IBM To Help Software Developers Provide Applications as On Demand Services

New Application Enablement Program Helps Developers Reduce Costs and Time to Market

14 Nov 2002

ARMONK, N.Y. - IBM today introduced a program that enables software vendors to adapt their applications and provide them as services. IBM Global Services will host the applications in its data centers and its software partners will deliver them on-demand over the network to customers using a variety of licensing models.

IDC forecasts a $16.5 billion dollar worldwide market for software as a service by 2006.

The new IBM Application Enablement Program supplies independent software vendors (ISV's) with the technical skills and expertise to adapt their software packages to take advantage of IBM's hosting centers as an alternative method for customer software deployment. As part of the program, technical enablement teams from IBM work with vendors to enable, test and deploy applications. Upon completion of the program, a vendor's applications are enabled for delivery to customers as services over the network.

Leading software makers Adexa, Entrust, MRO Software and Portal are the initial participants in the Application Enablement Program and plan to offer their customers critical business applications as services. MRO Software, a provider of asset management software to more than 10,000 organizations, will make MAXIMO?, the company's strategic asset management solution, available on-demand.

"Joining the Application Enablement Program broadens our established relationship with IBM, expands our market reach and offers our customers additional deployment alternatives," said David Rothberg, vice president, consulting partners, MRO Software. "By providing MAXIMO as a hosted solution, customers can quickly realize the benefits of our asset management applications in a secure environment, while taking advantage of IBM's industry leading technologies."

The IBM Application Enablement Program is part of IBM's drive to be the partner of choice for ISV's. In November 1999, IBM made the strategic decision to halt development of its own applications in favor of going to market with leading ISV's. The resulting ISV alliances produce best-of-class business solutions by combining ISV applications with IBM infrastructure, software, hardware and services.

"ISVs will play a key role in on-demand e-business," said Bob Timpson, general manager, IBM Developer Relations. "IBM is committed to helping our software partners find new ways to support their customers while lowering their costs of doing business. By helping developers adapt their technologies to an application-as-a-service environment, we can help them grow their businesses and be more focused, resilient, and responsive."

IBM features a flexible menu of hosting options that can provide savings to the software customer by providing access to scalable, security-enhanced on-demand infrastructure. Once an application is enabled, IBM's hosting model does not restrict a customer's ability to customize and integrate their application. Each customer may have a dedicated, customized instance of a vendor's software, or if the application allows, may share the same instance. Customization and integration of the application can be provided by either the software vendor or IBM Business Consulting Services.

IBM software partners who complete the Application Enablement Program are also able to take advantage of IBM's new infrastructure on demand solutions that can significantly lower the cost of software implementations. IBM infrastructure on demand can help software partners to expand market reach, lower business costs and reduce the complexity in deploying sophisticated software.

Offering applications on demand with leading ISVs is one way IBM can help companies adapt to the e-business on demand era. IBM also provides infrastructure software that helps integrate the different "silos" of operations within companies, such as those for managing customer relationships or the supply chain. Businesses that integrate all their operations end-to-end across the company and with suppliers, customers and employees will take a major step toward becoming an on demand e-business -- able to respond with flexibility and speed to any customer demand, market opportunity or external threat.

Software Vendors Participating in IBM's Application Enablement Program:

Adexa: Founded in 1994, Adexa delivers solutions that synchronize corporate planning with operations planning and execution, to ensure assets are utilized to achieve strategic objectives. Adexa helps companies reduce the cost of goods sold, shorten lead-times for orders and reduce inventory costs through improved supply chain collaboration and management.
Entrust: Entrust is a leading global provider of Internet security solutions and services that make it safer for enterprise and government customers to do business and complete transactions over the Internet. Entrust has the industry's broadest set of identification, entitlements, verification, privacy and security management capabilities.
MRO Software: MRO Software is the leading provider of strategic asset management solutions that optimize performance, improve productivity and service levels and enable asset-related sourcing and procurement across the entire spectrum of strategic assets. The Company's asset management solutions allow customers to manage the complete lifecycle of strategic assets including: planning, procurement, deployment, tracking, maintenance and retirement. Using MRO Software's solutions, customers can improve production reliability, labor efficiency, material optimization and provisioning across the asset base.
Portal Software: Portal Software develops product-based customer management and billing solutions for communications and content service providers. Portal's convergent platform enables service providers to deliver voice, data, video, and content services with multiple networks, payment models, pricing plans, and value chains. Portal's unique approach is designed to provide its customers superior return on innovation with maximum value and lower total cost of ownership.

IBM GLOBAL SERVICES

IBM Global Services is the world's largest information technology services provider, with professionals serving customers in 160 countries and annual revenue of about $35 billion (2001). IBM Global Services integrates IBM's broad range of capabilities -- consulting, IT services, hardware, software and research -- to help companies of all sizes realize the full value of information technology.

Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Limited in Canada. All other Entrust product names and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Entrust, Inc or Entrust Limited. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.