Business Objects, IBM form global strategic alliance to boost sales, reach new markets

Business Objects and IBM today announced the formation of a strategic alliance, the highest-level partner relationship for both companies.

The new agreement is aimed at providing unmatched support for the thousands of joint Business Objects and IBM customers.

In addition, the agreement will position Business Objects and IBM to capture market share in new geographies, industries, and mid-sized businesses looking to embrace information on demand, a method for unlocking and extracting value from information to globalise and integrate their business processes.

As part of the expanded alliance, Business Objects and IBM are increasing investment in the areas of joint solution development, tighter product integration, global industry support, and expansion of the Business Objects Centre of Competency.

Building upon the relationship the two companies have developed over the past 12 years, this agreement is comprised of several key initiatives, including:

* IBM to build a dedicated and commissioned team providing increased worldwide sales coverage for Business Objects solutions.
* Joint commitment to expand activities addressing the mid-market, including joint channel initiatives focused on mid-market customers.
* Mutual investment in the development of industry-specific information on demand solutions for retail, financial services, government, healthcare and life sciences customers.
* Business Objects to support sales of IBM Information Server, a software platform designed to provide customers with access to trusted, consistent and reusable information for applications and business processes.
* Development of the next generation of business intelligence solutions, including BI Web services components critical to service-oriented architectures (SOA).
* Enhanced joint investment in marketing, promotion, technical and sales training, sales support, and lead generation, including efforts across IBM software (Information Management, Lotus, Rational, Tivoli, WebSphere), hardware (IBM Systems), and IBM Global Business Services.
* Extension of the Business Objects Centre of Competency for BusinessObjects XI Release 2 standardisation and optimisation, with over 300 trained software engineers knowledgeable in business intelligence and Business Objects software.
* Business Objects to further optimise its information on demand solutions for IBM hardware, software and services including delivering IBM's database and application server as part of the preferred reference architecture for BusinessObjects XI.

The Business Objects Centre of Competency, located at IBM's Pacific Development Centre (PDC) in Burnaby, Canada, is already home to over 300 software engineers with deep expertise in BI and Business Objects software. By having IBM and Business Objects experts working together in the PDC's "Global Migration Factory", existing customers will benefit from the established design models to help reduce migration time, resulting in decreased project costs and risks.

The commitment to tighten product integration, and increase the sharing of knowledge, training and engineering resources, as outlined in the strategic alliance agreement, will now enable the two companies to increase their focus on delivering a better overall experience to their joint customers. Customers such as Xcel Energy, a leading combination electricity and natural gas energy company in the United States, are pleased about the new alliance agreement.

"Our BI project with Business Objects and IBM will provide real insight into the operational health of our business, enable business transformation, and ultimately have a positive impact on our bottom line," said Brian Jore, senior director of business analytics at Xcel Energy.

"The fact that these two companies are strengthening their alliance provides a level of comfort, because they offer us a more seamless experience as they deepen their level of integration and share skills, knowledge, and resources. It means Business Objects and IBM are on the same page, and that lets us get on with the business of running our company and serving our customers. This expanded alliance will make life a lot simpler for us."

"This alliance agreement is a significant step forward in our relationship with IBM, and will help our companies deliver new and innovative solutions to the market," John Schwarz, CEO of Business Objects. "From investments in developing additional industry-specific solutions to new initiatives focused on reaching further into the mid-market, Business Objects and IBM are working closely to enable companies to better use their corporate information to build high-performance organisations. In addition, existing joint customers will benefit from tighter, more seamless integration of their Business Objects and IBM solutions to gain increased return on their investments."

"Companies around the world are embracing open standards as they look to unlock and extract value from their data," said Janette Beauchamp, general manager, Global Alliance Solutions, IBM. "By combining the strengths of IBM and Business Objects, we're going to deliver powerful information on demand solutions, grow in new markets, and provide an unprecedented level of global support to our joint clients."

For additional information on Business Objects solutions for IBM, please visit www.businessobjects.com/ibm.