IBM, Peregrine Systems forge infrastructure alliance

Peregrine Systems and IBM today announced a strategic alliance in which the companies will help customers accelerate the transformation of their enterprise workplace assets into reliable, scalable and flexible business environments. Peregrine is represented in SA by MGX.

Under the milestone initiative, IBM Global Services will provide Peregrine`s Infrastructure Management software and systems integration services as a combined offering in its newly launched Infrastructure Resource Management (IRM) practice.

IBM Global Services will certify several hundred consultants to support the implementation of Peregrine Infrastructure Management applications, as well as deliver lifecycle management consulting services for an end-to-end solution.

"MGX will provide Peregrine product and marketing support to IBM in SA," says Dave Cormack, Peregrine Alliances and Marketing Manager at MGX.

In a second major component of this initiative, IBM will provide the network infrastructure for enhancing the growth of Peregrine`s Get2Connect global trading community, which processes nearly 1.2 million e-commerce transactions daily at a value of $280 billion annually. IBM will also host Peregrine software applications offered as an application service provider (ASP) model for customers seeking a hosted, subscription-based offering.

"The synergistic alliance between IBM and Peregrine not only will enable both organisations to focus on their core competencies, but also help customers realise a return on investment of their technology implementations utilising best practice models," said Michele Hudnall, senior research analyst, Meta Group.

"Our expanding relationship with IBM will help our customers reduce the frictional cost of doing business," said Steve Gardner, chairman and CEO of Peregrine. "We are delighted that IBM will be teaming with us to offer infrastructure management solutions. The combined offering will help customers achieve much higher productivity and return on invested capital by better managing their global infrastructures. Additionally, the agreement to use IBM`s network infrastructure will allow Peregrine to offer our 44 000 Get2Connect customer connections an enhanced and scalable operational environment globally, while continuing to manage our e-business applications for customers."

Bob Zapfel, general manager, Strategic Outsourcing & Integrated Technology Services, IBM Global Services, said: "By teaming with Peregrine, and leveraging our collective strengths, we bring to market solutions that manage the end-to-end lifecycle of the infrastructure assets. In doing so, we will help them decrease costs and increase availability. We understand that agile businesses need a technical base that supports processes as a whole, not in segments. We know that the right infrastructure solution today takes tomorrow into account."

The two-pronged initiative will produce key benefits for customers:

IBM`s Infrastructure Resource Management Practice:

IBM will offer complete end-to-end global infrastructure solutions, leveraging Peregrine`s Infrastructure Management software, to lower asset management costs for customers and improve the availability of core infrastructure assets. Peregrine applications provide industry-leading infrastructure tools and IBM Global Services provides expert resources in best practices lifecycle management, delivering rapid return on investment in the management of infrastructure assets, from acquisition to disposition.

In addition, IBM will offer Peregrine software with a range of complementary services to assist Peregrine customers in achieving an available, capable and affordable infrastructure to support their core business. These services are multi-platform and are offered on a worldwide basis with a variety of flexible payment options.

IBM Infrastructure Hosting:

The multi-year hosting agreement calls for IBM to host Peregrine`s Get2Connect global trading network. While IBM will be responsible for systems management, Peregrine will continue to offer and manage its e-business applications and services for customers. IBM Global Services offers access to more than 200 IBM data centres, as well as scalable architectures on Unix and NT. Under the hosting agreement, IBM will also provide its highly reliable network infrastructure for Peregrine`s Hosted Services program for Infrastructure Management, Employee Relationship Management and B2B Relationship Management solutions. In addition, to address customer needs, Peregrine will continue to work with local partners in various regions around the world, to market its software solutions, including systems integration services, to customers seeking solutions in ASP mode.

This IBM initiative complements an existing relationship between Peregrine and IBM Software Group in which Peregrine`s B2B technology is built into WebSphere Partner Agreement Manager.