far more effectively,” said Paul Morville, vice president of product management, Arbor Networks. “We look forward to working with IBM to advance the Telecom Integrated Solution for Security with our global telecommunications customers.”

Additionally, CloudShield Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of advanced service control and infrastructure security solutions, is providing a carrier-class Deep Packet Inspection solution for the IBM BladeCenter family. “This relationship is evidence of our core focus on providing multi-function service control and security to service providers around the world,” said Matt Jones, president and CEO at CloudShield.

Based on growing demand from telco clients to speed secure product and service introductions, IBM has also established the Telecom Security Centre within the Telecom Solutions Laboratory in Montpellier, France to showcase the IBM Telecom Integrated Solution for Security along with its partners.

IBM is the world’s leading provider of risk and security solutions. Clients around the world partner with IBM to help reduce the complexities of security and strategically manage risk. No other company can provide the experience and range of risk and security solutions as IBM – from dedicated research, software, hardware, services and global business partner value – to help clients secure their business operations and implement company-wide, integrated risk management programs.

For more information, please visit http://www.ibm.com/telecom.

IBM: Watchtower Extends the Acceptance Period in Relation to the Recommended Cash Offer to the Shareholders in Telelogic

IBM: Watchtower Extends the Acceptance Period in Relation to the Recommended Cash Offer to the Shareholders in Telelogic

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – 11 Feb 2008: This Offer is not being made nor will any tender of shares be accepted from or on behalf of holders in any jurisdiction in which the making of the Offer or the acceptance of any tender of shares therein would not be made in compliance with laws of such jurisdiction. The Offer is not being made, directly or indirectly, in or into Australia, Canada, Japan or South Africa. The Offer is being treated in the United States as one to which the “Tier II” exemption mentioned in Rule 14d-1(d) under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is applicable. The press release has been published in Swedish and English. In the event that there are any differences between the language versions, the Swedish version shall prevail.

International Business Machines Corporation (“IBM”), through its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Watchtower AB (“Watchtower”) (previously Goldcup D 2933 AB), a Swedish private limited liability company, announced on June 11, 2007 a recommended public cash offer to the holders of all issued and outstanding shares in Telelogic AB (publ) (“Telelogic”), to tender all Telelogic shares to Watchtower (the “Offer”). The Offer has been unanimously recommended by the Board of Directors of Telelogic.

Watchtower has decided to extend the acceptance period until 17.00 (CET) on March 19, 2008. Provided that Watchtower announces that the conditions of the Offer have been satisfied or waived on March 27, 2008, settlement is expected to commence approximately one week thereafter.

The parties continue to work constructively with the European Commission to expedite competition clearance of the Offer. Watchtower is pleased to confirm that the Commission has not to-date issued a Statement of Objections in this matter, and therefore believes there is a good prospect of a clearance decision being adopted on or before the provisional clearance deadline of March 19, 2008.
All other terms and conditions set out in the offer document apply during the extended acceptance period.

The offer document in a Swedish and an English version and other information about the Offer is published on http://www.ibm.com/software/rational/welcome/telelogic/, on http://www.telelogic.com and on http://www.nordea.se/placera.

For further information, please contact:

This information was brought to you by Cision http://newsroom.cision.com

IBM X-Force Security Report: Web Browsers Under Siege From Organized Crime

IBM X-Force Security Report: Web Browsers Under Siege From Organized Crime

ARMONK, NY – 11 Feb 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today released the findings of the 2007 X-Force Security report, detailing a disturbing rise in the sophistication of attacks by criminals on Web browsers worldwide. According to IBM, by attacking the browsers of computer users, cybercriminals are now stealing the identities and controlling the computers of consumers at a rate never before seen on the Internet.

The study finds that a complex and sophisticated criminal economy has developed to capitalize on Web vulnerabilities. Underground brokers are delivering tools to aid in obfuscation, or camouflaging attacks on browsers, so cybercriminals can avoid detection by security software. In 2006, only a small percentage of attackers employed camouflaging techniques, but this number soared to 80 percent during the first half of 2007, and reached nearly 100 percent by the end of the year. The X-Force believes the criminal element will contribute to a proliferation of attacks in 2008.

Using these techniques, cybercriminals can infiltrate a user’s system and steal their IDs and passwords or obtain personal information like National Identification numbers, Social Security numbers and credit card information. When attackers invade an enterprise machine, they could steal sensitive company information or use the compromised machine to gain access to other corporate assets behind the firewall.

“Never before have such aggressive measures been sustained by Internet attackers towards infection, propagation and security evasion. While computer security professionals can claim some victories, attackers are adapting their approaches and continuing to have an impact on users’ experiences,” said Kris Lamb, operations manager, X-Force Research and Development for IBM Internet Security Systems. “The Storm Worm provides a microcosm of the kinds of threats users faced in 2007. All in all, the exploits used to spread Storm Worm are a blend of the various threats tracked by X-Force, including spam, phishing and drive-by-downloads by way of Web browser exploitation.”

The Storm Worm, the most pervasive Internet attack last year, continues to infect computers around the world through a culmination of the threats the X-Force tracks, including malicious software (malware), spam and phishing. Last year, delivery of malware was at an all time high, as X-Force reported a 30 percent rise in the number of malcode samples identified. The Storm Worm comprised around 13 percent of the entire malcode set collected in 2007.

In other findings, for the first time ever, the size of spam emails decreased sharply to pre-2005 levels. X-Force believes the decrease is linked to the drop off of image-based spam. This decrease can be counted as a win for the security industry — as anti-spam technologies became more efficient at detecting image-based spam, spammers were forced to turn to new techniques.

The X-Force has been cataloguing, analyzing and researching vulnerability disclosures since 1997. With more than 33,000 security vulnerabilities catalogued, it has the largest vulnerability database in the world. This unique database helps X-Force researchers to understand the dynamics that make up vulnerability discovery and disclosure.

The new X-Force report from IBM also reveals that:

The number of critical computer security vulnerabilities disclosed increased by 28 percent, a substantial upswing from years past.
The overall number of vulnerabilities reported for the year went down for the first time in 10 years.
Out of all the vulnerabilities disclosed last year, only 50 percent can be corrected through vendor patches.
Nearly 90 percent of 2007 disclosed vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable.
IBM is the world’s leading provider of risk and security solutions. Clients around the world partner with IBM to help reduce the complexities of security and strategically manage risk. IBM’s experience and range of risk and security solutions are unsurpassed — from dedicated research, software, hardware, services and global business partner value — helping clients secure business operations and implement company-wide, integrated risk management programs.

For more security trends and predictions from IBM, including graphical representations of security statistics, please access the full “2007 X-Force Trends Statistics” at: http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/index.wss/offerfamily/iss/a1029112

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About IBM

For more information about IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com.

IBM Delivers New Software to Help Improve IP-based Services

IBM Delivers New Software to Help Improve IP-based Services

BARCELONA, Spain – 11 Feb 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new software designed to help communications service providers improve the quality of their Internet Protocol television (IPTV), Internet Protocol virtual private networks (IP-VPN) and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. The new offerings are modified versions of IBM Tivoli Netcool Service Quality Manager — tailored for one service, such as IPTV, and designed for easy installation while supporting a variety of IT environments.

Issues that plague these service providers and their customers can range from jagged audio, static or pixilated video, to delayed buffering of content and dropped transmissions altogether. In a recent IBM survey of more than 250 global telecom executives, 89 percent indicated that service quality is emerging as an important differentiator, yet nearly half said their organizations had no end-to-end service assurance capability.

Service quality software helps providers detect and resolve service degradations, analyze the causes of problems and identify what customers have been affected so that outages can be referred to appropriate technicians to address.

The IBM Tivoli Netcool software goes a step further by providing real-time status views, automatically generating alarms and notifications, producing historical reports on how key parameters have varied over reporting periods and delivering service level conformance reports — all of it designed to quickly detect problems when they occur, prevent future problems and improve overall customer satisfaction. Customer care personnel use the software to monitor problem resolution and proactively notify affected customers.

IPTV is the delivery of programming content by video stream encoded as a series of IP packets that can be free or fee-based, producing either live TV (IP Broadcast Television) or stored video (Video On Demand) services. IP-VPN is a virtual private network allowing multiple locations to electronically transfer audio or video as if they were in a single location, while VoIP delivers telephone and other audio over the Internet.

IBM is also announcing today the upcoming availability of similar solutions for short messaging service (SMS) text message and voicemail services.

“Communications service providers need to launch new services quickly with the confidence that they are ready for the mass market,” said Kieran Moynihan, vice president and CTO of Telecoms, Tivoli software, IBM. “Statistics show that a poor first experience with a new service means the subscriber won’t use it again – and may shy away from other offerings. With these offerings, providers can manage the quality of their most popular services and get new offerings to market more quickly and with confidence in the quality.”

IBM Tivoli Netcool Service Quality Manager is based on technology from Vallent Corporation, acquired by IBM in 2007. The new solutions are part of Tivoli Netcool’s comprehensive Service Quality Management offering that includes real-time status monitoring, SLA management, service quality monitoring and customer experience management.

The IBM Tivoli Netcool Service Quality Manager service solutions are “commercial off the shelf” versions of IBM Tivoli Netcool Service Quality Manager.

The IBM Tivoli Netcool Service Quality Manager service solutions for IPTV, IP-VPN and VoIP are available now.

The IBM Tivoli Netcool Service Quality Manager service solutions for SMS and voicemail services will be available in the second quarter of 2008.

About IBM Tivoli Netcool Software

IBM Tivoli Netcool software has been selected by more than 1,000 service providers globally, including all of the top 20 carriers. The software helps service providers ensure service quality; reduce operational costs and speed time to market. IBM software helps service providers address emerging opportunities in next-generation network transformation, fixed/mobile convergence, and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) deployment.

For more information about IBM Tivoli Netcool software, visit, http://www-306.ibm.com/software/tivoli/solutions/service-provider/.

About IBM

More information on IBM can be found at http://www.ibm.com.

Kalbe Collaborates With IBM to Build Green Data Center and Reduce Energy Consumption

Kalbe Collaborates With IBM to Build Green Data Center and Reduce Energy Consumption
IBM Also Implements Major Data Center Consolidation Project at Leading Indonesian Pharmaceutical Company

JAKARTA, INDONESIA – 08 Feb 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Kalbe today announced a collaborative effort to build a new energy efficient “green data center” and undergo a major data center consolidation project, in order to meet Kalbe’s technology requirements of its expanding business, while simultaneously saving energy.

A leading pharmaceutical and health company in Indonesia, Kalbe is teaming with IBM to deploy data center consolidation with an explicit goal of reducing energy consumption as well as reducing information technology (IT) maintenance and space in its own data center facilities across Jakarta. IBM will help Kalbe to consolidate five data centers from its current 13 existing data centers during the initial phase.

In addition, IBM will install a green data center on a site of 5,048 square feet. Other site and facilities services and server services to be implemented include data center strategy, data center design, server and storage integration, relocation planning, project management, infrastructure equipment sourcing, installation services and management, data center testing and startup management.

“Kalbe is expanding its business into the pharmaceuticals and consumer products segments by developing various products and providing a technology-based electronic distribution system,” said Mr. Vidjongtius, information technology director, Kalbe. “In addition to supporting our fast expanding business, we believe the time is right for Kalbe to make a cost- saving and energy-saving purchase. The IBM data center solution allows us to concentrate on continuing to provide the production system and staff with the tools necessary to succeed, while also being environmentally conscious.”

“IBM’s long history and expertise with data center implementations enabled us to create a solution to save energy and ensure efficient server performance for Kalbe,” said Hengkie Kastono, Country Manager, Global Technology Services, IBM Indonesia. “IT departments won’t be as concerned with growing energy costs when selecting IBM’s data center solutions, which provide an efficient, reliable and secure data center. IBM is making it easier for data center owners to go green with new, more energy efficient technology and services, available as part of IBM’s Project Big Green initiative.”

IBM has the deep experience to implement the entire solution in eight to 24 weeks, compared to the industry norm which is about 40 weeks. The IBM data center solution integrates power, cooling, rack, management, services and security, allowing for selection of standardized components to create a solution through modular configurations. By using standardized components, the architecture easily scales to meet the evolving needs of the company.

This agreement was signed in the fourth quarter of 2007.

About IBM Project Big Green

Announced in May 2007, Project Big Green is a $1 billion initiative to dramatically reduce energy use by IBM and its clients. The initiative includes new energy efficient IBM products and services and a five step approach to energy efficiency in the data center. If followed, this approach can sharply reduce data center energy consumption, transforming clients’ technology infrastructure into “green” data centers and provide energy savings of up to 42 percent for an average data center. The initiative also includes a new global “green team” of more than 850 energy efficiency architects from across IBM. More information about IBM Project Big Green is available at http://www.ibm.com/press/projectbiggreen.

About Kalbe

PT Kalbe Farma Tbk. (“Kalbe”) is one of the leading pharmaceuticals and health products companies in Indonesia and is recognized as the largest regional pharmaceutical company in Southeast Asia. Established in 1966, Kalbe’s aim is to assist Indonesians to achieve a higher quality of life by providing them with products that improve their health and well-being. The company’s main areas of business activities are the production, distribution, marketing and packaging of pharmaceuticals, health foods and other consumer products. For more information on Kalbe, please visit http://www.kalbe.co.id/?lang=English.