IBM Wednesday announced new alliances with five application developers that company officials say will bolster revenue by $1 billion over the next 3 years.
IBM will partner with:
The agreements mean the new partners will commit to IBM's server platforms, middleware and services, while Big Blue will assist them with the selling and marketing of their products - part of IBM's PartnerWorld for Developers initiative.
Bob Timpson, IBM's general manager, developer relations, said the new partnerships continue the company's efforts to forge alliances with developers in a variety of geographic locations and industries. Including Wednesday's deals, IBM has signed 22 alliances worth $7 billion in revenue over 3 years and Timpson said more are planned in future.
Working with independent software vendors was not always the tradition for IBM, Timpson said.
"Frankly, our competitors do this [partner with developers] very well," he said. "It has been key to their growth. We used to write our own software. We decided last year that wasn't a good idea [for IBM to write application software] and we decided to partner with the industry. We are now winning back some of the marketplace from Sun and Oracle."
The alliances allow IBM to match its strengths with its partners' strengths, said Nicole Gallant, a software partner and alliance group analyst with market research company IDC.
"It makes [IBM] stronger in new and existing markets," Gallant said. "This is indicative of what companies are doing in the industry as a whole."
During late 1999, IBM forged an alliance with customer relationship management software vendor, Siebel Systems. Since that time, IBM also has partnered with such companies as Ariba and i2 Technologies. IBM, in Armonk, N.Y., can be reached at 914-499-1900 or at www.ibm.com/. Intentia, in Danderyd, Sweden, can be reached at 46-8-5552-5000 or at www.intentia.com/. Industrial and Financial Systems, in Linkoping, Sweden, can be reached at 46-0-1320-1500 or at www.ifsab.com/. IT Design, in Dublin, Ireland, can be reached at 353-1-496-7766 or at www.itdesign.com/. Mincom, in Brisbane, Australia, can be reached at www.mincom.com/. Aspen Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., can be reached at 617-949-1000 or at www.aspentech.com/./A>
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