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IBM Midmarket

Businesses Software Overview Guide

Software prescriptions for your IT pains

can be found inside.

IBM Software Overview Guide for Midsized Businesses

Featuring IBM Express

Middleware™ sized for

midsized businesses with

• Limited Budget

• Limited Staff

• Limited IT Skills

IBM Midmarket


Contents

IBM Express Middleware

Designed, developed and

priced to meet the needs

of midsized companies.

See Page 4

Non Express IBM Software

Product Editions

See Page 7

Application Servers —

See Page 7

Business Integration

See Page 8

Commerce

See Page 10

Information Management —

See Page 10

Messaging Applications.

See Page 11

Organizational Productivity and

Collaboration

See Page 12

Security Management

See Page 13

Software Development

See Page 14

Storage Management

See Page 16

Systems Management

See Page 18

Wireless—voice—pervasive

See Page 19

NEW SOFTWARE. JUST WHAT YOU NEED TO ADDRESS NEW BUSINESS AND IT CHALLENGES — OR OLD ONES.

IBM realizes that no sooner do you tackle one pressing issue that another one arises.

That’s why we never stop working on developing software that helps you support the

business priorities you have today — and the ones you’ll face tomorrow. Learn about

how IBM software can help your business.

IBM SOFTWARE PORTFOLIO

The IBM software portfolio is an award-winning, comprehensive and integrated set of solutions based on open standards.

IBM Express middleware

Offers products designed for a variety of businesses across multiple industries. These products can become the catalyst to help midsized businesses affordably:

Improve business processes with service orientation: Gain flexibility and improve operations without breaking your budget.

Experience simple, fast, secure IT management: Secure and protect valuable data. Keep everything up and running. Easily.

Enhance productivity, collaboration, responsiveness and innovation: A better way to get your teams and projects up and running, quickly.

Leverage information for business innovation: Distribute information in real time across your enterprise

Is your company in the market for software appropriate for midsized businesses? If the

answer is yes, please review IBM’s software portfolio in this IBM Software Guide for

Midsized Businesses. We cater to midsized businesses.

NOTE Information in this document is current as of March 2007. For most

current up-to-date information on the products listed in this guide, visit

ibm.com/software.

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IBM Midmarket


• IBM Express Middleware —

Designed, developed and priced

to meet the needs of midsized

companies.

DB2 9 is the next-generation

hybrid data server with optimized

management of XML and

relational data.

Security-rich software that enables

businesses to communicate,

collaborate and increase

productivity.

The platform for governing

software and systems delivery

Tivoli Service Management enables

clients to better manage their

infrastructure, operations and

IT processes, to more effectively

deliver services aligned to

business goals.

Integration and application

infrastructure software.

IF YOUR PAIN IS:

Inflexible electronic forms

YOU MAY NEED:

IBM Workplace Forms™ Express or IBM Workplace Forms

IF YOUR PAIN IS:

Managing XML data

YOU MAY NEED:

IBM DB2® Express Edition for Linux, UNIX, and Windows or IBM DB2 9

IF YOUR PAIN IS:

Security gaps

YOU MAY NEED:

IBM Tivoli® Access Manager

Enterprise Single Sign-On

IBM middleware software runs on one or more of the following platforms:

Windows®, Linux®, AIX® , Solaris, HP-UX, OS/400® , i5/OS®

Additional and most up-to-date software information

for midsized businesses is available atwww.ibm.com/software

www.ibm.com/expressadvantage

IBM Information Management software®

IBM Midmarket


Just look what we’ve got in store.

SEE IBM SOFTWARE PRESCRIPTIONS BELOW.

Get the most out of your IT investments

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Express

Provides quick, reliable and easy backup and recovery. Fast backup to disk means minimized backup window and network bandwidth. Easy install and confi guration enables a fi rst full backup in less than 30 minutes. Also works as agent for Microsoft Exchange and SQL.

IBM Tivoli Monitoring Express

Automates the monitoring of essential system resources to detect bottlenecks and potential problems and automatically recover from criti-cal situations.

Enhance IT security, dependability and compliance

IBM Tivoli Identity Manager Express

Effectively manages the integration, security and compliance of your on demand business infrastructure. This simple and security-rich identity management solution provides essential password management, user provisioning and access rights auditing capabilities.

IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager Express for Inventory

Inventory management solution that collects, stores and maintains hardware and software information, and delivers customizable reports using a standard, Webbased interface.

IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager Express for Software Distribution

Software distribution solution containing all the capabilities included in Tivoli Provisioning Manager Express for Inventory, plus the ability to quickly distribute software and security patch updates.



Designed and priced to meet the needs of midsize companies.

SOLUTION #72

PAIN: Need mid-size business software

No matter the company size, getting everyone on the same page can be a huge challenge. Teams and projects are spread around different depart-ments, databases and managers. The only thing that isn’t spread around is more time. You need a way to bring everyone together. And you need en-terprise-class solutions suitable for your growing (but not quite enterprise-size) business.

Sample prices:

Backup/Recovery Solution starting at $201 per managed processor

Security Identity Management Solution-$2,470 for 100 users

Portal Solution-$2,300 for 20 users

Note: Prices shown are suggested retail price and include 12 months of software maintenance. Additional savings on volume purchases and trade up options may apply. Published March 2007. Prices current as of publication date and subject to change.

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IBM Midmarket


Improve employee productivity

New! IBM WebSphere® Portal – Express Version 6

Provides immediate value out of the box with Security-rich access for teams to collaborate, share documents, and launch pre-built Internet and intranet sites. Other features like document and Web content management, and tools to develop custom Web sites and solutions can be used immediately or as needed. As your business grows you can add additional licenses or upgrade to IBM’s other market share-leading portal products.

IBM Lotus® Domino® Express

Provides a reliable, scalable, security-rich multiplatform foundation for messaging and collaborative applications. Extends beyond e-mail and calendar with built-in collaboration tools (discussion databases, blogging capabili-ties, basic workfl ow for documents, integrated presence awareness and interactive, online conversations). Can be deployed as a core e-mail and enterprise scheduling infrastructure, a custom application platform or both. Three products are available.

IBM Lotus Domino Messaging Server Includes integrated messaging and directory services that provide world-class e-mail, calendaring and scheduling, discussion databases and address books in a unified, easy-to-manage architecture. Includes collaboration tools such as discussion databases, basic workflow for documents, presence awareness and interactive, online conversations.

IBM Lotus Domino Enterprise Server provides all the features of Lotus Domino Messaging Server plus a robust platform for deploying collaborative applications on a wide variety of operating systems.

IBM Lotus Domino Utility Server provides virtually unlimited access to collaborative applications — not individual mail files.

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Improve Customer Experience

IBM WebSphere Commerce - Express

A complete end-to-end solution providing the core capabilities that growing midsize businesses need to create or expand their B2B or B2C e-commerce site with a minimum investment.

IBM Midmarket


Increase business flexibility

IBM Express Runtime

An integrated infrastructure offering that integrates the core server components of IBM WebSphere Application Server - Express, IBM DB2 Universal Database™ Express, IBM HTTP Server and a common admin console. These components are provided in one preintegrated and confi gured package

IBM Express Runtime Plus

Provides a growth path from IBM Express Runtime, with limits increased up to four processors.

IBM WebSphere ApplicationServer - Express

Creates, tests, deploys and manages dynamic Websites, applications and Web services. Wizards, samples and application templates simplify building applications.

IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express

Quickly and easily integrates applications to better serve customers, partners and suppliers. Express includes adapters, collaborations, simplifi ed tooling and necessary prerequisites. Express Plus includes additional adapters, addi-tional tooling and optional add-on adapters and collaborations.

IBM WebSphere Partner Gateway - Express

Lightweight, easy-to-use, cost-effective B2B connectivity tool


Analyze and use information to make better business decisions

IBM DB2 Everyplace® Express Edition

Provides an attractively priced mobile database and synchronization solution

IBM DB2 Express Edition for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

A fl exible, cost-effective database platform for building robust business applications. It is a hybrid server optimized for managing both relational and pure XML data storage. It can help build your total business resilience—security and privacy, availability, reliability, scalability, disaster protection, compliance and govern-ance. Its autonomic memory and storage management and self-confi guration for SAP environments might mean cost savings for your business.

IBM Informix® Dynamic Server Express Edition

Combines a self-managing database engine that provides the power, function and reliability needed for an on demand business with simplic-ity in packaging, installation and deployment—at a minimal investment cost.

IBM Workplace Forms Express

Easily creates interactive Web forms without-Web programming skills. Creates open stand-ards–based electronic forms that help reduce paper costs, collects accurate data at the point of capture, improves workfl ow and extends existing IT investments. One-time purchase only. Not available for clients who previously purchased IBM Workplace Forms 2.5 or 2.6.

Offerings:

Workplace Forms Server Express

Workplace Forms Viewer Express

Complementary product: Workplace Forms Designer

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IBM Midmarket


NON EXPRESS IBM SOFTWARE PRODUCT EDITIONS

FOR MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

APPLICATION SERVERS

SOLUTION #54

PAIN: Inflexible application deployment

No sooner did you roll out the new Web service to your customers than you got a call from Someone in Product Marketing — not only is that application outdated, but you need another one with more bells and whistles, by end of quarter. Sure would be nice if you could leverage the application you just built. Ring a bell

We’ve got this pain under control. Check out the products in this section.


Application Servers

IBM WebSphere DataPower® Services

IBM® WebSphere® DataPower SOA Appliances represent an important element in IBM’s holistic approach to Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). IBM SOA appliances are purpose-built, easy-to-deploy network devices that simplify, help secure, and accelerate your XML and Web services deployments while extending your SOA infrastructure. These new appliances offer an innovative, pragmatic approach to harness the power of SOA while simultaneously enabling you to leverage the value of your existing application, security, and networking infrastructure investments.

WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment.

Combines near-continuous availability with automated performance optimization and centralized management and monitoring, for business-critical applications. Delivers world-class clustering, failure bypass and a high-avail-ability manager, to help eliminate the cost of application downtime. Provides an advanced Web services gateway to enable you to connect securely to systems outside of the fi rewall. Offers extended Web services management and advanced remote administration to make managing complex environments less time and resource-intensive.

IBM Lotus Domino

Provides a reliable, scalable, security-rich multiplatform foundation for messaging and collaborative applications. Extends beyond e-mail and calendar with built-in collaboration tools (discussion databases, blogging capabili-ties, basic workfl ow for documents, integrated presence awareness and interactive, online conversations). Can be deployed as a core e-mail and enterprise scheduling infrastructure, a custom application platform or both. Three products are available.

IBM Lotus Domino Messaging Server Includes integrated messaging and directory services that provide world-class e-mail, calendaring and scheduling, discussion databases and address books in a unified, easy-to-manage architecture. Includes collaboration tools such as discussion databases, basic workflow for documents, presence awareness and interactive, online conversations.•

IBM Lotus Domino Enterprise Server provides all the features of Lotus Domino Messaging Server plus a robust platform for deploying collaborative applications on a wide variety of operating systems.

IBM Lotus Domino Utility Server provides virtually unlimited access to collaborative applications — not individual mail files.

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NON EXPRESS IBM SOFTWARE

PRODUCT EDITIONS FOR

MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

IBM Midmarket


SOLUTION #89

PAIN: No integration in applications

The new acquisition was just announced. Good news for shareholders: your business is expanding. Bad news for IT: you’ve got to bring all the applications together and centralize management. Otherwise, Operations staff will waste valuable resources trying to coordinate information and management activities manually.

We’ve got this pain under control. Check out the products in this section.


BUSINESS INTEGRATION

Application connectivity

IBM WebSphere MQ

Delivers reliable integration for applications and Web services, allowing existing software and hardware investments to be fully leveraged across more than 80 platform confi gurations. Provides an award-winning messaging backbone as a proven transport for Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). Supports JMS, SSL, SOAP, Eclipse and IPV6.

IBM WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus

Provides Web services connectivity, Java ™

Messaging Service (JMS) and service oriented integration, allowing customers to quickly and easily build and deploy interactions between

applications.

IBM WebSphere MQ Everyplace

Extends business integration to mobile devices using security-rich and dependable application messaging. Connects seamlessly to many WebSphere offerings by providing a mobile transport layer that can operate over semi-connected wireless and wired networks.

Network Edition for integrating mobile and wireless devices with the enterprise

Retail Edition for integrating retail store controllers and point of sale with head-office systems

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Process integration

IBM WebSphere Process Server

The next generation server based on Service Oriented Architecture – a high performance business engine that simplifi es the integra-tion and automation of enterprise business processes. It transforms existing processes to be dynamic and adaptive to deliver cost effective business agility in order to achieve business goals. It enables the ability to respond fast resulting in service and products that can potentially be a differentiator when compared to the competition.

IBM WebSphere Business Modeler

Fully visualize, comprehend and document business processes. Rapid results can be obtained through the collaboration functional-ity, where a subject-matter experts team clearly defi nes business processes and models, then deploys, monitors and takes actions based on KPIs, alerts and triggers for continuous opti-mization. Business processes then get tightly linked with strategic corporate objectives and honed as required.

IBM WebSphere Business Monitor

Displays real-time information from a variety of environments to enable decisive business innovation and optimization. The monitor feeds this data back into process modeling tools, with alerts and notifi cations to key users, to deliver continuous business process improvements. Allows the monitoring of nonprocess data by retrieving information from external data-bases. Tightly integrates with both WebSphere Business Modeler and WebSphere Process Server— providing support for the Common Event Infrastructure by leveraging the Common Base Event (CBE) format.



MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

IBM Midmarket


BUSINESS INTEGRATION (continued)

IBM WebSphere Host AccessTransformation Services

Provides all the tools needed to quickly and easily extend host applications to business partners, customers and employees. Makes 3270 and 5250 applications available as HTML through the most popular Web browsers, while converting host screens to a Web look and feel.

IBM Host Access Client Package for Multiplatforms

Allows managed migration of Web-to-host technologies at a customized pace. At one price per user, provides access to legacy applications for all types of users regardless of their needs. This Package includes IBM Personal Communications for traditional emulation and IBM WebSphere Host On-Demand for browser-based emulation.

IBM WebSphere Transformation Extender

A universal transformation engine for Web-Sphere that addresses complex data challenges to integration. Through its unique ability to speak to and process any data type in its native format, it integrates systems and informa-tion across the enterprise through a codeless, graphical approach to development. The optional WebSphere Transformation Extender components enhance the environment and capabilities of WebSphere Transformation Extender and extend the environments in which it can operate out of the box.

Optional WebSphere Transformation Extender Industry Packs for:

EDIFACT

X12

EANCOM

ODETTE

TRADACOMS

SWIFTNet Fin

SWIFTNet Funds

HIPAA EDI

HL7

NCPDP

Optional WebSphere Transformation Extender:

Trading Manager

Pack for Web Services

Security Collection

Launcher Agent

IBM WebFacing Deployment Tool with HATS Technology

A single product that offers the advantages of both IBM WebFacing Tool and HATS. Makes 5250 applications available as HTML through a browser, or in a portlet, while converting host screens to a Web look and feel. Helps improve the workfl ow and navigation of host applications.

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MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

IBM Midmarket


SOLUTION #22

PAIN: E-commerce pains

Not a day goes by that Someone doesn’t say, “We have got to tighten up order fulfillment.” Or, “Have you figured out how to process more transactions during the holidays yet?” Or our favorite: “Our competitors offer a better shopping experience. Why can’t we?

We’ve got this pain under control. Check out the products on this page.


COMMERCE

IBM WebSphere CommerceProfessional

Increases site functionality for B2C and multichannel retailers by personalizing customer buying experiences, streamliningorder processes, reducing cycle times, optimizing operational efficiencies and accommodating high transaction volumes. Provides infrastructure to support and integrate multiple sales channels, including Web, kiosk, POS, buy online and pickup in store, and more.

IBM WebSphere Commerce Enterprise

Provides a powerful, fl exible infrastructure based on a unifi ed platform for running large, high-volume B2B and advanced B2C e-commerce Web sites for a global on demand business. Supports customer-specifi c pricing, terms and entitlements that involve individuals with varying levels of authority.

SOLUTION #6

PAIN: Unwieldly databases

Let us guess. It’s starting to look like you’ll never get your arms around the query game. Just when you think you’ve got the Beast slain, Accounting (see mugshot, left) calls again with yet another report they need for Sarbanes-Oxley. It’s like Someone’s playing a cruel, wicked joke on the IT team. Sound familiar ?

Read on to learn more about IBM solutions for ways to control the Evil

Database Monster.


INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Data Servers

IBM DB2 Workgroup 9

The ideal data server for deployment in adepartmental, workgroup or midsize business environment. Suitable for transactionprocessing or complex query workloads on servers with up to four processors.

Value-added features:

pureXML

High Availability

Workload Management

Performance Optimization

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Standalone DB2

IBM Informix Dynamic Server Workgroup Edition

OLTP database for midsize business or enterprise departmental solutions. Provides OLTP Performance, legendary reliability and nearly hands-free administration.

Content Management Discovery

IBM WebSphere Information Integrator Content Starter Edition

Allows real-time federated access to content scattered across disparate content man-agement and workfl ow systems. Designed for departmental-scale implementations (two-processor limit, includes two connector entitlements). NON EXPRESS IBM SOFTWARE


MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

IBM Midmarket


INFORMATION MANAGEMENT (continued)

DB2® Content Manager OnDemand for Multiplatforms

Provides instant access to bills and invoices, supports customer service. Provides instant access to bills, statements, and invoices, supports customer service and improves operations. Multiple databases are supported: IBM® DB2 Universal Database, Oracle, and Microsoft® SQL Server.

IBM DB2 Content Manager Standard Edition

An entry-level content management solution for small and medium-size businesses that provides a single, open, comprehensive and consistent framework to manage, share, reuse and archive all types of digitized content.

IBM DB2 Document Manager

Provides a security-rich and robust plat-form to manage the complete life cycle of business documents, including compound documents,renditions and offi cial business records.

IBM OmniFind Enterprise Starter Edition

Enables secure intranet search across Lotus Domino databases, fi le shares, Web and intran-et pages, and content management systems. Designed for smaller scale implementations (two-processor limit).

No-charge software

IBM® OmniFind™ Yahoo! Edition

No-charge, entry-level enterprise search soft-ware to enable intranet and fi le system search. OmniFind Yahoo! Edition, an IBM and Yahoo! Inc collaboration, is search software that’s easy to deploy, use and maintain. It’s a perfect start-ing point for enterprise search.

DB2 Express Edition for Community (DB2 Express-C)

A no charge data server for use in development and deployment. DB2 Express-C supports a full range of APIs, drivers, and interfaces for application development including PHP, C/C++, and .NET. In addition, DB2 Express-C V9 contains advanced XML features. DB2 Express-C provides ISVs an ideal starting database server for Web, enterprise, and eBusiness applications.

SOLUTION #26

PAIN: Collaboration Roadblocks

Let’s face it: it would be nice if you’d started out with one e-mail application. One that works with the calendar. Talks to the schedule. And to the address books. Oh, and databases, too. But instead, you’ve got six applications. And six people to manage them. And that’s about five too many managers. Time to consolidate?

If you’re suffering collaboration roadblocks, you’ve come to the right place.


MESSAGING APPLICATIONS

Advanced Messaging

IBM Lotus Notes®

This premier, high-function integrated desktop client for accessing Lotus Domino servers combines world-class messaging, calendaring and scheduling capabilities with a powerful platform for collaborative applications. A new feature lets you integrate SAP applications and workfl ow into the Lotus Notes® client at no additional charge. And now you can take your Lotus Notes desktop with you on a USB device.

IBM Lotus Domino Web Access and - Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook

Alternate Lotus Domino client that provides users with access to leading Lotus Domino messaging and collaboration features— deliv-ered through a wide range of Web browsers on Windows, Linux and Macintosh. Includes Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook for easy migration from Microsoft Exchange to Lotus Domino, allowing users to continue working with familiar Outlook clients.



MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

IBM Midmarket


SOLUTION #2

PAIN: Productivity snags

Well it finally happened. Someone threw the hammer down and said you’ve got to align your operations, your staff, your resources — the whole ball of wax — with the business. “You’ve got to start treating what you do like it’s a service,” he said. As if you don’t serve everyone already.

We’ve got just the thing: tools to implement a

service oriented architecture (SOA). Read on.


ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY AND COLLABORATION

Collaboration services software

IBM Workplace™ Collaboration Services

Simplifi es collaboration with a single, integratedenvironment. Includes a wide range of capabilities — all built on a componentized service oriented architecture (SOA). Easily deploy and centrally manage individually based capabilities to fl exibly meet individual user needs or as part of a customized solution.

Individual IBM Workplace collaboration

capabilities:

IBM Workplace Collaborative Learning™

IBM Workplace Team Collaboration

IBM Workplace Documents

IBM Workplace Web Content Management™

Real-time and team collaboration

IBM Lotus QuickPlace™

A self-service workspace expressly designed for team collaboration. Users can create secure workspaces on the Web, providing a place to collaborate on projects.

IBM Lotus Sametime

Helps increase responsiveness and access to experts by using presence awareness, enterprise instant messaging and web conferencing to quickly connect or meet, share information and collaborate in real time. Includes news ways to integrate telephony and Voice over IP communications.

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IBM Lotus Web Conferencing

Delivers all the benefi ts of Web conferencing while

offering the cost savings of an on-premise deployment. With concurrent user pricing, the same license can be used to hold internal and external meetings. Based on Lotus Sametime.

Forms management

IBM Workplace Forms

Helps reduce the time, costs and problems inherent to paper-based forms processes. Unleashes information trapped in paper, making it instantly available to anyone, anytime and anywhere — helping speed business transactions and increase responsiveness with intelligent, easy-to-use dynamic forms that reduce or eliminate errors at the point of entry.

Components

Designer

Server

Viewer

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MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

IBM Midmarket


SOLUTION #13

PAIN: Security gaps

The worst has happened. Somebody in your company borrowed a pass-word from a line of business manager. And used it to change some billing data in the system. Which caused a Web server to crash. Which cost about $237,000 in lost sales. Don’t let Somebody have control over your network security.

Products in this section can help.


SECURITY MANAGEMENT

IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager

Identity management and access control solu-tion. Accelerates and secures the integration of companies and their business partners. Through federated single sign-on, business ecosystems can integrate their users in an effi cient, security-rich and economic manner, while providing a streamlined user experience. By securing Web services, companies can integrate application platforms both within their enterprise and with their business partners

IBM Tivoli Access Manager for Enterprise Single Sign-On

A product suite powered by Passlogix that provides a unifi ed enterprise single sign-on and authentication experience for a user’s applications. Helps companies address their compliance needs, enforce security, reduce administrative costs and increase productivity.

Adapters

Desktop Password Reset Adapter

Provisioning Adapter

Authentication Adapter

Kiosk AdapterKiosk Adapter

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IBM Tivoli Access Manager for Operating Systems

A policy-based access control system for UNIX and Linux operating systems. Effectively ad-dresses many system vulnerabilities surround-ing UNIX and Linux super-user or root accounts. Provides centralized auditing and reporting, helping customers easily and effi ciently comply with regulations and corporate protocols by having a centralized repository for auditing data and preconfi gured reports.

IBM Tivoli Identity Manager

Security-rich, automated and policy-based solution that helps effectively manage user ac-counts and access permissions and passwords from creation to termination across heteroge-neous environments. Helps enterprises better capture user and account information, and enhance visibility into security management operations.

IBM Tivoli Security Compliance Manager

An early warning system for organizations looking to identify security policy violations and potential security vulnerabilities. Helps organizations defi ne consistent security poli-cies based on internal or industry standards and then monitor compliance.



MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

IBM Midmarket


SOLUTION #9

PAIN: Underdeveloped Software Development

Admit it. You’ve never had a truly effective way to manage your source code and documents. A repository, so to speak. And the “workflow” for software development involves Someone in Testing who always says, “I think Bob needs to see it next.”

This just in: IBM can help you accelerate your global software delivery.

Read on.


SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Change and configuration management

IBM Rational ClearCase®

Manages and controls software assets across the life cycle. Sophisticated version control, automated workspace management, parallel development support, transparent real-time access to fi les and directories, build and release management, and support for mainframe and midrange development help you improve productivity and deliver applications faster. Heterogeneous, cross-platform support; local, remote and Web interfaces; and integration with leading IDEs enable easy access from the environments and locations you need.

IBM Rational ClearCase MultiSite®

An option to Rational ClearCase that supports distributed access to software assets through automatic replication and synchronization of Rational ClearCase repositories.

IBM Rational ClearCase LT

Version control tool for small, local developmentteams. Easy to install and manage, it supports parallel development, automated workspace confi guration and disconnected usage on Linux, Windows and UNIX platforms. Local, remote and Web interfaces and integration with leading IDEs enable access virtually anywhere, anytime.

IBM Rational ClearQuest®

Provides change management across the software life cycle. Process automation helps create repeatable, enforceable and predictable processes. Defect and change tracking helps document and manage issues to completion. Electronic signatures, user authentication and audit trails help meet regulatory compliance requirements. Integration with requirements, development, build, test and deployment tools enables full life-cycle traceability. Local, remote and Web interfaces and integration with leading IDEs enable access virtually anytime, anywhere.

Design and construct

IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software

A comprehensive, integrated development environment optimized for rapidly designing, developing, analyzing, testing, profi ling and deploying applications to WebSphere Application Server using Java, J2EE, Web, Web services, service oriented architecture and portal technologies. Under a new name, this is the newest version of WebSphere Studio Application Developer technology.



MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

IBM Midmarket


SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT (continued)

IBM Rational Web Developer

An integrated development environment that makes Web, Web services and Java development quick and easy. With a broad range of visual development, testing and deployment tools that are easy to learn and use, Web Developer is a perfect fi t for application developers who are new to Java or who don’t need to build their own EJB components. Optimized for WebSphere software, and supporting multi-vendor runtime environments, Web Developer is powered by the Eclipse open source platform so developers can adapt and extend their development environment to match their needs and to increase productivity. When used with the IBM Software Development Platform, developers can access a broad range of requirements and change management functions directly from Web Developer.

Process and portfolio management

IBM Rational Method Composer

The next evolution of the IBM Rational Unifi ed Process®, providing a process solution that goes beyond software development. A fl exible process platform built on top of the Eclipse Process Framework that contains tooling, process libraries and unifi ed method architecture for use throughout IT life-cycle management (ITLM). This process will help you deliver customized yet consistent process guidance to your project team.

Requirements and analysis

IBM Rational RequisitePro®

An easy-to-use requirements and use case management tool that lets teams author and share their requirements using familiar document-based methods and leverage database-enabled capabilities such as requirements traceability and impact analysis. The result: better communication and management of requirements with an increased likelihood of completing projects on time, within budget and above expectations.

Software Quality

IBM Rational Functional Tester

Top analyst-rated tool for automating the functional and regression testing of Java, VS.NET and Web-based applications. Overcomes test automation roadblocks with advanced features, including self-correcting test scripts and data-driven test assistance. Runs on Windows and Linux platforms. Ships with a copy of Rational Manual Tester and enables you to download entitlements to Rational TestManager and Rational ClearCase LT.



MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

IBM Midmarket


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MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

SOLUTION #57

PAIN: Out of storage space

Compliance policies. Regulatory laws. Accountability reports. Every year, there’s more and more data to store. And less room. In fact, the really helpful “answer” Management now offers seems to be: Store it all. Not only do you have to find a place to store the data, you have to find a way to retrieve it.

Sound familiar? Then let us introduce you to the joys of storage management


STORAGE MANAGEMENT

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

Protects an organization’s data from hardware failures and other errors by storing backup and archive copies of data on offl ine storage. Scales to protect hundreds of computers running dozens of operating systems

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Extended Edition

Expands on the base product of Tivoli Storage Manager by adding a disaster-planning capabil-ity, Network Data Management Protocol control for network-attached storage fi lers and support for large tape libraries.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Application Servers

Provides a software module that works with Tivoli Storage Manager to protect the infrastructure and application data and optimize the availability of WebSphere Application Server (see page 10) to provide an applet GUI to perform reproducible, automated online backup of a WebSphere Application Server environment.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Databases

Provides a software module that works with TivoliStorage Manager to protect a wide range of application data by protecting underlying database management systems holding that data. Exploits backup-certifi ed utilities and interfaces provided for Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and Informix.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Copy Services

Integrates with Microsoft Exchange Volume Shadow Copy Service architecture to integrate hardware- and software-based snapshot capabilities with Tivoli Storage Manager and other data protection modules to perform high-effi ciency data backups and archives of business critical applications. Virtually eliminates performance impacts on the host.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager HSM for Windows

Moves inactive Windows fi les to a hierarchy of lower cost storage, based on user policy, to save costly server space and help minimize backup and recovery times.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Advanced Copy Services

For IBM AIX® environments, integrates hardware- and software-based snapshot capabilities with Tivoli Storage Manager and other data protection modules to perform high-effi ciency data backups and archives of business critical applications. Virtually eliminates performance impacts on the host. Extends IBM FlashCopy® support in IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Hardware to include support for SAN volume controller, DS6000™ and DS8000™ devices.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Enterprise Resource Planning

Captures reliable online full or differential recover points for application servers and feeds the backup data into the Tivoli Storage Manager hierarchy.

IBM Midmarket




MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

STORAGE MANAGEMENT (continued)

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Space Management

Automatically and transparently migrates rarelyaccessed fi les to Tivoli Storage Manager storage.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Storage Area Networks

Extension that introduces storage agents to allow both server and client computers to make the bulk of backup/restore and archive/retrieve data transfers over the SAN instead of the LAN, either directly to tape or to the Tivoli Storage Manager disk storage pool

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for System Backup and Recovery

Provides a fl exible backup method for AIX systems, helps protect data and offers bare metal restore capabilities. Also includes a comprehensive system backup, restore and reinstallation tool

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Mail

Provides a software module for Tivoli Storage Manager that automates the data protection of e-mail servers running either Lotus Domino or Microsoft Exchange. Uses APIs provided by e-mail application vendors to perform online “hot” backups without shutting down the e-mail server.

IBM Tivoli System Storage Archive Manager

Facilitates compliance with the most stringentregulatory requirements by helping manage and simplify the retrieval of data. Provides data retention policies that help meet new regulations requiring additional safeguards on data retention.

IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller

Storage virtualization offering will help improve application availability, optimize storage resource utilization and greatly enhance storage management personnel productivity. Helps eliminate many of the causes of storage-related application downtime. Provides the administrator with the capability to combine islands of capacity into a single storage pool. Available

IBM Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files

Provides real-time, continuous data protection designed specifi cally for laptops and desktops. Instead of waiting for scheduled intervals, it backs up users’ most important fi les the moment they are saved.

Storage infrastructure management

IBM Tivoli Storage Process Manager

Provides a holistic view of storage changeswithin an infrastructure. Automates tasks that have traditionally been performed manually. A set of customizable, IT Infrastructure Library® (ITIL®)–aligned workfl ows helps optimize storage utilization, prioritize storage incidents and establish storage policies. Provisions storage to minimize impact to SLAs and uses best practices to align storage processes to storage policies and procedures

IBM TotalStorage® Productivity Center for Data

Provides a set of policy-driven automated tools for managing storage capacity, availability, events and assets in an enterprise environment, including DAS, NAS and SAN technologies. Because it is policy-based, this intelligent console for the storage environment uses autonomic self-healing and self-confi guring capabilities to detect potential problems and automatically make adjustments based on established policies and actions.

IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center Standard Edition

Get the best value for your storage infrastructure with this bundle that includes TotalStorage Productivity Center for Data, TotalStorage Productivity Center for Fabric and TotalStorage Productivity Center for Disk in a single package.

IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center for Replication

Part of TotalStorage Open Software Family, it is designed to simplify and optimize the confi guration and management of fl ash copy replication and migration services on network storage devices.

for purchase via a tiered pricing scheme. This software operates only on IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller hardware. Orders for both hardware and software must be placed at the same time.

IBM Midmarket


SOLUTION #5

PAIN: Network view obscured

We know: you hate running all over the place trying to get a handle on server performance. But there are these little things called key perfor-mance indicators that Someone told you to collect.Your team can’t be everywhere at once. You need a consolidated view. A console. If you could get your hands on that, you’d be miles ahead of the game.

Check out IBM’s productivity tools in this section.


SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

IBM Tivoli Monitoring

Automates monitoring of essential system resources to detect bottlenecks and potential problems, and enables automatic recovery from critical situations. Can also help increase the availability of servers

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA

Monitors, manages and controls the Web serv-ices layer of IT architectures while drilling down to the application or resource layer to identify the source of bottlenecks or failures, and to pinpoint services that take the most time or use the most resources

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Response Time Tracking

Monitors transaction performance and availability to provide a positive customer experience. Offers a comprehensive display of an end-user transaction path.

IBM Tivoli Service Level Advisor

Helps customers by automating their service level management so that administrators spend less time managing service level agreements (SLAs), responding to reporting requirements and addressing service outages and degradations. The result is more effective IT performance and availability management through improved quality of service delivery as well as maximized productivity of both IT staff and customers.

IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager

An integrated solution for deploying software, automating patch management for Windows environments, and tracking hardware and software confi gurations. After systems have been deployed, the inventory module lets users automatically scan for and collect hardware and software confi guration information from computer systems across an enterprise.

IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager

Helps effi ciently and effectively respond to changing demands on infrastructure resources while keeping server and desktop software compliant across the enterprise. Provisions and confi gures servers, operating systems, middleware, applications and network devices acting as routers, switches, fi rewalls and load balancers. Uses workfl ows to automate the manual provisioning and deployment process.

IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager forOS Deployment

An easy-to-use console for remote deploy-ment and management of operating systems. Includes fl exible alternatives for creating and managing operating system–cloned or scripted install. This can signifi cantly reduce the number of images required across your environment as well as the effort required to manage them.



MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

IBM Midmarket




MIDSIZE BUSINESSES

SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT (continued)

IBM Tivoli Workload Scheduler

Automates, monitors and controls the workfl ow through an enterprise’s IT infrastructure on both local and remote systems. From a single point of control, analyzes the status of the production work and drives workload processing according to installation business policies.

IIBM Tivoli Unified Process Composer

Provides detailed documentation of IT Service Management processes based on industry best practices, enabling users to signifi cantly improve their organization’s effi ciency and ef-fectiveness. Tivoli Unifi ed Process Composer is also bundled with Tivoli Change and Confi guration Management Database.

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for J2EE Operations

When combined with the Netcool® suite or Tivoli Monitors, Tivoli Composite Application Manager for J2EE Operations delivers centralized management of network devices, systems and applications to provide comprehensive, end-to-end management of the customer’s environment.

IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB)

At the core of the IBM Service Management strategy, it provides an enterprise-ready confi guration management database and platform upon which you can standardize and share information that helps you integrate people, processes, information and technology. Helps you automatically discover and federate IT information spread across the enterprise, including details about servers, storage devices, networks, middleware, applications and data.

SOLUTION #48

PAIN: Inaccessible wireless data

If only you had a nickel for every time Someone in Sales complained her e-mail was down, or the server couldn’t be accessed. You’d have a lot of nickels. Everyone needs the same access — at the same time. You need a way to get remote employees just as connected as those in the office. Without building a new infrastructure.

If this is your pain, read about the products in this section.

Wireless – voice — pervasive

IBM DB2 Everyplace EnterpriseEdition 9

The next-generation of mobile data stores, providing a full enterprise synchronization solution to integrate enterprise and mobile information — from any location or source, at any time, right in the palm of your hand.

IBM Lotus Expeditor

Develop and extend WebSphere Portal Express and composite applications to managed clients – online or offl ine.

IBM Lotus Mobile Connect

Provide security-rich mobile access to email, PIM and business applications.

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2007

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03-07

All Rights Reserved

IBM products featured in this software overview guide

are offered under the terms of the IBM Customer

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trademarks of the IBM Corporation in the United

States, other countries or both: AIX, ClearCase,

ClearCase MultiSite, ClearQuest, Datapower, DB2,

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Everyplace, FlashCopy, i5/OS, Informix, Lotus,

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others.

SWW12651-USEN-00

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Collaboration and messaging solutions

To support your business objectives

Jump-start business e-mail and real-time collaboration with

IBM starter packs.

As a small to midsize business owner,

you understand that in order to grow,

you need to be able to communicate

and collaborate with people, quickly

and easily. But you have limited

budgets and IT resources. You want

security-rich solutions that will extend

your assets, improve operating effi-

ciencies and grow as your company

grows. IBM offers you reliable solu-

tions that can help you compete with

your larger counterparts.

Introducing IBM Lotus complete e-mail

and collaboration starter packs

IBM Lotus® complete e-mail and collabo-

ration starter packs1 give you everything

you need to connect to and collaborate

with employees, clients and suppliers—

so you can build relationships, respond

quickly and provide high levels of service

to help differentiate your company from

its competition.

And because the starter packs support

a wide range of platforms and operating

systems, including Apple Macintosh,

Microsoft® Windows® and Linux® tech-

nology, you can use assets you may

already have, avoiding additional costs

and reducing risk.

IBM Lotus Complete Messaging Express Starter Pack offering

This offering is an easy, affordable and complete way to bring advanced messaging

capabilities into your business. Built on proven IBM Lotus Domino® Express and

IBM Lotus Sametime® technology, this 10-user starter pack includes:

E-mail, calendaring and group scheduling. Send and receive mail, arrange

appointments and organize meetings.

Discussion forums, blogs and reference databases. Manage and consolidate

information in a shared team location.

Personal information management features. Keep track of contacts and to-dos.

Business-grade instant messaging. See who’s online and communicate in real

time. Transfer iles, share and launch Web sites, and initiate meetings on the ly.

Web conferencing.2 Share presentations, collaborate in real time or brainstorm

ideas using an online whiteboard.

Integration with supported public instant messaging networks. Communicate

with people outside your organization without compromising data security.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Enable PC-to-PC conversations within your

company and help reduce communications costs.

Support for a wide range of client access types. Leverage simple Internet mail,

Web browser-based messaging, IBM Lotus Notes® integrated collaboration

software and Microsoft Outlook software.

IBM Lotus Complete Collaboration Express Starter Pack offering

This offering is a total messaging and collaboration solution. With 10 user

licenses, this pack provides all of the features and capabilities of the Lotus

Complete Messaging Express Starter Pack offering, plus:

The ability to run thousands of applications that use Lotus Domino software,

such as customer service or supply chain solutions.3

Online teamrooms. Post documents, collaborate and assign tasks with due dates.

Realize the benefits of IBM Lotus Domino Express and IBM Lotus Sametime

software together

Why choose IBM Lotus complete e-mail and collaboration starter packs? It’s simple:

low cost and high value. As stand-alone solutions, IBM Lotus Domino Express and

Lotus Sametime software offer powerful performance and advanced capabilities.

Offered together in the starter packs, they provide:

Considerable cost savings compared to separately investing in the solutions.

A complete messaging and collaboration environment that goes beyond e-mail.

The opportunity to expand and unify your communications systems, combining

voice, data and mobility capabilities into one powerful platform.

For more information

To learn more, please visit:

ibm.com/lotus/getstarted

To view the online IBM Lotus Business Solutions Catalog, please visit:

ibm.com/lotus/solutionscatalog


Lotus Software

IBM Software Group

One Rogers Street

Cambridge, MA 02142

U.S.A.


04-07

All Rights Reserved

IBM, the IBM logo, Domino, Lotus, Lotus Notes,

Notes and Sametime are trademarks of International

Business Machines Corporation in the United States,

other countries or both.

Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft

Corporation in the United States, other countries

or both.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in

the United States, other countries, or both.

The information contained in this publication is pro-

vided for informational purposes only. While efforts

were made to verify the completeness and accuracy

of the information contained in this publication, it is

provided AS IS without warranty of any kind, express

or implied. In addition, this information is based on

IBM’s current product plans and strategy, which are

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publication is intended to, nor shall have the effect

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References in this publication to IBM products or

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available in all countries in which IBM operates.

1 Starter packs are available to companies employing

1,000 people or fewer.

2 Web conferencing is limited to licensed users within

your company. With an optional extranet license

acquired separately, you can extend Web conferenc-

ing capabilities outside your firewall.

3 Applications can be custom-built or acquired from

independent software vendors.

LOF10841-USEN-00

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http://www.ibm.com/lotus/getstarted

http://www.ibm.com/lotus/solutionscatalog

Case Study QuickView

Can IBM software REALLY save a relationship?

This story is one with which almost all married couples can identify. We were

working on our taxes, using tax preparation software. But that is NOT the software

that saved our relationship.

After seven hours of inputting two small businesses and a household of financial

information into the tax preparation software, we were finally happy with our

result. We saved the document (for the 15th time that day!), this time as FINAL,

and stopped to have some supper.

Upon our return, and back at the computer, my beloved spouse opened an

empty tax file. He thought there was something we had forgotten. But then he

reconsidered and promptly saved the empty file on top of our FINAL document.

(Did I mention the seven hours of work?) Even though the software prompted him

with, “ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO SAVE XXX OVER FINAL TAXFILE XXX?”

Yes, the SAVE key was pressed.

A look of panic came over the face of my beloved spouse. Seven hours of re-

search, digging, collecting, inputting, arguing (of course) and finally finishing our

annual reports for “Uncle Sam” on the LAST day before it was due. GONE in an

instant, by the SAVE key and split-second (wrong) decision!

But we recently purchased an inexpensive (under $45) product from IBM, of all

places. It was a data protection product that continuously backs up your favorite

files (music, pictures, e-mail, application files, etc.) and it was running in the

background the whole time. The continuous data protection software kept a copy

of ten SAVES of that tax file in a special folder. The eleveneth save actually saved

the file on top of the first one of the day. (It was configured that way so as to not

fill up our hard drive.) It can also save to a USB port device such as a flash, zip,

finger drive or a server.

So I went in to the folder for that data protection application to look for our final

(perfect) tax file and, sure enough, there were ten files saved at all different

times of the day. The last, DEAD empty file was #10. But #9 was the second last

(perfect) FINAL tax file that was ready to submit electronically!

So, instead of finding me on Americas Most Wanted for “spouse-clubbing,” soon

you can find us using that Internal Revenue Service refund check for a much-

needed 21st wedding anniversary vacation.

AHHH—the joys of software that can make your life (and even your relation-

ships) better. “The relationship saving is a free benefit that IBM doesn’t even

advertise. . .”

The software is IBM Tivoli® Continuous

Data Protection for Files.

A Web search easily finds it or visit

ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/

continuous-data-protection/

“Yes, it’s true! It can be said that IBM software really did save a relationship.

Many people know that being married for 20 years has its share of highs and lows (hopefully, more highs).”

Douglas James Builders, Inc.Medina, Ohio


IBM Corporation

Software Group

Route 100

Somers, NY 10589

U.S.A.


04-07

All Rights Reserved

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, and Tivoli are

trademarks of International Business Machines


or both.

Other company, product or service names may

be trademarks or service marks of others.

This case study is an example of how one

customer uses IBM products. There is no

guarantee of comparable results.

References in this publication to IBM products

or services do not imply that IBM intends to

make them available in all countries in which

IBM operates.

IBM Customer Success Stories

How Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Drives Value for Mid-Market Business

ibm.com/expressadvantage/soa

Introduction

This publication was created for our valued customers, Business

Partners and potential customers. It is a compilation of case studies

that demonstrate how medium sized businesses around the world are

using service oriented architecture (SOA) and IBM solutions to improve

their business processes and enhance their flexibility. The solutions are

designed and priced to fit the needs and budgets of midsized businesses.

The clients showcased here participate in the IBM Client Reference

Program. The program enables IBM to highlight our customers’

achievements, as well as inform you about these successes. If you wish to

participate in the IBM Client Reference Program; please contact your IBM

representative for details. Your consideration of the program is appreciated.

Thank you for your interest in IBM. We hope these case studies will be

helpful. To learn more about the SOA solutions from IBM visit:

ibm.com/expressadvantage/soa

Table of Contents

** This page will let you link to different case studies samples within this PDF. Click on the name of the case study you wish to view to jump to that case study.

SOA: Flexibility for Business

Getting Started on your SOA Journey

Case Studies

• MaddenCo

• CashCall

• AAA Carolinas

• RouteOne

• TransFonD

• Pay by Touch

• Sernam

• businessMart

Getting Started on Your SOA Journey

A way to get started on your “SOA Journey” is with SOA in a project that addresses a specific business pain / problem in your organization. You can pick areas where you need better end-to-end visibility, control, insight and flexibility.

IBM’s SOA Entry Points help you get started by providing a framework for implementation success. By selecting a particular Entry Point — Reuse, Connectivity, People, Process and Information — you can identify candidate SOA projects and build a business case for maximizing business impact. Taking on projects through the Entry Point approach makes them manageable and provides a foundation for a life cycle of continuous improvement in your company.

Cost reduction

Connectivity

Operational efficiency

Reuse

Customer retention

People

Productivity

Process

Access information

Information

SOA Reuse and Connectivity

Through the Reuse and Connectivity Entry Points, companies can lower costs and enhance flexibility by reusing existing applications and data and connecting disparate assets to make them more effective. By reusing existing assets, new functionality can be brought on board faster, and system availability and reliability is improved with already tested services, applications and databases. Improving the connectivity among systems and applications reduces re-keying, eliminates duplicating information and generates more robust data and reporting capabilities.

People, Process, and Information for Business Centric SOA

The Business Centric SOA Entry Points — People, Process and Information — improve business activities by enhancing collaboration, streamlining processes and providing access to complete, consistent and accurate information. Helping employees interact and collaborate more effectively improves productivity. SOA also helps companies automate more processes, increasing the speed of transactions and reducing errors. Sharing and availability of information is also improved … leading to faster data integration and analysis.

Information

People

• Create a portal to provide access to people, processes, or

applications today

• Built-in flexibility for rapid enhancements or application

changes tomorrow

• Automate business processes quickly and easily

• Make changes in the process or applications without a

dramatic rewrite

• Allow information to be shared securely across applications

• Easily add new applications and immediately share

information company-wide

Process

In the diverse case studies that follow, you’ll see how small and medium businesses are getting started on the SOA journey using approaches related to the IBM Entry Points. Each company achieved success and realized benefits by mapping out a successful strategy and building an easy-to-define and easy-to-manage approach to SOA in their organizations. Using SOA as a key enabler in driving more flexible business models, these companies generated enhanced responsiveness and innovation across their organizations.

Overview

The Challenge

To enable integration between an early, “green screen,” text-based application and a Web interface to support business growth

The Solution

IBM DB2® Universal Database® for iSeries™, IBM OS/400®, IBM WebSphere® Application Server for iSeries and GeneXus 9.0

The Benefit

• New business opportunities • Increase in new clients • Higher customer satisfaction • Significant cost-savings

more than 1,400 points of sale across the United States, has a loyal customer base in an industry where text-based applications remain the standard.

So when one of the world’s largest tire manufacturers approached MaddenCo President Greg Madden in 2004 and asked him to enable his application to interface with the manufacturer’s Web site, the request definitely came out of the blue. “We were very happy, successful and comfortable in

“Collaborating with

IBM and utilizing the

technical education

resources provided

by PartnerWorld puts

us at the forefront of

innovation with the

solutions we develop--and

that’s exactly what our

clients expect from us.”

Dane Drotts, president, GeneXus USA

When a top customer asked MaddenCo, Inc., to make its text-based software product compatible with the customer’s Web ordering system, there was never any question about complying. The real issue was: will this really pay off that much, and can it be done affordably. The answer on both counts has been a resounding “yes.”

MaddenCo, a leading provider of software for independent tire dealers headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, has had a thriving business for more than 20 years. It markets and supports its text-based Tire Dealer System, a comprehensive business management tool that handles every aspect of the tire-selling process. The product, which is currently used by 200 tire dealers and wholesalers at

MaddenCo, maker of tire dealer software, opens door to new business by enabling integration with Web sites

Solution from IBM and GeneXus USA allows text-based application to exchange data with graphical Web interface

Industries: Automotive Wholesale

Benefits

• Solution deployed without requiring costly revision of current application

• Opens door to wide range of new business opportunities with customers who want Web interface

• More choices and flexibility yield higher customer satisfaction

• Significant increase in new clients

“WebSphere allowed

us to implement

this solution without

rewriting any

of MaddenCo’s

current application

code whatsoever.”Dane Drotts, president, GeneXus USA

our text-based world,” Madden said. “Then one of our clients asked us to support a graphical interface -- and it’s one of the smartest moves we’ve ever made.”

To get the job done, MaddenCo went to GeneXus USA, an IBM Business Partner, headquartered in Chicago. GeneXus USA markets a powerful multiplatform software design and development tool and provides development services to clients using the tool. Madden already had a long, successful track record using GeneXus to build and maintain his existing text-based system -- and he knew the company could provide him with an innovative solution once again.

Linking two disparate systems

The tire manufacturer wanted to allow each of its authorized dealers to order tires from its Web site, but have its wholesalers--most of whom use MaddenCo’s Tire Dealer System -- process the orders and deliver the tires. For this to happen, the manufacturer’s Web site and MaddenCo’s text-based system would have to seamlessly and transparently exchange data.

The problem was that MaddenCo’s text-based application was incompatible with the tire company’s Web portal and its graphical user interface. The two systems used different software languages, so MaddenCo needed GeneXus to find a solution that bridged the gap and let the disparate platforms communicate with each other.

Web services key to solution

The GeneXus team developed a series of Web services based on the concept of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that link the tire manufacturer and MaddenCo applications, creating a robust inquiry and ordering system.

SOA helps customers increase the flexibility of their business processes, strengthen their underlying IT infrastructure and retain and reuse their existing assets. Service Oriented Architecture from IBM provides a flexible, robust infrastructure to model, assemble, deploy and manage business processes for today’s on demand business environment. It is cost-effective, modular and scalable, allowing end-to-end SOA solutions customized to requirements, timetables and priorities.

The Web services were created with GeneXus 9.0 and use IBM WebSphere Application Server for iSeries, IBM DB2 Universal Database for iSeries and IBM OS/400. The IBM eServer® iSeries has since been renamed the IBM System i5®.

IBM WebSphere Application Server for iSeries is shipped as a licensed program option. It provides support for Java servlets, JavaServer Pages, Java Message Service and Enterprise JavaBean and core Web Services standards like XML, SOAP, WSDL and WSIF for developing dynamic e-business solutions.

IBM PartnerWorld Industry Networks puts GeneXus ‘at the forefront of innovation’

Key Components of the MaddenCo Solution

Software

• IBM DB2 Universal Database for iSeries• IBM WebSphere Application Server for iSeries• IBM OS/400• GeneXus 9.0

Hardware

• IBM System i5

“The IBM and GeneXus

solution has made our

product more innovative,

expanded our market and

made us more competitive.

It will let us grow our

business significantly in

the years to come.”

Greg Madden, president, MaddenCo, Inc.

DB2 Universal Database for iSeries is an advanced, 64-bit relational database management system that leverages the on demand features of IBM eServer iSeries. It supports a broad range of applications and development environments at a lower cost of ownership due to the self-managing autonomic technologies.

GeneXus 9.0 generates code based on user requirements. The code does not require further programming and has automatic maintenance of critical applications. “WebSphere, in conjunction with GeneXus, allowed us to implement this solution without rewriting any of MaddenCo’s current application code whatsoever,” said Dane Drotts, president of GeneXus USA. “If we’d had to change the code in order to connect MaddenCo and the tire manufacturer, the cost in time and money would have been enormous.”

Madden agreed. “I can’t express how important it is that the IBM and GeneXus solution allows the manufacturer’s site to interface directly with our existing text-based programs already running on IBM AS/400®,” he said. “The solution allowed us to preserve our existing technology investments, which is an extraordinary achievement.”

DB2 is also crucial to the GeneXus Web services solution, as it has long been to MaddenCo’s Tire Dealer System. “You have to have a relational database to run our software, and DB2 is probably the most stable, scalable and reliable database out there,” Madden said. “Having it integrated into the operating system makes it all the more valuable.”

More customers, new opportunities

MaddenCo has realized significant benefits from the IBM and GeneXus solution. Because it now supports a Web interface, the company has opened the door to a wide range of new business opportunities.

MaddenCo has already seen a rise in new business in the year since the Web services solution was implemented in early 2005, adding 26 new customers compared to 15 during the prior year. In part, this increase is a result of the tire manufacturer offering significant incentives to its dealers and wholesalers to install the MaddenCo system if they don’t already use it.

The Web services solution gives tire retailers and wholesalers a choice they never had before, which increases customer satisfaction. “If a client loves our system but wants a graphical user interface on the front end, now we can facilitate that,” Madden said.

Several new MaddenCo business partners, including one in Canada and another in Australia, are already successfully marketing their own Web front ends with MaddenCo’s current application underneath (linked via the Web services) to customers who want the most modern tire dealer system available. Furthermore, the Web services allow MaddenCo to support new functionality, such as credit card processing, with its system.

“We were doing great with our text-based system, but now we’re positioned at a completely different level,” Madden said. “The IBM and GeneXus solution has

made our product more innovative, expanded our market and made us more competitive. It will let us grow our business significantly in the years to come.”

The Business Partner advantage

GeneXus participates in IBM PartnerWorld® Industry Networks, which offer a rich set of incremental industry-tailored resources to all PartnerWorld members who want to build their vertical market capabilities and attract potential customers in the markets they serve worldwide. Whether a company focuses on one or more industries--or serves small, medium or large companies--IBM has the technology and resources to help members more effectively meet their clients’ needs.

GeneXus is a member of the automotive, banking and healthcare and life sciences networks and is “optimized” in each of them, which means it has developed further specialization by optimizing its applications with IBM on demand technologies, achieving success with their own on demand solutions and other criteria.

Other networks are education and learning, electronics, energy and utilities, fabrication and assembly, financial markets, government, insurance, media and entertainment, retail, telecommunications and wholesale.

Participation gives GeneXus a huge competitive advantage, Drotts said. “One of the biggest benefits is all the hands-on support IBM gives us to market GeneXus and get it in front of the right developers,” he explained. “IBM has basically become my additional advertising and marketing arm.”

As a member, IBM helped GeneXus create and distribute a small, targeted direct mail campaign as well as conduct hundreds of telemarketing calls to potential clients.

The partnership also allows GeneXus to provide exceptionally innovative solutions to its customers. “Collaborating with IBM and utilizing the technical education resources provided by PartnerWorld puts us at the forefront of innovation with the solutions we develop--and that’s exactly what our clients expect from us,” Drotts said.


Please contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner. Or, you can visit us at: ibm.com/e-business

For more information about ISV resources from IBM PartnerWorld®, visit:ibm.com/partnerworld/industrynetworks

To learn more about GeneXus USA, visit: genexus.com/usa

To learn more about MaddenCo., visit: maddenco.com

Copyright IBM Corporation 2006Route 100Somers, NY 10589U.S.A.

Produced in the

United States of America

03-06

All Rights Reserved

International Business Machines Corporation,

the IBM logo, AS/400, DB2, DB2 Universal

Database, eServer, iSeries, OS/400,

PartnerWorld, System i5 and WebSphere

are trademarks or registered trademarks of

IBM Corporation in the United States, other

countries, or both.

Other company product or service names may


This case study is an example of how one

customer and Business Partner uses IBM

products. There is no guarantee of

comparable results.

References in this publication to IBM products

or services do not imply that IBM intends to

make them available in all countries in which

IBM operates.

Innovation that matters

CashCall breaks new ground with

IBM System p5

CashCall’s Matthew Ghourdjian, CIO, and Joe Mah, Director of Software Development

Overview

■ Key Benefits

— Ability to originate

15,000 loans a month

— Ability to service more than

100,000 loans at any given

time

— Flexibility to adapt to chang-

ing processing requirements

“ We can make a

business logic change

in minutes and not

affect the environment.

It’s astounding to be

that flexible.”

– Matt Ghourdjian, CIO,

CashCall, Inc.

� On Demand Business defined

An enterprise whose business

processes—integrated end-to-end

across the company and with key

partners, suppliers and customers—

can respond with speed to any

customer demand, market

opportunity or external threat.

■ Challenge

To help launch its online lending

business, CashCall needed to

build a flexible and robust IT

platform that would allow them

to aggressively respond to

emerging market dynamics and

position the company for rapid

growth.

■ Why become an On Demand

Business?

By implementing a flexible infra-

structure, CashCall can quickly

adjust its business processes to

meet the needs of an emerging

marketplace.

■ Solution

Built on service oriented archi-

tecture (SOA), a highly flexible

IT platform was implemented

through which CashCall could

launch its business and rapidly

adapt to real-world market

conditions.

On Demand Business Benefits

● Ability to originate 15,000 loans a

month, with infrastructure in place to

handle 30,000 loans

● Ability to service 100,000 loans at

any given time

● Dynamically reallocates processors

and memory as requirements change

● Helps provide a highly flexible IT

platform built on SOA

● Helps enable business process

automation

● Helps support a model-driven

interactive development environment

CashCall, Inc., was launched in 2003 with a very simple mission—to be the first

online lending company that could approve a loan within minutes, day or night, and

deposit the funds directly into the customer’s bank account within hours, including

loan amounts of up to $20,000. But working in an undefined business space

posed unique challenges, in addition to the usual challenges faced by start-up

companies. “It was a green field,” says Matt Ghourdjian, the company’s CIO. “This

type of offering had never been attempted before. So it gave us an opportunity to

build a platform that was completely unique and customized for this business.”

The company’s developers knew that traditional technologies would be too rigid to

support this innovative new business. CashCall engaged IBM and IBM Business

Partner CCS Technology Solutions to implement a foundation of service oriented

architecture (SOA) built on powerful IBM technologies. The result was a flexible and

robust IT platform, enabling CashCall to quickly and easily respond to consumer

demands.

Smart growth

Although the California-based company may have had a simple mission, their

vision for growth was nothing short of ambitious. Led by a visionary CEO and an

experienced technology team, CashCall sowed the seeds of success by building

an infrastructure that would accommodate rapid growth and change. “Our founder

and CEO, Paul Reddam, said he wanted to be able to handle 30,000 new loans a

month. So we had a grand vision from the very beginning. Every decision we’ve

made has been with an eye to that volume.”

The grand vision and long-term planning have paid off. Leveraging SOA and event-

driven architecture (EDA) on IBM hardware and middleware, they’ve grown to a

US$750 million company with 600 employees in just a few short years. Today

CashCall originates 15,000 loans a month and services more than 100,000 loans

at any given time. “It’s hard to believe we’re halfway there,” says Ghourdjian. “And

we already have the infrastructure in place to handle the 30,000 loans that Paul

envisioned.”

The IBM solution

The CashCall infrastructure is built on three IBM System p5™ 570 servers running

IBM WebSphere® Application Server. These servers are connected to three

IBM BladeCenter® H chassis, each containing 14 HS20 blade servers to provide

extra scalability. “We’ve implemented an environment that will allow us to scale to

any size. At this point we can add an additional 570 when we start to run out of

steam. It’s highly scaleable—and it’s fault-tolerant.”

CashCall’s decision to go with the IBM AIX 5L™ V5.3 operating system was a

critical move in the development of the infrastructure. “We selected AIX 5L because

we wanted a stable, well-tested and well-supported 64-bit solution,” explains

Ghourdjian. “We were looking for enterprise quality, and AIX 5L was the only OS in

the 64-bit world that supported every software component we wanted to run. We

also believed that IBM would continue to support WebSphere on AIX 5L at a high

level.”

Having settled on AIX 5L, CashCall then started looking at server options. It didn’t

take long for them to decide on an IBM System p™ server. “We’ve been an

IBM shop from the beginning,” explains Ghourdjian. “We started out on smaller

systems, then began converting to the IBM System p5 servers as loan volume

ramped up.” CashCall chose the p5-570 because of its scalability, fault tolerance,

stability and performance. The team was particularly impressed by the improve-

ment in database performance when they moved onto the System p5 platform,

and how performance remained steady as more users were added.

Ghourdjian says he also appreciates the flexibility that the System p5 technology

provides. “I can carve up the p5-570 into multiple machines if necessary to run

different applications. I can dynamically reallocate processors and memory as

processing requirements change throughout the month.”

Key Components

Software

● IBM WebSphere Application Server

● IBM AIX 5L V5.3

● Cogility Studio V3.1.1

Hardware

● IBM System p5 570 servers

● IBM BladeCenter H chassis

Business Partner

● CCS Technology Solutions

Timeframe

● Development: 4 months

Why it matters

● CashCall wanted to be the first online

lending company that could approve

a loan within minutes and deposit

funds into a customer’s bank

account within hours. Since no one

had ever done this before, CashCall

needed to develop an innovative

approach to building the business,

based on a platform that would

enable them to create change as

they went along and learned more

about their customers’ behavior.

CashCall engaged IBM and

IBM Business Partner CSS

technology to implement a

foundation of service oriented

architecture (SOA) built on powerful

IBM technologies, resulting in a

flexible and robust IT platform,

enabling business process

automation and the ability to quickly

and easily respond to customers.

“ The IBM System p5 is

an enterprise class

server when it comes

to scalability, fault

tolerance, stability and

performance.”

– Matt Ghourdjian, CIO,

CashCall, Inc.

Flexibility from the ground up

What makes the CashCall implementation truly remarkable is the high level of

business flexibility it enables. “Because no one had ever done this before, there

were no requirements for how to build this business. We had to have a platform

that was very malleable so we could change it as we went along. We needed an

environment where we could build things iteratively,” says Ghourdjian. “As we

started to learn customer behavior, and as we started to learn and understand our

own internal processes, we could quickly adjust the platform to meet the needs of

the business.”

CashCall selected IBM WebSphere Application Server as their SOA platform. “It’s

important to have a service oriented architecture. You can’t have a real-time enter-

prise without it,” says Ghourdjian. He and his team leverage a combination of SOA

and EDA to achieve what he calls “the big bang.” This marriage of technologies

helps ensure that CashCall maintains a flexible layer of business logic. They use

Cogility Studio, a model-driven design tool that runs on top of WebSphere, to help

build the platform dynamically. Then they use WebSphere to create Web Services

that help to seamlessly roll out the changes across the entire company. CashCall

has over 400 Web Services deployed and running, including automated banking

and receiving credit reports from Experian.

This unique environment helps give CashCall the agility they need to keep a

competitive edge in the lending market. “In a 24x7 environment, downtime for

scheduled maintenance is not an option. We have a major release every two

weeks, with minor releases on the off weeks. And we push these updates live, so

there’s no downtime. We can make a business logic change in minutes and not

affect the environment. It’s astounding to be that flexible.”

“Highest possible automation”

Ghourdjian says his goal has been the same from the onset: “Highest possible

automation at the lowest possible cost.” One example of the company’s ability to

evolve rapidly is the way they automated the underwriting process. When CashCall

first launched its business, they relied on a manual underwriting process—one that

required underwriters to review paper documents by hand to make loan approval

decisions. This process was ripe for human error and fraud. It was also time

intensive.

By leveraging the flexibility of the architecture, CashCall was able to streamline and

automate this process. Now the underwriters receive a complete application in a

frozen electronic format. They review the information on the screen, then select one

of three options with the click of a button: approve the loan, deny the loan, or send

it back for more information. The automated process has helped CashCall achieve

the company’s benchmark level of service—loan approvals within 15 minutes.

Automating processes like these helps CashCall deliver high levels of service,

drawing in new customers and building customer loyalty.

Prepared for what lies ahead

With a successful architecture in place, CashCall continues to expand at a rapid

pace and now operates in more than a dozen states. The company works hard to

maintain market dominance by continually rolling out improvements and reacting

quickly to market changes and business needs. From complicated modifications

like automating the underwriting process to minor changes to business rules,

CashCall has the flexibility to respond. “Business changes at the speed of light,”

says Ghourdjian. “We’re ready.”


Please contact your IBM sales

representative, IBM Business Partner or

IBM Direct at 1 800 IBM-CALL.

Visit our Web site at:

ibm.com/systems/p

For more information on

IBM Infrastructure Solutions for greater

Business Flexibility, visit our Web site at:

ibm.com/expressadvantage/

businessflexibility


IBM Systems Group

Route 100

Somers, New York 10589

U.S.A.


September 2006

All Rights Reserved

IBM, the IBM logo, the ON (button device), the

On Demand Business logo, AIX 5L,

BladeCenter, System p, System p5 and

WebSphere are trademarks of International

Business Machines Corporation in the United

States, other countries or both. For a complete

list of IBM trademarks, see

ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml

Other company, product and service names

may be trademarks or service marks of others.

References in this publication to IBM products,

programs or services do not imply that

IBM intends to make these available in all

countries in which IBM operates. Any reference

to an IBM product, program or service is not

intended to imply that only IBM’s product,

program or service may be used. Any

functionally equivalent product, program or

service may be used instead. Offerings are

subject to change, extension or withdrawal

without notice.

All client examples cited represent how some

clients have used IBM products and the results

they may have achieved. Performance data for

IBM and non-IBM products and services

contained in this document was derived under

specific operating and environmental conditions.

The actual results obtained by any party

implementing such products or services will

depend on a large number of factors specific to

such party’s operating environment and may

vary significantly. IBM makes no representation

that these results can be expected or obtained

in any implementation of any such products or

services.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS

PROVIDED “AS-IS” WITHOUT ANY

WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESSED OR

IMPLIED.

PSC03002-USEN-01

Case Study QuickView

RouteOne offers a revolutionary real-time, Web-based system that

enables automobile dealers to manage the credit application process

from multiple financial sources. The RouteOne system integrates with

numerous participating financing companies, and it aggregates all

financing sources into a single point for auto dealers.

Challenge

With the vision of becoming the credit application management system of choice

for auto dealers, RouteOne was looking to upgrade its application platform to an

open-standards based architecture so that it could support more users and

integrate with diverse partners. In addition, the company wanted to differentiate

its system within the automotive marketplace by implementing a service-oriented

architecture (SOA) and leveraging Web services to build a more flexible system

that could respond quickly to users’ changing needs.

Solution

RouteOne built a robust SOA for its credit application management system using

IBM WebSphere® and IBM DataPower® software. The company deployed IBM

WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, Version 5.1 software as the

primary application platform for the environment. The WebSphere Application

Server software offers Web application services, performs capacity management

and supports server clustering. IBM WebSphere MQ, Version 5.3 software

supports all data transfer and guarantees receipt of business partner transac-

tions, mostly between the dealers and financing companies. The IBM DataPower

software acts as the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and provides the ESB function-

alities of transformation, routing and security.

Benefits

• Provides a robust SOA infrastructure to deliver an open, integrated, Web-acces-

sible solution for customers

• Enables RouteOne to reuse services, build business rules and adopt best prac-

tices to bring services to market more quickly than the competition

• Offers flexibility to meet evolving customer requirements and support more users

• Able to scale to a very large number of concurrent users

To stay ahead of the competition, RouteOne develops a strong

service-oriented architecture using IBM WebSphere software.

Overview

RouteOneFarmington Hills, Michigan, USA

www.routeone.com

Industries

• Automotive

• Banking

Products

• IBM WebSphere Application

Server Network Deployment,

Version 5.1

• IBM WebSphere MQ, Version 5.3

“Using the WebSphere

solution, we are able to

respond quickly to meet

evolving customer require-

ments, putting us a step

ahead of the competition.”

—T.N. Subramaniam, Chief Architect &

Director of Technology, RouteOne


IBM Corporation

Software Group

Route 100

Somers, NY 10589

U.S.A.


10-06

All Rights Reserved

DataPower, IBM, the IBM logo and WebSphere are



or both.

Other company, product and service names may


The information contained in this documentation

is provided for informational purposes only. While

efforts were made to verify the completeness

and accuracy of the information contained in this

documentation, it is provided “as is” without war-

ranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition,

this information is based on IBM’s current product

plans and strategy, which are subject to change

by IBM without notice. IBM shall not be respon-

sible for any damages arising out of the use of, or

otherwise related to, this documentation or any

other documentation. Nothing contained in this

documentation is intended to, nor shall have the

effect of, creating any warranties or representations

from IBM (or its suppliers or licensors), or altering

the terms and conditions of the applicable license

agreement governing the use of IBM software.

G507-1762-00

Overview

Sernam (www.sernam.fr), a European

shipping company that transports 14

million parcels a year, operates in a

highly competitive marketplace where

customer demand for on-time delivery

of parcels is high and tolerance for error

is low. A former subsidiary of the SNCF

French national railway, Sernam saw

the opportunity to build on its market

position by improving its tracking and

customer notification systems.

In particular, Sernam identified chal-

lenges in its night delivery service—the

company’s existing barcode scanning

system could not always effectively

handle periodic, yet unpredictable,

spikes in package volume. Sernam

Sernam increases employee productivity

and improves customer satisfaction with

an RFID parcel tracking system.

—Vincent Banchet, CIO, Sernam

p Challenge

Sernam needed to be able to

handle unpredictable spikes in

package volume, reduce tracking

errors and meet delivery deadlines.

p Why Become an On Demand

Business?

Sernam sought to improve its

market position by transforming

itself into an innovative, service-

oriented organization.

p Solution

Sernam teamed with IBM to deploy

an innovative radio frequency

identification (RFID) system that

reliably tracks shipments and

automatically notifies customers

of their package status.

p Key Benefits

– Reduced customer claims costs

by 20 percent

– Decreased misdirected parcel

costs by 30 percent

– Eliminated approximately 1,000

daily customer inquiry calls

On Demand Business defined

An enterprise whose business

processes—integrated end-to-end

across the company and with key

partners, suppliers and customers—

can respond with speed to any cus-

tomer demand, market opportunity

or external threat.

»

realized that if it did not improve its

processes, it could face consequences

including customer dissatisfaction.

Sernam needed a more streamlined

and reliable method by which to track

parcels—from pickup to delivery—as

well as an efficient way to inform cus-

tomers where their packages were in

the shipping process.

Innovation that matters

2

Leapfrogging the competition with a cutting-edge solution

Improving delivery rates, customer satisfaction and market share

Sernam’s ultimate goal was to become the company of choice for reliable

and flexible parcel delivery services. Transforming into an innovative, service-

oriented company was essential to improving Sernam’s market position. To do

this, Sernam needed an efficient, accurate way to track packages, and a way

to provide customers with quick access to up-to-date information about the

status of their parcels.

Moving to market leadership

IBM worked closely with Sernam to design and implement a wireless RFID

system to track packages on the night delivery service. Launched in April 2005,

the system was deployed in just three months, and now automatically handles one-

third of the more than 60,000 parcels a month that move through the company’s

Porte de La Chapelle depot in Paris. The RFID system, one of the first of its type

in the transportation industry, automates parcel check-in and enables electronic

tracking of all packages. RFID readers in Sernam’s warehouse track each parcel

as it is loaded onto and unloaded from a truck or train during the transportation

and delivery process. The system automatically notifies a customer of package

status and delivery via the channel of that customer’s choice (e.g., e-mail, fax or

mobile device). “We implemented RFID to provide our customers with the most

reliable delivery, and the widest range of package tracking options,” says Vincent

Banchet, CIO, Sernam.

This cutting-edge system allows each of Sernam’s customers to select which

tracking and notification method works best—a distinct advantage for custom-

ers and a competitive advantage for Sernam. The company’s new service can

quickly notify the sender about a problem with incomplete delivery due to an

incorrect address, an absent addressee or a routing error. “With RFID we are

immediately aware of any concerns,” adds Banchet. “As a result, we can resolve

them and, if necessary, let the customer know.”

The specialized skills of IBM professionals

Specializing in RFID technologies and integration, professionals from IBM

Integrated Technology Services and IBM Business Consulting Services collabo-

rated with Sernam to design and deploy the system. IBM began the project with

a strong understanding of Sernam’s IT architecture and its business processes.

The team evaluated third-party mobile messaging and Web interface providers,

and worked closely with the other companies that developed Sernam’s tracking

application and supplied RFID printers.

—Vincent Banchet

On Demand Business Benefits

• Reduced costs from customer claims

for undelivered packages by 20 percent

• Decreased handling costs related to

misdirected parcels by 30 percent

• Elimination of approximately 1,000

daily customer inquiry calls

• Improved customer satisfaction and

resulting market share

• Improved responsiveness to customer

inquiries

• Flexible processing that adapts to

package flow

• A scalable solution to meet increased

demands

3

The IBM-implemented solution integrates seamlessly with Sernam’s existing

architecture. The solution supports multiple terminals and communications

channels, initially handles an estimated daily volume of 12,000 total e-mails,

faxes and mobile messages, and can scale easily to accommodate increasing

demand. The system’s RFID readers automatically send the status of the pack-

ages to Sernam’s information system where the wireless application then sends

an alert to each customer’s preferred communications channel. If a message

fails to reach the intended customer, the originating Sernam branch office is noti-

fied. Banchet explains, “It was critical to integrate the RFID system with our other

applications. The information transmitted by the RFID tags must be pertinent and

available immediately.”

To provide end-to-end integration and connect real-time information across

Sernam’s business, the wireless solution includes IBM WebSphere Application

Server for z/OS technology, offering a Java™ technology-based application

server optimized for delivering applications running on an IBM zSeries

mainframe in an IBM z/OS environment. IBM DB2 Universal Database software

provides dependable, long-term event storage. For development, the IBM team

used Java technology-based IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere

Software. IBM WebSphere RFID Device Infrastructure integrates data from a

variety of readers and filters, aggregates RFID data and delivers RFID events to

the IBM WebSphere RFID Premises Server. A robust and scalable middleware

platform, IBM WebSphere RFID Premises Server helps Sernam transform its

business by connecting the edge of its environment with enterprise operations.

IBM WebSphere MQ provides reliable messaging and delivery of the right infor-

mation in the right format at the right time.

Very convincing results

Sernam’s RFID parcel tracking produced convincing results at a reasonable cost.

“It has increased the confidence our customers have in what we do for them,”

concludes Banchet. “In financial terms, making the overall chain more reliable

has cut our dispute resolution costs by 20 percent and misrouted parcels by 30

percent.” Sernam can now handle spikes in shipping volume in its critical night

delivery service because packages are automatically handled and routed. Fewer

manual tasks enables Sernam to increase productivity and save staff valuable

time in tracking packages and attending to customer inquiries. Because custom-

ers can track their packages via the methods each prefers, Sernam reports 1,000

fewer phone calls per day from customers inquiring about the status of a specific

shipment, helping to reduce costs. In the future, Sernam hopes to gain further

business and technology benefits by installing RFID reading systems in its deliv-

ery trucks, and at locations where its customers print RFID tags themselves.

—Vincent Banchet

Key Components

Software

• IBM WebSphere® Application Server

for z/OS®

• IBM WebSphere RFID Device

Infrastructure

• IBM WebSphere RFID Premises

Server

• IBM WebSphere MQ

• IBM DB2® Universal Database™

• IBM Rational® Application Developer

for WebSphere Software

Servers

• IBM ® zSeries® in an IBM

z/OS environment

• IBM xSeries®

Services

• IBM Business Consulting Services

• IBM Integrated Technology Services

• IBM Global Financing


Please contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner.

Visit us at:

ibm.com/ondemand© Copyright IBM Corporation 2006

IBM Corporation

Corporate Marketing

New Orchard Road

Armonk, NY 10504

U.S.A.


06-06

All Rights Reserved

DB2, DB2 Universal Database, , IBM,

the IBM logo, the On Demand Business logo,

Rational, WebSphere, xSeries, z/OS and zSeries

are trademarks of International Business

Machines Corporation in the United States,

other countries or both.

Java and all Java-based trademarks are trade-

marks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United

States, other countries or both.



References in this publication to IBM products or

services do not imply that IBM intends to make them

available in all countries in which IBM operates.

This document is based on information provided

by Sernam and illustrates how one organization

uses IBM products. Many factors have contributed

to the results and benefits described; IBM does

not guarantee comparable results elsewhere.

This publication contains non-IBM Internet

addresses. IBM is not responsible for information

found on these Web sites.

ODB-0140-02

Security management solutions for midsize businesses

Buyer’s guide: purchasing criteria

November 2006

Select the right solution to manage user identities

while speeding time to value.

http://www.ibm.com

http://www.ibm.com/tivoli

2

2

Somewhere along the way, your handful of employees turned

into a handful of departments. Your suppliers and customers

multiplied as you extended your reach to new markets. With

each new stage of growth, the number of users who needed

access to relevant information and applications increased.

The problem you face now is how to give these users the

access they require without compromising data integrity or

complicating your ability to meet regulations.

The solution lies in managing identities and controlling access

to resources. The right identity management solution can help

you securely manage the growing number of users who come

in contact with your IT systems while providing the flexibility

to respond in an on demand manner to changes in your

business environment.

Ultimately, the identity management solution you choose

should have these characteristics:

Rapid time to value. A truly cost-effective identity manage-

ment solution lets you get up and running quickly — ideally,

installing in less than two hours. Predefined templates and

out-of-the-box connectors can give you a starting point so

that you don’t have to spend time or money for resources that

you don’t have. And once you’ve configured and installed

the solution, you should be able to maintain it easily through

easy-to-use administration features — like wizards to add new

users and request new accounts.

A simplified user experience. The identity management solu-

tion you choose should reduce complexity, not add to it. You

want to provide users with self-service capabilities so that

they can take ownership of their account information and

passwords — and free IT staff from time-consuming, manual

tasks like password resets. A full-service identity management

solution enables administrators to tailor the interface to the

needs of each user type. Preconfigured views make it easy

for participants to accomplish what they need to — without

getting bogged down by an abundance of functions that are

not relevant to their roles.

A central point of management. Protecting the identities of

your customers, employees and suppliers starts with the right

environment. By establishing a central point to manage user

identities across and beyond your organization, you can help

ensure that administrators stay on top of who has access

to what. And by matching user accounts with known identi-

ties, you can help eliminate invalid accounts that can lead to

noncompliance and failed audits.

3

Support for compliance efforts. A critical element of an iden-

tity management solution is the ability to reduce the burden

of compliance by centrally tracking user access rights. Make

sure the solution you choose has robust reporting capabili-

ties to offer a consolidated view of access rights, provisioning

activities and validation processes — across all managed

people and systems. Such a solution can minimize the time

and costs associated with preparing for audits.

Tailored to your unique needs. The best way to ensure a

successful identity management implementation is to

choose a vendor that not only understands your unique

size, pricing and usability requirements, but also designs

products based on those needs. Products that build in

simplicity and economy — making it easier and more cost-

effective than ever to compete at levels traditionally reserved

for the largest enterprises. The vendor you choose should

offer technical leadership, a commitment to best practices

and open source technology, and an extensive partner

community of complementary solutions and services. That

way, the vendor can provide full support for your current

initiatives and a clear migration path to solutions that can

accommodate growing demands.

“ IBM Tivoli is providing a quick-to-deploy and easy-to-use user provisioning solution and delivering it to the SMB market. Until now, organizations in this market have not had this level of access to the market-leading enterprise-class tools for identity management and user lifecycle management.”

– Scott Crawford, Enterprise Management Associates

4

4

The identity management solution you choose should enable you to:

IBMOther

vendor

Speed time to value:

• Enable rapid installation and configuration on a

single server, so that you can see initial results

in as fast as two hours.

5

• Use configuration wizards and workflows to

simplify installation.

5

• Leverage an all-in-one installation launch pad

to accelerate deployment.

5

• Ease integration by using out-of-the-box,

agentless adapters that connect to multiple

applications and systems.

5

• Deploy preconfigured best practices based on

common user roles and functionality, while still

enabling customization.

5

Empower users:

• Provide self-service Web interfaces for pass-

word resets and password synchronization.

"

5

• Enable users to update their personal account

information.

5

• Offer an intuitive user interface tailored to the

needs of each user type.

5

• Leverage an embedded workflow engine to

automate the submission and approval of

user requests.

5

• Establish predefined settings that eliminate

time-consuming manual administrative tasks.

5

Help protect user identities:

• Provide a single point of management to

centrally coordinate the creation of user

accounts.

5

• Control which users get access to sensitive

systems and what data they can access.

5

• Group users according to business needs and

administrative privileges.

5

• Automate the removal of user accounts

when former employees should no longer

have access.

5

The identity management solution you choose should enable you to:

IBMOther

vendor

Ease the burden of efforts to comply with

regulations:

• Generate centralized reports on the

effectiveness of IT security controls to help

demonstrate compliance.

"

"

5

• Provide an audit trail of who has access

to what.

5

• Utilize a standard recertification process to

confirm all accounts are active and valid.

5

• Help improve the effectiveness of internal

controls for user credentials and access

privileges.

5

Meet your unique requirements:

• Leverage an identity management solution

designed and built to meet the unique needs

of midsize businesses.

5

• Obtain pricing, usability and functionality

tailored to midsize businesses.

5

• Take advantage of a migration path when your

business grows to accommodate increasing

demands while protecting existing investments.

5

• Rely on an extensive partner community that

offers complementary solutions and services.

5

• Utilize solutions based on an IT Service

Management paradigm and executed through

the help of IBM Tivoli Unified Process (ITUP) —

the first “how-to” navigational tool that helps

you customize and implement best practices

for mapping, modifying and improving IT

processes.

5

5

Streamline and automate identity management

Establishing a single point to manage user identities is the

first step to bringing structure to rapidly increasing user

populations. The identity management solution you choose

should enable you to centralize the management of identi-

ties and provide workflows to automate the submission and

approval of user requests for services. If a new employee

needs access to product development plans that are stored

in a database, you should be able to automatically route that

request to the appropriate development administrator for

review and approval — and then escalate the request if that

person doesn’t respond within a certain timeframe. And when

users no longer require access to resources, your identity

management solution should allow you to suspend or delete

that account in an on demand manner to ensure that sensitive

data remains confidential.

Help drive employee productivity

As user accounts change throughout a company — due

to turnover, changing job responsibilities and so on —

employees and administrators alike are burdened by multiple

passwords and time-consuming account maintenance. The

ability to provide an intuitive self-service Web interface can

minimize help-desk calls by allowing users to update personal

information, synchronize their passwords or reset forgotten

passwords through challenge-and-response questions.

By putting ownership back in the hands of users, you can

drive employee efficiency and help minimize the frustration

of system lockouts. At the same time, IT and help-desk staff

can focus on high-priority activities that generate substantial

business value.

Look for a solution that enables you to group users according

to business needs and delegate functionality, such as who

can add, delete, modify and view users — plus who can reset

user passwords. Grouping makes it easy for administrators

to modify the tasks each user type is allowed to perform by

simply selecting or deselecting a checkbox.

User-specific functionality should be reflected in an easy-to-

use interface customized to each user. The solution should

allow users fast access to the information they need without

the distractions of unnecessary functionality.

6

6

Help facilitate compliance efforts through simplified

validation processes

Many organizations are under rigorous scrutiny to improve

their accountability and transparency under regulations such

as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), the Health Insurance Portability

and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Basel II and many others

designed to maximize corporate transparency, protect privacy

and minimize identity theft and fraud. Companies can fail audits

if they cannot demonstrate that they effectively apply their

processes and procedures for granting access rights to users.

The identity management solution you choose should enable

you to centrally grant and enforce the correct access levels

using a standard recertification process that confirms all

accounts are active and valid. By validating and enforcing

user access rights, you can help reduce the time and

cost associated with preparing for audits and revalidating

user accounts.

Leverage rapid installation and configuration

The ideal identity management solution integrates with your

existing infrastructure and tools. You shouldn’t have to spend

time and money to customize the solution or to purchase

additional resources to make your solution work within your

environment. Rather than spend months designing secu-

rity policy and configuring a solution for your business, you

should be able to take advantage of included features like

wizards, preconfigured templates, an all-in-one launch pad

and bundled adapters to integrate the solution with your

environment quickly.

7

The right choice

When you evaluate solutions to meet your goals, you’ll find

that IBM Tivoli® Identity Manager Express offers a best-of-

breed identity management solution with superior password

management, user provisioning and access-right auditing

capabilities. Tivoli Identity Manager Express — part of the

IBM Service Management portfolio — enables you to auto-

mate and integrate both within and across your IT processes

to meet ever-shifting identity management requirements.

Take the Express route

Tivoli Identity Manager Express is part of the IBM Express

Portfolio™ of products. Developed with input from IBM’s

midsize clients and IBM Business Partners, the products

and services that comprise the IBM Express Portfolio are

designed to meet stringent usability, scalability, size and price

requirements. As a result, the offerings are equipped with

features that help promote higher levels of economy, open-

ness and simplicity. Backed by world-class IBM services,

support and an extensive partner ecosystem, IBM Express

Portfolio solutions can readily scale to accommodate evolving

business demands while protecting your existing investments.

• Pricedwithamidsizebudgetinmind,withlow-ratefinance

optionsavailablefromIBMGlobalFinancing

• Easytoownanduse,withoutaddingadministrativeburdens

orlengthylearningcurves

• Builttorunonkeymidsizeplatforms,likeMicrosoft®

Windows®andLinux,®runningonIntel®processors.


To learn more about Tivoli Identity Manager Express or to

find out how IBM can help you develop an identity manage-

ment strategy to meet your business requirements, contact

your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit

ibm.com/tivoli/solutions

About Tivoli software from IBM

Tivoli software provides a comprehensive set of offerings and

capabilities in support of IBM Service Management, a scal-

able, modular approach used to deliver more efficient and

effective services to your business. Meeting the needs of any

size business, Tivoli software enables you to deliver service

excellence in support of your business objectives through

integration and automation of processes, workflows and

tasks. The security-rich, open standards–based Tivoli service

management platform is complemented by proactive opera-

tional management solutions that provide end-to-end visibility

and control. It is also backed by world-class IBM Services,

IBM Support and an active ecosystem of IBM Business

Partners. Tivoli customers and partners can also leverage

each other’s best practices by participating in independently

run IBM Tivoli User Groups around the world — visit

www.tivoli-ug.org

http://www.ibm.com/tivoli/solutions

http://www.tivoli-ug.org/


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or its subsidiaries in the United States, other

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Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the

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Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft


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TIO10282-USEN-00

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Integrating and automating development and deployment processes

White paper

May 2007

Improve operational efficiencies and

speed applications into production.



Page 2

Introduction

Challenges of software delivery today

Contents

2 Introduction

2 Challenges of software

delivery today

3 Bridging the gap between

development and operations

4 A best-in-class solution

7 Reaping the rewards

7 Conclusion



Page 3

Bridging the gap between development and operations

Development Operations

Build

Implement

Deploy

Test

Figure 1: The software delivery lifecycle



Page 4

A best-in-class solution



Page 5



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Development Deployment

IBM Tivoli

Provisioning Manager

IBM Rational

ClearCase

IBM Rational

ClearQuest

IBM Rational

Build Forge

In production

In production

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Page 7

Reaping the rewards

Conclusion


ibm.com/software/rational/offerings/scm.html

ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/prov-mgr


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be trademarks or registered trademarks or service

marks of others.

The information contained in this documentation

is provided for informational purposes only. While

efforts were made to verify the completeness

and accuracy of the information contained in this

documentation, it is provided “as is” without war-

ranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition,

this information is based on IBM’s current product

plans and strategy, which are subject to change by

IBM without notice. IBM shall not be responsible

for any damages arising out of the use of, or oth-

erwise related to, this documentation or any other

documentation. Nothing contained in this docu-

mentation is intended to, nor shall have the effect

of, creating any warranties or representations from

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RAW10999-USEN-00

Magic Quadrant for Integrated DocumentArchive and Retrieval Systems, 2006Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00140780, Kenneth Chin, Toby Bell, 27 June 2006, R1997 06262007

process. For companies that want to outsource their

IDARS applications, vendors such as Anacomp and

Archive Systems provide hosted IDARS solutions for

imaging and presentment. Integrated content archiving

products are emerging, and IDARS vendors will be key

players as different archiving platforms converge.

The IDARS market has changed, and the evaluation

criteria continue to evolve. Vendors that did not invest in

new product functionality and marketing will naturally

move to the left in the Magic Quadrant on vision. This

does not imply that the products evaluated last year are

now deficient. It just means that new requirements have

added new challenges to the market that have yet to be

met. The proliferation and influence of self-service

Enterprises are continuing to consolidate their

IDARS platforms as a cost-cutting measure that

will limit market growth. IDARS vendors with only

report management capabilities will struggle and

must develop strategies and products to expand into

adjacent archiving and content management markets.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The integrated document archiving and retrieval system

(IDARS) Magic Quadrant is focused on providers that

offer solutions related to storage, access, management,

distribution and viewing of fixed content, which includes

print-stream reports and images. Vendors are bringing

their archiving products together, including IDARS, e-

mail archiving, imaging and SAP

archiving to leverage their repository

capabilities. Today, more than one-

third of the key vendors in the

IDARS market are enterprise content

management (ECM) suite vendors,

so they have a significant influence

on market direction.

Consolidation has slowed in the

IDARS market; however, expect

emerging competition from

distributed output management

(DOM) and document composition

vendors that are providing archiving

capabilities for the print streams that

they process. DOM vendors, such

as Levi, Ray and Shoup, are adding

archiving capabilities as a natural

extension to their processing of the

print stream. IDARS vendors are

also enhancing their DOM

capabilities, such as ASG, Macro 4

and RSD. Although report

management will continue to be the

key requirement for most IDARS

selections, including support for

high-volume transaction applications

and scalable archives, organizations

need to take a strategic view of

archiving in the vendor selection

challengers leaders

niche players visionariescompleteness of vision

ability

to ex

ecute

As of June 2006

IBMMobius Management Systems

SystemwareRSD

Open TextEMC

BMC SoftwareHyland Software

CAASG

VignetteFileNet

CaptarisDatawatch

StellentRedwood Software

Macro 4AXS-One

Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Integrated Document Archive and

Retrieval Systems, 2006

Source: Gartner (June 2006)

2

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted June 2006 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical rep-resentation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure againstcriteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the MagicQuadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrantis intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express orimplied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

© 2006 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this publication in any form withoutprior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable.Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Although Gartner’s research maydiscuss legal issues related to the information technology business, Gartner does not provide legal advice or services and itsresearch should not be construed or used as such. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the informa-tion contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

applications with large populations of casual archive

users mean that vendor contracts and archives have to

scale almost infinitely. In an increasingly competitive

market, financial terms and software license metering

are becoming important issues.

The vendors in the 2006 IDARS Magic Quadrant include:

• Best-of-breed IDARS vendors that focus on

archiving and the delivery of print-stream-based

reports and images. These vendors provide print-

stream ingestion, scalable repositories, multichannel

output delivery and print management with support

for a broad range of platforms.

• ECM vendors that include IDARS as a component of

their product suites. These vendors will offer a broad

range of content management technologies, but

IDARS is typically an add-on component. Some

vendors will use a separate repository, while others

will integrate with their imaging or content

repositories.

• System management vendors that offer IDARS as

an extension of their infrastructure and application

management solutions. These vendors may also

offer output management functions as part of their

IDARS solution.

STRATEGIC PLANNING ASSUMPTION(S)

By 2007, the IDARS market will cease to be a stand-

alone market and will become an integral component of

an ECM suite (0.8 probability).

By 2010, enterprises will be complementing their ECM

platforms with integrated content archiving solutions to

more effectively manage fixed content (0.7 probability).

MAGIC QUADRANT

Market Overview

There are fewer pure-play IDARS vendors than in the

past. Vendors such as Systemware and RSD are

broadening their functionality by adding document

management, e-mail archiving, workflow and records

management to compete in the ECM and compliance

markets. Gartner expects further market consolidation,

and leadership will remain with vendors having

established customer bases and expanded product

functionality. Since Gartner’s 2005 IDARS Magic

Quadrant, the following changes have occurred:

• ASG acquired Cypress in March 2005.

• EMC acquired Acartus in October 2005.

• Datawatch acquired Radiant from ClearStory

Systems in May 2006.

In 2005, we forecast that the IDARS market would cease

to be a stand-alone market and would be an integral

component of an ECM suite, using the underlying

content repository by 2007. Many ECM vendors have

now included an IDARS in their suites, such as EMC,

FileNet, Hyland Software, Mobius Management Systems,

Open Text, Stellent and Vignette, while other IDARS

vendors are moving to add content management

functionality to complement their archiving solutions. We

continue to be on track with our forecast.

Gartner expects that by 2010, organizations will be

adding integrated content archiving solutions to support

the management of a broader range of fixed content,

and IDARS will be a key component of that solution.

This presents an opportunity for IDARS vendors that

may not be able to compete in the ECM space to focus

on the emerging integrated content archiving market.

Organizations will need to consider which vendors can

support a unified content architecture in planning for the

acquisition or consolidation of archiving platforms and

technologies.

Market Definition/Description

Gartner defines an IDARS as a consolidated system for

storing, accessing, managing, distributing and viewing

fixed content, which includes print-stream-originated

reports, images and other fixed content. Leading

IDARS applications include mission-critical customer

support, e-bill/statement presentment, management

and distribution of report data, such as mainframe

3

output, transaction logs, financial reports and long-term

archiving of historical data.

IDARS platforms are extending beyond traditional

report management. Vendors are increasingly

leveraging the repository architecture to support

broader archiving applications ranging from SAP

archiving to e-mail archiving. Expect content services,

such as records management and discovery, to be

integrated or added functionalities.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

The vendor must have at least $10 million in IDARS

and other archiving software product, maintenance and

related service revenue.

The vendor’s IDARS software must be commercially

available, and the vendor must have references that

have the product in production.

The vendor must have an IDARS product that includes

the following capabilities:

• A scalable native archive repository

• Print-stream ingestion and transformation

capabilities

• Report distribution and multichannel output

capabilities

• A viewer to provide retrieval and query capabilities

Added

• ASG has been added because of its acquisition of

Cypress.

Dropped

• Acartus, ClearStory and Cypress have been

dropped because they or their products have been

acquired by another vendor.

• Beta Systems, Feith Systems, FormScape, Global

360, John Henry Associates, and Levi, Ray and

Shoup have been dropped because they have not

met the inclusion criteria or are no longer focusing

on the IDARS market.

Evaluation Criteria

Ability to Execute

Gartner evaluates providers based on their ability to

convincingly articulate logical statements about current

and future market direction, innovation, customer

needs, and competitive forces and how well they map

to the Gartner position. Providers are rated based on

their understanding of how market forces can be

exploited to create opportunities for the provider.

Completeness of Vision

Gartner evaluates providers based on the quality and

efficacy of their processes, systems, methods or

procedures that enable IT provider performance to be

competitive, efficient and effective, and to positively

affect revenue, retention and reputation. Providers are

judged based on their ability and success in capitalizing

on their vision.

Leaders

Leaders achieve the highest combined measures of

ability to execute and completeness of vision. They have

the most-comprehensive and most-scalable products.

They have a proven track record of financial

performance and established market presence. In terms

of vision, they are perceived as thought leaders, with

well-articulated plans for product development,

marketing and channel support. They have established

a strong IDARS market presence with their installed

base, and they demonstrate continued customer and

revenue growth.

Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Product/Service high

Overall Viability (Business Unit, standardFinancial, Strategy, Organization)

Sales Execution/Pricing high

Market Responsiveness and standardTrack Record

Marketing Execution standard

Customer Experience standard

Operations low

Table 1. Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria

Source: Gartner

Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Market Understanding high

Marketing Strategy standard

Sales Strategy standard

Offering (Product) Strategy high

Business Model standard

Vertical/Industry Strategy standard

Innovation low

Geographic Strategy standard

Table 2. Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria

Source: Gartner

4

Leaders must not only deliver to current market

requirements, which continue to change, but they need

to anticipate and deliver on future requirements. A

cornerstone for leaders is the ability to articulate how

these requirements will be addressed as part of their

vision for expanded content archiving. These strategic

vendors will continue to drive the IDARS market by

broadening their product functionality and integration.

As a group, leaders can be expected to be considered

as part of most new purchase considerations and have

high success rates in winning new business.

Challengers

Challengers can execute today but have a limited or

evolving vision and focus in the IDARS market. They

have the financial and market resources and

capabilities to become leaders, but the important

question is whether they have the understanding of

market trends and market requirements needed to

succeed tomorrow. Also, they may not devote sufficient

development resources to deliver a product with broad

market appeal and leadership features. Challengers

have capable products and can perform well for many

enterprises. Their products may have limitations in

several areas – for example, native ingestion

capabilities for advanced-function presentation and

Metacode print streams, proven scalability and print-

stream ingestion rates.

Visionaries

Visionaries are forward-thinking, but their execution has

not propelled them into a leadership position. These

vendors are differentiated by product innovation, but

they have not achieved completeness of solution or the

sales and marketing success required to give them the

high visibility of leaders.

Niche Players

Niche players lack a substantial presence in the IDARS

market. The IDARS market is not a significant business

focus for these vendors as a group. Some of the

products in this group are traditional enterprise report

management (ERM) – formerly considered computer

output to laserdisc (COLD) – products, and the

remainder are ECM vendors. Their IDARS products are

typically optional components of their more

comprehensive product suites. The most significant

challenge for these niche vendors is whether they are

willing to invest in their IDARS products and marketing

to make them competitive.

Vendor Comments

ASG

ASG acquired Cypress in March 2005 and has included

its IDARS and DOM technology into its content

management platform. The acquisition improves

services and support for the product and enhances

potential product development. Operating in a Windows-

based environment but with the ability to capture

content from different platforms, ASG-Cypress offers

good IDARS and strong DOM functionality at an

affordable price. Its Content Processing Facility provides

automated document post-processing, assembly and

distribution, while its DocuVault architecture can scale to

manage large volumes and provide the fast retrieval of

documents. ASG-Cypress provides ASG with a core

platform in its push into the ECM market.

AXS-One

AXS-One has a strong presence in the banking and

financial services market, especially among

organizations with strong compliance and discovery

requirements. Its COLD archiving engine has been in

production at major financial institutions for more than a

decade and although it provides good capabilities, it is

weak in report distribution as the company focuses on

using Web services technology for customer self-

service in conjunction with IDARS repositories. The

AXS-One Compliance Platform enables organizations

to extend the same platform for document, e-mail,

instant messaging, file systems, SAP and other

archiving applications. In addition, it provides records

management, legal discovery, supervisory review and

imaging functionality. Building a stronger sales and

partner channel continues to be a challenge for AXS-

One, especially for the IDARS market. AXS-One needs

to turn around its overall business because its financial

performance has lagged behind the market. Consider

AXS-One when selecting an archiving platform focused

on compliance and when e-mail archiving is required.

BMC Software

BMC Software, as a major systems infrastructure

management vendor, has a strong position in the IDARS

market based on its customer base and sales channel.

CONTROL-D provides an enterprise solution for report

management and output management on mainframe

and distributed systems, with its customer base

predominately running the product on the mainframe as

a central repository and additional installations in a

distributed environment. CONTROL-D has good report

distribution and output management capabilities, and it is

5

Datawatch’s Monarch Report Mining Server product is

used by many IDARS vendors for report mining and

analytics. The acquisition provides Datawatch with a

significantly larger installed customer base, but it still

needs to increase its market presence beyond Monarch

Report Mining to be a credible archiving vendor.

EMC

EMC made a strong commitment to IDARS with its

acquisition of Acartus in October 2005. The acquisition

provided EMC with a product that extends it into the

enterprise level and leverages its Documentum

repository. EMC recently rebranded this product as

Archive Services for Reports. EMC’s Application

Xtender product provides a Windows-based IDARS

solution for the midmarket. The company has also

launched several archiving products branded as

“Archive Services” for e-mail and SAP using the

Documentum repository. Although EMC has a good

vision for archiving, it needs to show how it can

effectively compete against the IDARS market leaders

in terms of scalability and functionality. EMC has not

expressed an effective strategy for the IDARS market

and continues to support multiple products and

repositories across Documentum’s architecture.

FileNet

FileNet provides a unified content repository with its

Report Manager and Image Manager products. Report

Manager, its IDARS product, has a scalable repository

for report data and images, but it does not store native

print streams. Other key limitations of Report Manager

are report distribution and multichannel output

capabilities. Report Manager continues to be a minor

product in FileNet’s overall content management

strategy, with more emphasis placed on its stronger

imaging capabilities. FileNet has highlighted compliance

as a key focus area, so enterprises with broader

records management and archiving requirements may

want to consider Report Manager as part of an overall

FileNet platform.

Hyland Software

Hyland Software provides IDARS support as an add-on

component of its OnBase ECM suite. OnBase has good

high-volume imaging and COLD functionality, and it is

ideally suited for IDARS applications for financial services,

healthcare and back-office applications, such as accounts

payable. OnBase provides for a single repository, client

and point of administration in its product suite. Hyland has

also added functionality for its COLD component,

including multicolumn indexing and a statement

highly scalable. BMC should enhance its functionality

around content management, records management and

other archiving capabilities to be successful. CONTROL-

D is well-suited for organizations that are looking to

extend and leverage their BMC system infrastructure.

Captaris

Captaris targets the midmarket with its Alchemy suite –

an imaging and archive solution. When combined with

RightFax for electronic document delivery and Captaris

Workflow, Captaris provides an integrated content

management platform. Alchemy was historically used

mainly for ASCII and Extended Binary-Coded Decimal

Interchange Code (EBCDIC) print streams using its

proprietary DataGrabber ingestion module, but it has

added PDF and TIFF ingestion capabilities. A limitation

of Alchemy is that it is a Windows-only platform where

the print stream is spooled via FTP. Alchemy’s

application programming interface (API) set enables

integration with other applications, but Captaris should

broaden its integration capabilities with enterprise

applications, such as ERP. Although Captaris sells

Alchemy primarily through a network of service bureaus

and systems integrators, which could potentially limit its

ability to compete in larger enterprise deals, the

company has recently added a direct sales model.

CA

CA provides a broad range of archiving and output

management functionality through its Unicenter View,

Dispatch and BUNDL products. These products

continue to be deployed primarily by CA’s customer

base, where it provides a good value proposition, but it

shows no significant adoption by non-CA customers.

CA must enhance its IDARS products to provide more

functionality to fend off competitors as customers

consolidate their multiple archiving platforms. CA’s

recent acquisitions of iLumin for e-mail archiving and

MDY Group for records management provide two key

technology components to incorporate into its archiving

platform. CA appears to have stabilized defections from

its customer base, but it still lacks a strong product

story and marketing investment in the face of rapidly

changing market demands.

Datawatch

Datawatch increased its commitment to IDARS with its

acquisition of the Radiant Document Solutions Group

from ClearStory Systems in May 2006. The products

have been rebranded as Datawatch Business Data

Server and Datawatch MailManager and will

complement its Datawatch ES archiving product.

6

composition module. OnBase can publish to a CD with a

self-contained application on the CD providing increased

flexibility. It also has a unique feature for converting

documents, such as medical explanation of benefits

statements from the 835 electronic data interchange

(EDI) format and health claims (for example, Uniform Bill-

92 and Health Care Financing Administration forms) from

the 837 EDI format to XML and Page Control Language.

Hyland’s vertical application focus is indicative of an

approach to a changing market based on content-

enabled vertical applications.

IBM

IBM maintains its leadership through its strong market

presence, extensive ECM product lineup and partner

channel. Although IBM has a large installed base of

traditional mainframe customers for DB2 Content

Manager OnDemand with large archive requirements,

increasing demand for Unix and other platforms

represents a significant and growing part of its installed

base. IBM has the complementary products to support

the archiving requirements for enterprises ranging from

SAP to e-mail archiving, as well as content

management products, such as records management.

Combined with Tivoli Storage Manager, DB2 Content

Manager OnDemand also provides hierarchical storage

management and support for a range of storage

devices. Its product scalability, platform support and

integration offset its more complex and service-

intensive requirements. Enterprises already heavily

invested in IBM products and services should find

IBM’s archive capability more than adequate for almost

any application.

Macro 4

Macro 4 provides IDARS and DOM solutions. Its

Columbus DW customer base is predominately in

Europe, but Macro 4 continues to work on expanding

its geographic presence, especially in the U.S.

Columbus DW has good transformation, multichannel

delivery and repository scalability, as well as workflow

capabilities. It provides storage and compression of the

print stream and performs transformation “on the fly”

into a broad range of file formats, including fully tagged

XML. Macro 4’s Columbus Output Management

product supports a pull and push model for

multichannel output. Macro 4 should be considered by

enterprises looking for a full function document

archiving and output management solution. Enterprises

may find Columbus to be a well-balanced platform

consolidation option and a good alternative to running

several different products for archive and output.

Mobius Management Systems

Mobius Management Systems continues to be

considered on most shortlists for IDARS selections, and

it has regained its market momentum after a couple of

challenging years. Mobius has extended its ViewDirect

product platform by incorporating additional functionality,

such as records management and e-mail archiving.

These changes enable Mobius to better participate in the

compliance and content management markets. Mobius

needs to execute better by improving sales and support

efforts for customers to drive revenue opportunities in

the competitive IDARS market. Its virtual foldering

capabilities and flexible viewing for distributed content in

applications, such as customer support, are its strengths.

Mobius has few peers for IDARS applications requiring

high scalability and print-stream ingestion, especially

those that are mainframe-based.

Open Text

As a result of past acquisitions, Open Text has three

products for IDARS: 1) Livelink ECM - Production

Document Management, 2) Livelink ECM - Enterprise

Report Management and 3) Vista Plus Suite. Each

solution has its own strengths. Livelink ECM - Production

Document Management is based on Java 2 Platform,

Enterprise Edition and is the market leader in SAP

archiving applications. Livelink ECM - Enterprise Report

Management is a more traditional IDARS/COLD product

with a large AS/400 customer base processing

EBCDIC/ASCII data. Both Livelink ECM - Production

Document Management and Livelink ECM - Enterprise

Report Management can be integrated to the Livelink

ECM Archive Server and the Livelink ECM Enterprise

Server. Vista Plus provides output management,

archiving and forms, and specializes in supporting output

from Oracle, PeopleSoft and SAP. Open Text provides a

number of options for enterprises with different needs,

but its product portfolio approach can be confusing given

the overlaps. The challenge for Open Text will be

whether it can continue to enhance and support these

varied platforms or bring these products together with a

migration strategy for its customers.

Redwood Software

Redwood Software has a strong market presence in

the healthcare market. Its Report2Web provides

archiving and output management functionality, along

with application-specific solutions, such as Report2Web

for Healthcare and Report2Web for SAP solutions. The

strength of Report2Web is its ease of use,

implementation and integration with ERP applications.

It is a good solution for managing line data, including

7

ASCII and EBCDIC text produced in applications on

multiple platforms. Redwood’s focus on solutions has

generated revenue growth and helped define a PDF

report delivery approach that interests many

enterprises across a wide range of vertical markets.

RSD

RSD has a strong European presence and has

committed to expand further into the U.S. market. Its

IDARS suite is composed of three offerings, which

include Enterprise Output Solution, RSD Folders and

Doc2Print – a DOM component. RSD’s enterprise

content archiving suite provides a highly scalable

product set with support across multiple platforms and

low deployment costs. It is building a strong partner

alliance program with key vendors in document

composition. RSD needs to expand its sales channels

and capabilities while enhancing its product

functionality to compete in the changing IDARS market.

RSD has added new ECM functions and solution

modules to better support document management and

delivery. RSD has been compared to CA in the past

and often competes for displacement business.

However, RSD has become more broadly capable and

seems committed to reaching North American IDARS

buyers with a better story around product and support.

Stellent

Stellent Universal Content Management provides

IDARS as a feature set and extension of its ECM suite.

Its product is predominately a departmental imaging

and report management solution, but the integration

with Universal Content Management provides broader

ECM functionality. Stellent does not use the traditional

hierarchical foldering structure for its archive and,

instead, creates the folders as needed in a virtual

approach. Archiving for different types of content, such

as e-mail, is supported through integration or APIs with

various archiving products. SAP archiving is supported

through Stellent SAP ArchiveLink Integration, a certified

SAP ArchiveLink product. Stellent’s IDARS solution

lacks the functionality and performance for typical

report management applications and is best suited for

image-intensive applications.

Systemware

Systemware provides highly scalable, multiterabyte

IDARS applications with a strong customer focus. It

continues to grow its financial service business with the

introduction of Centraspect FS, which includes e-

statement presentment, account records management

and loan document tracking. Although mainframe-based

customers still comprise the largest segment of its

installed base and revenue, more Systemware

customers are using Centraspect in an open-systems

environment, which includes support for IBM AIX, Sun

Solaris, Linux and Windows. Systemware’s newer

Centraspect suite provides enhanced content

integration and business process management

capabilities. A key differentiator is its Legacy Archive

Processor, which provides integration and direct access

to legacy archives and can be used to streamline

conversion efforts. Key challenges for Systemware are

pricing – because its solutions tend to be priced on the

high end – and expanding beyond its U.S. customer

base. Consider Systemware for customer self-service

applications and as a qualified competitor with IBM and

Mobius.

Vignette

Vignette’s IDARS product is a core component of its

Vignette IDM platform. The integration with the ECM

components in Vignette IDM and Vignette Portal

extends the functionality of the product by offering

content management capabilities and support for

different content distribution channels. Vignette IDM

also provides good integration with ERP business

application software using its Business Integration

Studio product and ArchiveLink for SAP. Vignette IDM

has more-limited functionality for broader archiving

applications, such as e-mail. Vignette IDM should be

considered for IDARS if an enterprise needs the ECM

functionality provided by the product platform. If the

focus is on a combination of image and report

archiving, then Vignette has good credentials and

merits consideration.

Acronym Key and Glossary TermsAPI application programming interfaceCOLD computer output to laserdiscDOM distributed output managementEBCDIC Extended Binary-Coded Decimal Interchange

CodeECM enterprise content managementEDI electronic data interchangeERM enterprise report managementIDARS integrated document archive and retrieval systemIDM integrated document management

8

Evaluation Criteria Definitions

Ability to ExecuteProduct/Service: Core goods and services offered by the vendor that compete in/serve the defined market. Thisincludes current product/service capabilities, quality, feature sets, skills, etc., whether offered natively or through OEMagreements/partnerships as defined in the market definition and detailed in the subcriteria.

Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy, Organization): Viability includes an assessment of the overallorganization’s financial health, the financial and practical success of the business unit, and the likelihood of the individ-ual business unit to continue investing in the product, to continue offering the product and to advance the state of theart within the organization’s portfolio of products.

Sales Execution/Pricing: The vendor’s capabilities in all pre-sales activities and the structure that supports them. Thisincludes deal management, pricing and negotiation, pre-sales support and the overall effectiveness of the sales chan-nel.

Market Responsiveness and Track Record: Ability to respond, change direction, be flexible and achieve competitivesuccess as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve and market dynamics change. This criterionalso considers the vendor’s history of responsiveness.

Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver the organization’smessage in order to influence the market, promote the brand and business, increase awareness of the products, andestablish a positive identification with the product/brand and organization in the minds of buyers. This “mind share” canbe driven by a combination of publicity, promotional, thought leadership, word-of-mouth and sales activities.

Customer Experience: Relationships, products and services/programs that enable clients to be successful with theproducts evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways customers receive technical support or account support. Thiscan also include ancillary tools, customer support programs (and the quality thereof), availability of user groups, serv-ice-level agreements, etc.

Operations: The ability of the organization to meet its goals and commitments. Factors include the quality of the orga-nizational structure including skills, experiences, programs, systems and other vehicles that enable the organization tooperate effectively and efficiently on an ongoing basis.

Completeness of VisionMarket Understanding: Ability of the vendor to understand buyers’ wants and needs and to translate those into prod-ucts and services. Vendors that show the highest degree of vision listen and understand buyers’ wants and needs, andcan shape or enhance those with their added vision.

Marketing Strategy: A clear, differentiated set of messages consistently communicated throughout the organizationand externalized through the Web site, advertising, customer programs and positioning statements.

Sales Strategy: The strategy for selling product that uses the appropriate network of direct and indirect sales, market-ing, service and communication affiliates that extend the scope and depth of market reach, skills, expertise, technolo-gies, services and the customer base.

Offering (Product) Strategy: The vendor’s approach to product development and delivery that emphasizes differenti-ation, functionality, methodology and feature set as they map to current and future requirements.

Business Model: The soundness and logic of the vendor’s underlying business proposition.

Vertical/Industry Strategy: The vendor’s strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needsof individual market segments, including verticals.

Innovation: Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital for investment,consolidation, defensive or pre-emptive purposes.

Geographic Strategy: The vendor’s strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs ofgeographies outside the “home” or native geography, either directly or through partners, channels and subsidiaries asappropriate for that geography and market.

The Business Impact of BPM

with SOA: Building a Business Case for BPM with

SOA ROI

Authored by:

Heather Ashton and David Kelly

Upside Research, Inc.

www.upsideresearch.com

The Business Case for BPM ROI

Upside Research, Inc.

CONTENTS

" EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Finding ways to automate and improve business processes has become a major focus for today’s organizations. An increasing number of organizations are turning to business process management (BPM) to improve efficiency. Using the Upside Research Business Impact Statement, a category-based benefit analysis approach, organizations can build a compelling business case for investing in BPM.

" THE HEART OF BPM: STREAMLINING PROCESSES

A successful BPM solution will take existing processes, streamline them to meet business goals and ultimately impact the bottom and top lines in a positive way.

" WHY BPM IS A PRIORITY NOW

Today’s budget constraints and increased productivity expectations make it even more important for managers to consider both the tactical and strategic benefits when making a technology investment. Effectively implemented BPM solutions can provide the unique balance of tactical and strategic and address the needs of both business and IT in a way that few other technology solutions can.

" A BPM WITH SOA SUCCESS STORY

This snapshot reveals how a leading financial services company realized measurable return from its investment in BPM.

" MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE FOR BPM WITH SOA ROI

What do you need to build a business case for making an investment (in time, resources and money) in a BPM with SOA solution? To assist organizations in building a business case for making an investment in a BPM solution and taking the first step towards creating a return on investment (ROI) for BPM with SOA, Upside Research has created the Upside Research Business Impact Statement.

" A LOOK AT BPM SUCCESS IN THE ENTERPRISE

To help managers understand how to analyze their specific situation, Upside Research has created an example business case for an organization that has recently implemented a BPM solution.

" CONCLUSION

BPM solutions can make a big impact on business. To take a first step toward evaluating the business benefits and ROI of BPM, Upside Research recommends that organizations start by building a business case for BPM with SOA.

Copyright 2006, Upside Research, Inc., which is solely responsible for its content. All rights reserved.

No part of this report may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.


Upside Research, Inc. 1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

At the heart of every business is a complicated web

of processes that form the foundation for all

operations. These business processes are the

lifeblood of the organization and typically include all

of the humans and systems that exist within the

enterprise. Since they play such a central role,

business processes must be as efficient as possible

to make the business as effective as possible. As a

result, finding ways to automate and improve

business processes has become a major focus for

today’s organizations as they struggle to find ways

to become more agile and responsive to changing

business climates.

In fact, an entire market—business process

management—has grown out of the desire to

improve existing business processes and build new

processes and services that will differentiate a

business from its competitors. Business process

management (BPM) solutions aim to provide

enterprises with a common platform that can tap

into all resources, both human and system-based, to

create, manage and optimize effective business

processes that span the enterprise. BPM solutions

can help organizations to maximize their existing

technology and human infrastructure by linking

existing systems and automating tasks that can free

humans up to add value elsewhere within the

enterprise.

Fast Response to Changing Business Needs—BPM & SOA

One of the greatest concerns for business leaders when they hear about a

new technology solving a business problem is the “set-in-stone” scenario. A new application

takes months to develop, and then it is released to the business for

use. Unfortunately, since the whiteboard discussions six months earlier, the business

processes have often changed. Changing the application, however, may take another two

months, leaving the business leader with an outdated application and possibly impacting the

company’s ROI.

In the drive for business agility, business-process management is based on the principles of

services-oriented architecture (SOA). Both aim for faster response to changing business

requirements, including compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and product and service

IBM PROVIDES BUILDING BLOCKS

FOR SOA

IBM has been developing solutions based on SOA for years. As one of the earliest proponents of

SOA, IBM has built an extensive suite of tools that can help enable organizations to create

business processes that are able to respond to the rapidly changing market landscape. IBM

WebSphere MQ (formerly “MQSeries®”) product provides the foundation for its SOA tools.

Among the other building blocks that IBM offers are:

• WebSphere Process Server: A business

server that is designed to allow users to create and deploy new business processes

and synchronize business information in multiple business applications on diverse

platforms. • WebSphere Business Modeler: A design

drawing and analysis tool that is designed to allow business managers to design and

simulate processes. • WebSphere Business Monitor: A business

dashboard that is designed to enable users to monitor their business processes to help

them make continuous improvements. • WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus

(ESB): A business service platform that is designed to enable easy information

exchange between applications and/or resources.

In addition to the above tools, IBM offers a Message Broker, Partner Gateway, Integration

Developer and Rational® Application Developer

to assist organizations in quickly building and

deploying complex, cross-enterprise business processes that are built on top of a flexible

services-oriented architecture.



introductions. Services-oriented architecture has become a crucial foundation for BPM,

supporting rapid assembly and orchestration of process services into larger, end-to-end

processes. This is because businesses need to design flexible processes that are based on

services that can be changed later, without being “hard-wired” into the code structure of the

application, so that it becomes impossible to make changes later.

BPM based on SOA offers an environment that changes the traditional process for altering

an application to reflect changed business rules or processes. It places the controls for

change management in the hands of the business process owner rather than on IT’s

shoulders. Through intuitive, visual interfaces, effective BPM environments offer business

managers ways to change rules and alter processes without having to drop down to the

coding level. The objective is to translate to rapid response rates, and boost the ROI of the

solution because it helps ensure that business goals are in line with the BPM solution,

regardless of whether those goals change daily or monthly.

The Business Impact Statement for BPM based on SOA

Because of its widespread appeal to both business and IT, BPM is quickly becoming a must-

have for solving business problems and improving the agility of the enterprise. However,

while BPM is a promising technology, it is still being introduced at a time when IT and

business managers are facing more stringent questioning about their technology

investments – Why invest in BPM today? What are the associated costs and potential

benefits for BPM? In essence, senior management is asking both business and IT to make a

business case for BPM. They want to know the tangible benefits that BPM can bring to the

enterprise, and how quickly the enterprise can expect to see some of those benefits.

To understand the potential benefits of a technology investment such as business process

management, Upside Research believes that organizations should take the time to create a

practical model to determine the value of the investment ands the payback period.

Traditionally, this has taken the form of a return on investment (ROI) model. However,

there are many scenarios today where a traditional spreadsheet-based ROI model is not

feasible or the specific quantitative values required are unknown.

For organizations that want to define the potential benefits and costs of implementing a BPM

solution but are not able or ready to do a full-scale ROI analysis, Upside Research has

created an alternative—the Business Impact Statement. The Upside Research Business

Impact Statement is a category-based benefit analysis approach that can be used to build a

compelling business case for investing in BPM and creating a BPM ROI. By putting together

a Business Impact Statement for BPM, an organization can more accurately assess where it

will receive the greatest benefits from implementing BPM and how adding business process

management to the various areas of the enterprise will maximize the return on an

investment in BPM.

This report is designed to help business and IT managers evaluate their environment and

begin to determine how an investment in business process management will impact their

The Business Case for BPM with SOA ROI


organization and their business operations. Upside Research has developed a Business

Impact Statement model for building a business case for BPM ROI, and this paper highlights

the importance of balancing business priorities with an investment in BPM and offers

organizations a way to begin weighing the costs vs. business impact of BPM. It also

introduces IBM’s BPM products and technologies that relate to the Business Impact

Statement model and provide tangible business results. Business and IT managers should

use this report to gain a clear understanding of the specific areas where BPM can reduce

errors, improve efficiency, free human resources, and deliver measurable business benefits

that impact the top and bottom lines.

THE HEART OF BPM: STREAMLINING PROCESSES

At the heart of every business is the collection of complex processes that run it. They range

from human-centric to those that are document-centric processes to completely system

based or integration-oriented. Many processes are a combination of human, document and

system/integration-based processes. Most have built up over the life of the company and

over time, some of these processes may have added steps and flows that help reach an end

goal, but not necessarily in the most efficient or effective manner. In fact, many

organizations realize when they peek under the covers that their processes have turned into

tangled webs that are glaringly inefficient. Whether it is a credit check process, a new

customer order, or a request for supplies to a vendor, these processes are integral to the

business and any delays or gaps caused by them can seriously impact the bottom line.

Business process management is designed to solve this problem. A successful BPM solution

will take existing processes, streamline them to meet business goals and ultimately impact

the bottom and top lines in a positive way. As most managers will confirm, the employees

that make up an organization are one of its biggest assets. Freeing them up to do more

value-added work instead of being burdened with tasks that provide no additional value is a

substantial achievement.

Upside Research has spent the past five years studying the BPM market. In our research of

successful BPM implementations, we have discovered several recurring themes when it

comes to the business impact of BPM, including:

- Optimization. First and foremost is the optimization of business processes across

departments and even cross-enterprise. Many organizations have drawn a direct

correlation between more efficient business processes and specific cost savings.

- Business Agility. Another area where BPM provides a big return is in improved

agility. Business parameters and market conditions change rapidly, and business

managers need to be able to respond to those changes quickly and effectively. Using

BPM, organizations have been able to create “on-demand” business environments

they can adapt quickly and easily at the business level to build a competitive edge.



- Compliance. Compliance has been a major issue for enterprises across a number of

vertical markets. Using BPM, these organizations have been able to respond to

compliance requirements and corporate governance initiatives and meet important

deadlines within budget. In fact, many organizations that adopted BPM to solve

specific compliance issues have now automated and optimized other processes within

their enterprise and are seeing significant gains in productivity and responsiveness

as a result. New regulations like

HIPPA, Sarbannes-Oxley, and Anti-

Money Laundering regulations for the

Insurance industry make developing

processes for achieving compliance a

business necessity.

- IT Agility and SOA. As organizations

have become more responsive to

business climate changes, they have

looked for ways to adapt their

technology infrastructures to be more

responsive. Services-oriented

Architecture (SOA) has emerged as a

leading approach to building and

sharing applications that run the

business. With SOA, organizations can

build components, or services, of applications that can be reused for other

applications and shared across the enterprise to bring cohesiveness to business

process. Using BPM with SOA is a natural fit and results in greater business benefits.

As you can see from the above examples, there are a number of ways that BPM can bring

value to an enterprise. Process optimization has an impact on every aspect of doing

business, and savvy organizations are discovering the ways that their BPM projects can

bring increased productivity, faster responsiveness, value-added human resources and

better corporate compliance.

WHY BPM WITH SOA IS A PRIORITY NOW

In today’s connected enterprise, decisions are not made in a vacuum. An investment in one

project often means the postponement or abandonment of another project. Today’s budget

constraints and increased productivity expectations make it even more important for

managers to consider both the tactical and strategic benefits when making a technology

investment. If a solution solves a specific tactical problem and can save money, free up

valuable resources, or increase new revenue opportunities, that’s great. However, if that

same solution can be used again and again, in an ongoing way that continues to deliver a

benefit, that’s even better. Both business and IT managers have their own lists of

technology investments they want to make. The goal for the organization is to find the right

balance between tactical and strategic projects to ensure that immediate needs are being

met while still working toward accomplishing more strategic goals.

IBM’S SUITE OF BPM SOLUTIONS • WebSphere Business Modeler is a

business-analyst level tool for modeling and designing process flows for SOAs, based on the Eclipse open source Integrated Development Environment (IDE) framework.

• WebSphere Integration Developer is an Eclipse-based application development tool for IT to build and deploy business processes based on a services-oriented architecture.

• WebSphere Process Server is a new process server powered by WebSphere ESB that forms the foundation for IBM’s BPM solution.

• WebSphere Business Monitor has been enhanced to monitor business process performance and provide a way to track key performance indicators.



Effectively implemented BPM solutions can provide the unique balance of tactical and

strategic and address the needs of both business and IT in a way that few other technology

solutions can. Because of BPM’s ability to solve specific, tactical process-related problems

(such as reducing the number of days that sales are outstanding (DSO) by streamlining the

workflow) BPM solutions can provide fast, visible benefits to an organization. At the same

time, however, IT can use that same BPM solution to lay the groundwork to make similar

impacts across other processes throughout the enterprise.

A BPM WITH SOA SUCCESS STORY

The number of published customer case studies that exhibit the tremendous gains that can

be made from implementing a BPM solution continues to grow as companies find success

and are willing to share best practices with others. IBM has several customers that have

been willing to share the business impact of their BPM projects. The following snapshot

reveals how a banking company realized measurable return from its investment in BPM.

OVERVIEW

A major financial services company with a strong retail bank presence was suffering from

the challenges of siloed information. Through mergers and acquisition, as well as launching

new, independent lines of business, a web of different applications that stored customer

account data separately was spread across the organization. The results were a series of

inefficient processes, the inability for the company to respond to business changes, silos of

information, and a lack of accurate, timely insight into business performance. In addition,

the legacy-based infrastructure was wrought with band-aid fixes and lacked an overarching

services-oriented architecture to improve agility.

ADDING BPM AND SOA TO THE MIX

The company selected IBM’s BPM solution to create a common retail-banking infrastructure

for its end-user community and support a user base of over 4 million people. It partnered

with IBM Global Business Services to create an SOA solution based on IBM WebSphere

Business Integration Server Foundation (now called WebSphere Process Server) and IBM

IMS Connect middleware. The new solution provides a single set of business services that

can support existing and future banking products.

The company has seen more than $2 million in savings over the past two years from its new

services-based process management system. That represents a more than 60% return on

its initial investment. The company anticipates adding the new system to other divisions

within the bank, for an additional savings of approximately $1 million for each

implementation. Using a BPM with SOA solution that is based on a services-oriented

architecture, the company will be able to continue to optimize its business processes while

saving substantial costs and increasing customer satisfaction and business agility.



THE BUSINESS IMPACT STATEMENT

Efficient processes

Faster response to business change

Cost savings

Elimination of silos

Business insight

Services-based infrastructure

OPTIMIZING THROUGH MODELING AND BUSINESS RULES: AN ILLUSTRATION

An example of how the right tools can help organizations like financial services companies

(and others) save money can be illustrated by the use of IBM’s WebSphere Business

Modeler and Business Rules. By using WebSphere Business Modeler a company could model

their business processes to simulate the amount of time and the cost of doing a credit check

manually (for example, more than 4 hours) vs. automating the process, which might enable

the credit check to be completed in less than one hour. The screen shots below depict this

process situation.

The next screen shot demonstrates how using Business Rules for customer credit scores can

enable the user, a business analyst, to automate the approval or denial of credit based on

the applicant’s credit scores.



Selecting and using the right tools—from business process modeling to business rules to

process monitoring capabilities can have a direct and dramatic impact on BPM ROI.

MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE FOR BPM ROI

Given its potential positive impact, it’s hard for BPM not to sound attractive to most

companies. But how do you take the next step and begin to build a business case for

making an investment (in time, resources and money) in a BPM solution? To assist

organizations in answering this question, Upside Research has created The Upside Research

Business Impact Statement, a category-based benefit analysis approach that can be used to

build a compelling business case for investing in BPM. The Upside Research Business Impact

Statement will help IT or business managers build a business case for BPM and help

organizations understand the existing risks, the overall costs and potential benefits of

implementing BPM.

At the high level, the Upside Research Business Impact Statement is straightforward:

• Outline the current and potential problems that exist in the process environment.

• Estimate the initial and ongoing costs for a BPM solution.

• Identify and categorize the tangible business benefits resulting from a BPM

implementation and the elimination of the issues identified in step (a).

This Business Impact Statement is not intended to result in a single, specific, rock-solid

dollar value or ROI payback period for a BPM investment. Rather, our experience with many

enterprise software and hardware implementations has taught us that organizations are

often satisfied with a realistic and practical understanding of the business benefits and

financial impact of new technology investment when making an infrastructure decision.

Spreadsheets and ROIs are fine when they’re available and believable, but a straightforward

analysis of the costs and benefits of a potential investment can be equally compelling for

many business leaders.



To help organizations begin to organize and build a business case for BPM, in the following

sections we discuss the process of outlining existing problems, estimating costs, and

identifying BPM benefits in more detail. Upside Research suggests that you use the steps

below to structure your analysis of a BPM investment and create a Business Impact

Statement for BPM that serves as a blueprint for articulating the decision that’s best for

your organization and can serve as a baseline for BPM ROI. Specific problems, costs and

benefits will vary by your individual situation so we advise organizations to build on (and

customize) the information outlined below.

A) POTENTIAL BUSINESS COSTS/RISKS

One of the first steps to making the business case for a BPM project is to categorize the

potential business problems and actual costs that an organization faces if they continue with

their current business practices. This section identifies and categorizes some of those

problems and suggests the impact they can have on the business. In many organizations,

both the immediate problems and potential risks are difficult to assign accurate financial

figures to—although most managers find they can typically define a reasonable level of

value or importance to each factor. For this step, Upside Research suggests that managers

first identify which of the problems below (or other appropriate ones) are the most critical to

their business and then define their level of importance and/or their potential impact on the

business.

Problem Potential Costs or Impact on Business

Inefficient Processes

While the euphuism “time is money” is often over-used, it is very germane to this topic, because in business, for each additional hour it takes to complete a manual business process, there is a hard cost associated with

employee time as well as soft costs associated with losing business or lowered productivity. Another area where time comes into play is in

opportunity costs. There are risks associated with business processes that are too long and inefficient, and this can mean lost business opportunity or

lost savings associated with internal productivity. Therefore, organizations need to start to measure some of these areas where inefficient processes

can have a negative business impact.

Potential Inefficient Process Costs Include:

- Not completing processes on time

- Loss of employee productivity/time for value-add work

- Lost revenue opportunities/opportunity costs

- Waste of precious human resources

Slow Response to Business Change

In today’s business environment, being responsive to change is often the greatest possible differentiator that a company can have. The agility to

respond to changing market conditions can mean getting new business that other company cannot. Therefore, if an organization is mired in

business processes that are inefficient and cannot easily change them to reflect changes in the market, than they will be the company that loses

out on potential business opportunity. For companies that rely on partner or supplier networks, failing to respond quickly to changes can mean

losing existing business as well.

Potential Response Costs Include:

- Loss of existing business

- Loss of new business opportunities



- Failure to keep pace with competitors

Costly Business Errors

Since business processes are at the heart of the organization, anytime a process breaks down or results in errors, the business suffers. Many

business processes have manual components that are not value-added, and the potential for human error puts those processes at risk for costing

the business significantly.

Potential Business Error Costs:

- Loss of existing business

- Costs to fix errors

- Negative impact on reputation

Siloed Organization

One of the most ineffective organizational structures today is one that maintains high walls between departments or workgroups. As an

organization grows, often those walls grow, and information and processes become siloed within each department. This makes it nearly impossible to

create streamlined business processes because they often get mired in the silos of each department. The potential risks that this causes to the

business include a lack of insight, lack of shared information across the enterprise, and overall lack of cohesiveness for business processes.

Potential Silo Costs Include:

- Lack of cohesive record and customer management

- Inability to link departments through processes

- Reduced agility and responsiveness

- Inefficient processes

- Higher total cost of ownership (TCO)/operational costs

Lack of Insight Once organizations begin to create newly automated business processes, they begin to understand the potential benefits of streamlining the whole business and finding new areas to make more efficient. However, if the

organization lacks an ability to monitor and manage its processes, as well as the ability to optimize those processes it has created, there is a

significant opportunity cost. Without the ability to monitor and optimize processes that have been created, any gains that may have been seen

from process automation are reduced significantly because there is no way

to determine if the process is performing as expected and delivering the benefits to the business. Additionally, the process will need to be flexible

to respond to changing conditions, and if there is no insight into its performance and no way of optimizing that performance, the business will

lose the benefit of the automation.

Potential Lack of Insight Costs Include:

- Opportunity costs

- Inefficient processes—inability to optimize processes

- Increased compliance risks

- Lack of control

Compliance Most organizations today have some sort of compliance requirements, and upper management is often driving these requirements to align with

strategic business goals. If organizations have no processes to manage compliance initiatives, gaining compliance can be difficult, if not

impossible. The risks associated with this include failure to meet important deadlines and loss of certification.

Potential Compliance Costs Include:

- Penalties from management and

government or regulatory agencies

- Failure to meet important deadlines



- Loss of certification

- Damage to reputation

- Loss of business; economic impact

No services-based

development

SOA is an emerging paradigm in enterprises looking to maximize the return on their application developments. Organizations that are still using

traditional methods for application development face significant costs and risks by not creating reusable components. This is especially true with

process automation, since many of the same elements are used in multiple processes across the enterprise. Without SOA and BPM, there are

considerable opportunities that organizations may be missing.

Potential Costs Include:

- Increased cost of development

- Lack of responsiveness, agility

- Lost business opportunities

Once all of the potential problems and their associated costs have been identified,

categorized, and quantified whenever possible, the next step in making the business case

for BPM is to identify and understand the various components that comprise an investment

in business process management.

B) THE INVESTMENT IN BPM

An investment in BPM is multi-faceted, and it is important to understand the various

components of business process management to appreciate the breadth and depth that a

good solution will provide. This section takes a closer look at the categories of investment

required for most BPM solutions. Upside Research recommends working with your BPM

solution provider to categorize the specific investment your organization will be making.

C) TANGIBLE BUSINESS BENEFITS OF BPM

Now that both the risks and costs associated with maintaining existing inefficient processes

have been laid out, and we’ve identified the components of an investment in a business

process management solution, we can turn our attention to the business benefits that may

BPM Technology

BPM solutions often consist of several components, including process servers, modeling software, administrative consoles and integration adapters. As for hardware, in some cases,

existing hardware is sufficient for a BPM solution, and there are no out-of-pocket expenses. If that is not the case, BPM solutions may require additional servers.

• Initial technology costs: estimate software modules + hardware expenses here

• On-going technology costs: estimate here

Professional Services

In order to maximize the benefits of a BPM solution, it is often preferred to utilize professional services from the BPM solution vendor or from a third party. These teams are expert at

designing and implementing new business processes for organizations.

• Professional Services costs: estimate here



be gained from implementing BPM. Once the benefits have been identified and quantified,

an organization can make a compelling business case for BPM.

To identify the value of potential benefits, we recommend that organizations use the

following categories as a starting point, selecting the benefits that are most salient to their

specific scenarios and estimate or quantify potential benefits (either in time, money or

resource units) based on their situation. For example, an organization might determine that

the most valuable benefit for their BPM implementation would be a reduction of business

errors, the value of which can be estimated by identifying the number of errors currently

occurring, the costs associated with rectifying them, and the lost opportunity costs.

Category of Benefits Details

Efficient Processes Using BPM, organizations can streamline their business processes, eliminating wasteful steps and cutting costs. Valuable employee time can be re-allocated to more useful purposes, and businesses can

become more competitive. The opportunities for additional business and the ability to complete processes faster are also benefits of using

BPM to improve business existing business processes and automate those processes that were completely manual. The list of benefits

from more efficient processes includes:

- Faster complete times

- Cost savings from higher productivity

- Reallocation of valuable human resources

- More competitive organization

- New business opportunities

Faster Response to Business Change

By implementing BPM, organizations can become proactive when it comes to a change in the business climate. Instead of struggling to

catch up to changes in the market, businesses can use BPM to improve their agility and respond quickly to changes, in some cases

even anticipating new opportunities. The benefits include:

- Revenue gains from new business

- Competitive advantage from market capitalization

- Improved customer satisfaction

Reduced Business Errors With automated processes that replace error-prone manual processes, organizations will find a number of hard benefits, including

cost savings from errors, as well as soft benefits including better business standing and customer satisfaction. In addition, staff is no

longer burdened with fixing errors, and can focus on value-added functions instead. Among the benefits from using BPM to reduce

business errors are:

- Lower costs from automated processes

- Increased productivity

- Higher reputation and customer standing

Connected Organization Having the right information at the right time to make business decisions is critical to success. Using BPM, organizations can remove

silos and unify the company around critical information such as customer records, order information, and history. The benefits from

connecting the organization through BPM include:

- Unified record and customer views

- Increased responsiveness and agility

- Improved customer service

Heightened Visibility The ability to respond to opportunities comes from an increased level of visibility into business operations. Using BPM to optimize processes



and provide crucial insight into business workings can provide a

number of hard and soft benefits that impact the balance sheet as well as satisfaction in the boardroom. Among the benefits:

- Faster responsiveness to market opportunities

- Increased revenues

- Upper management satisfaction

Compliance Using BPM, organizations can efficiently meet compliance requirements without wasting precious resources or time. Benefits

include:

- Meet corporate deadline for compliance

- Meet upper management requirements

SOA-enablement Using BPM to build or support a services-oriented architecture is a significant benefit to the organization. In addition to cost savings

from things like re-use, it also improves responsiveness for the business and can lead to positive impacts on the bottom line. Benefits

from SOA-enablement include:

- Cost savings from component re-use

- Improved responsiveness to market opportunities

- Increased revenue from new business

A LOOK AT BPM SUCCESS IN THE ENTERPRISE

The above sections have presented a significant amount of information to digest. To help

managers understand how to analyze their specific situation, we’ve created an example

business case for an organization that has recently implemented a BPM solution. This is an

example of a hypothetical company, based on research and feedback from existing

companies that Upside Research has spoken with regarding their experience with BPM. The

following example will enable you to understand exactly how you can build a Business

Impact Statement for BPM. The following scenario represents the types of results that

enterprises can obtain by implementing a BPM solution. We start with a quick overview of

the organization and its business challenge.

Business Challenge

A leading wireless provider in the business of providing pervasive wireless communications

through cell towers across the U.S. The company manages all of its sites, and has to

manage acquisition of new sites, maintenance, and assess rents or charges. There are a

number of multi-faceted business processes that need to occur for these various business

transactions and operations, and manual forms routing and faxing were the norm. However,

some processes were taking up to 90 days to complete, and were hampering the growth

rate of the company.

Potential Costs

There were a number of processes at the company that were rife with inefficiencies and the

potential for significant costs to the business. Among the areas that the team in charge of

finding a solution identified as having the greatest risk of negatively impacting the

organization were the following:



• Inefficient Processes. The current processes were costing the company

considerably. Because some of the processes to close new deals, collect rents, and

arrange financing were taking up to 90 days, the company was losing business deals.

In addition, the costs of the longer processing time in human hours was significant.

Faxing wasn’t an efficient way to handle the processes, and requiring a physical

signature on several of the documents in the process often added extra days.

o Hard costs: $75,000 annually in human time. Cash flow loss of $100,000 per

month

o Soft costs: Lost business opportunities—potentially in the range of $250,000

per year.

• Business errors. The company was finding errors in its process for inspecting new

properties and adding them to the network. These errors often delayed the

inspections by several days and extended the time it took to get a new tower into

operation.

o Hard costs: Between one and five days delay per property, at $10,000 per

day in lost revenues per tower.

o Soft costs: Decreased customer satisfaction from delays.

• Compliance Failure. The wireless company was required by law to comply with

Sarbanes-Oxley. It was having difficulty achieving compliance without a process to

manage the effort.

o Hard costs: Danger of non-compliance would result in potential penalties as

well as increased auditing costs of up to $40,000 annually.

o Soft costs: Potential risk to reputation.

Implementation of BPM

The wireless company adopted a BPM platform that served as the foundation for its

company-wide processes. The initial pilot process ended up being a useable process that

reduced the new site requisition process from 60 down to an average of 6 days.

After finding success with an initial process, the company then rolled out 50 additional

processes in quick succession. The processes ranged from human resources to procurement

to financing, and using the BPM solution the company was able to quickly build and roll out

new processes. Realizing the power of the solution they had at hand, the wireless company

made the decision to make its BPM solution an enterprise-wide standard within six months

of adoption.

Benefits from BPM

The following areas saw the greatest measurable benefits from the wireless company ’s BPM

with SOA implementation:

• Improved Processes. The company was able to dramatically reduce the requisition

processing cycle from 60 days down to under 6 days. The company also streamlined



its new site inspection process, enabling its 50 inspectors to complete an additional

site per week.

o Hard costs: Annual savings of $75,000 in human time, and an additional 50

new sites added per year.

o Soft costs: The coma is now adding new sites faster than the competition,

leading to substantial market benefits.

• Elimination of Errors. With the automated processes the company found its error

rate reduced significantly. Employees no longer spent precious time tracking where a

process went awry, and, with an automated system and portal view of the processes

that alerts users to potential process errors ahead of time, the company can be

proactive on error handling.

o Hard costs: Savings of more than $200,000 by eliminating delays in new

tower inspections.

o Soft costs: Faster reaction rate to market changes, ability to get new towers

raised ahead of the competition.

• Compliance. The added benefit of using the BPM solution to become SOX compliant

was a pleasant surprise for the wireless company. The company quickly created

processes using the system to track SOX compliance efforts, and as a result, met its

important deadlines.

o Hard cost: Avoidance of $40,000 annually in audit fees.

o Soft cost: Puts the wireless company ahead of its competition in compliance

efforts.

Business Impact Statement for Wireless Company

After investing an initial $150,000 in its BPM solution, the wireless company saw immediate

results, including a hard cost savings of more than $310,000 in the first year of live

processes alone. The company quickly made the decision to extend its license enterprise-

wide and has multiplied its positive business impact significantly over the past two years.

CONCLUSION

The rise of business process management as an enterprise solution to many organizations’

process woes is impressive. As Upside Research has continued to track this market, the

number of success stories continues to rise. Using the Upside Research Business Impact

Statement, organizations can apply some of the main categories of business return from

BPM to their specific situation and build a compelling business case for implementing BPM.

Evaluating the current situation within the organization can be painstaking, but it will

provide decision-makers with a clear picture of the costs of ineffective processes. Analyzing

those costs and comparing them to the potential benefits and returns that a BPM solution

will provide is the most straightforward way to determine how well BPM will deliver on its

promise and what a BPM ROI might look like. Upside Research recommends that

organizations use the Business Impact Statement as a first step toward evaluating BPM

solutions, and work closely with their solutions providers to determine how much of an

impact BPM can have on their unique environment.



IBM, WebSphere and MQSeries are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both.

Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

Copyright Upside Research, Inc., Newton, MA 2006. All rights reserved.

About Upside Research, Inc.

Upside Research is a research and consulting firm focused on helping clients put application development, Web services,

business process management, integration, and enterprise

infrastructure challenges in perspective. Upside Research helps organizations find practical ways to achieve their IT goals and profit

from the diversity of a changing technology landscape.

Upside Research, Inc. www.upsideresearch.com [email protected]

IBM Worldwide Study

Inside the midmarket: A 2007 perspective

March 2007

Introduction

Tremendous opportunity exists today for midsized companies to expand,

innovate and assume a leadership role in the global economy. Midsized

companies have a myriad of cost-effective new business and technological

capabilities available to them. Any company with a great idea, sufficient

Internet bandwidth and a reasonable amount of capital can compete, grow

and reach new customers in its local market or around the globe.

Competitive advantage is based increasingly on innovation, speed to market

and knowledge, rather than size and scale. Realizing this, midsized com-

panies across the globe are seeking to adapt their business models to

market shifts and customer needs. These companies also intend to integrate

technology to both run their businesses more efficiently and also to change

their businesses in order to adapt and grow.

But how far along are these companies? Are they confident in the state of

their core operations? Are they looking ahead to see what capabilities can

help their businesses adapt and expand in the near term?

To tackle these questions, IBM, in collaboration with Directions Research

Inc. interviewed more than 1,200 executives in 11 countries across Europe,

Asia and the Americas. Representing both developed and emerging mar-

kets, the respondents held leadership roles at companies employing between

100 and 999 people within the banking, retail, healthcare, manufacturing

and wholesale industries.

Challenges to staying ahead of the curve

Today companies, and even entire economies, are being challenged to evolve

in order to thrive in the new global economy. These pressures are clearly on

the minds of leaders at midsized companies. In each industry surveyed, more

than 70 percent of decision-makers agree with their industry peers on the top

challenges to growth, expansion and profitability.

Overall, customer relations—from acquiring new customers to managing

current clients—is one of the top challenges facing decision-makers today.

What’s on the midsized

company’s agenda?

• Customer relations and operational

efficiency are the key challenges to

growth, expansion and profitability.

• Nearly two-thirds of decision-makers

across the five industries surveyed

will make more than one change to

their business models over the next

two years.

• Over 70 percent of decision-makers

worldwide see the security, reliability

and resiliency of their information tech-

nology infrastructures as key to opera-

tional efficiency.

• More than half of decision-makers

surveyed intend to invest in new busi-

ness intelligence capabilities to better

analyze and understand customer

needs, trends and purchase decisions.

Whether patients, consumers, shoppers or end-users, customers today

are becoming smarter, better informed, and more demanding. Better

understanding their needs to effectively serve them is a sure path to

near-term growth.

In China, nearly every midsized company indicated that prospecting for

new customers is at the top of its agenda. Nearly 98 percent of decision-

makers interviewed said this would be one of their top two challenges in

the near term.

Executive decision-makers across most industries are also focused on

another key challenge—increasing operational efficiency. More than

75 percent of respondents from midsized banks, retailers, healthcare

providers and manufacturers indicate that operational efficiency is

key to growth and profitability.

Figure 1. Customer relations and operational efficiency are among the top

business challenges across industries.

Online, in the store and at home

Regional retailer, City Furniture enhances

customer experience and drives new

sales through its “Academy of Design”

multichannel service. Customers easily

and inexpensively engage an interior

designer via store kiosks and the Web.

Specifications from both channels are

then integrated on the mobile device

used by the interior designer performing

the services. City Furniture projects

a 10 percent increase in sales from

the “Academy of Design” service with

average sales increasing from US$1,500

to US$7,600. Learn more

Increasing operational

efficiency

Prospecting new

customers

Managing customer/

patient relationships

Increasing employee

productivity

Bank

ing

Reta

il

Hea

lthca

re

Man

ufac

turin

g

Who

lesa

le

Reducing costs

Selling more to

existing customers

Top industry challenge

2nd or 3rd top industry challenge

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Business models continue to evolve

Current models may have worked in the past, but that’s all changing. Non-

traditional competition coupled with global market forces requires midsized

companies to find new streams of revenue, centralize their services and build

strategic partnerships.

For most midsized companies, these business model changes represent

expansion—whether it’s local, regional or global. Supporting these various

tiers of expansion are both new lines of business and strategic partnerships

for going to market.

Centralized services across multiple locations are also among the top busi-

ness model modifications. From internal services like payroll and human

resources (HR) to customer support such as help-desk lines, centralization

is gaining momentum.

Business model change is not just a phenomenon within these five industries—

it is even more pronounced by geography. Midsized companies in China lead

the way by far when it comes to business model change, with 97 percent

of executives indicating they will make more than one significant change

during the next 24 months.

Interestingly, a large percentage of decision-makers in the mature, industrial

German economy report that they too will make more than one change to

their business models in the next 24 months.

The wallet in your cell phone

To win new global accounts, Upaid sought

a new service delivery model to realize

its vision of mobile phone payment on a

wide scale. Upaid launched a new hosted

service that allows banks, retailers and

cellular providers to offer their customers

a new payment channel — cell phones.

The new service enables banks, retailers

and cellular providers to offer new value-

add services, while improving working

capital through an estimated 50 percent

reduction in billing cycle time. The reli-

ability of the new service enhanced

Upaid’s ability to win major global

customers. Learn more

Figure 2. Decision-makers intend to

make more than one business model

modification over the next two years.

Figure 3. Most midsized firms in the

developing markets and Germany will

make more than one business model

change over the next two years.

Banking • Strategic partnerships

• Centralized services67%

• Strategic partnerships

• New Lines of BusinessRetail 62%

• Org. structure

• Centralized servicesHealthcare 58%

• Centralized services

• New Lines of BusinessWholesale 63%

• New Lines of Business

• Organizational structureManufacturing 69%

Ch

ina

Ind

ia

Bra

zil

Ge

rma

ny

97%

86%

73% 72%

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Keeping the wheels turning—only faster and better than ever before

Responding to the challenges and opportunities of the global marketplace

is as much about new business models and growth strategies as it is about

operational efficiency. At a fundamental level, growth, innovation and serving

customers better all come down to core operations.

So, little wonder that, across most industries, information technology

(IT) infrastructure security and reliability are among the top two opera-

tional investment areas. Most decision-makers agree with their industry

peers on the key focus areas for operational efficiency, but lack confidence

in the completeness of their current capabilities.

For midsized banks, more than 76 percent of executives agree that IT infra-

structure security and reliability are key to protecting financial transactions

and customer data. But, less than 30 percent are confident that their current

capabilities in this area are complete. At the same time, less than 30 percent

are building the appropriate capabilities. A similar trend in IT security can

be seen in retail and healthcare where the security of customer and patient

information and identity is paramount.

Figure 4. More than 72 percent in each industry indicate that these areas are

critical to operations, but a completeness gap exists.

Moving faster from concept

to commercialization

Audio electronics manufacturer Clarion

Malaysia uses a reliable IT infrastructure

to its advantage. Building improved

product life cycle management capa-

bilities, Clarion enables a higher

level of design collaboration on new

products. By improving product design

processes, Clarion can stay ahead

of the competition and meet shifting

consumer demand. Clarion has

reduced its design cycle time by 50

percent, giving it a key differentiator in

an industry that’s all about speed to

market. Learn more

IT Infrastructure

Security

IT Infrastructure

Reliability

IT Infrastructure

Security

IT Infrastructure

Reliability

IT Infrastructure

Security

Knowledge

Management

Supply Chain

Management

Finance

Systems

IT Infrastructure

Security

IT Infrastructure

Reliability

Complete Building Planning No Action

29% 25% 43% 3%

3%

4%

4%

20%

30% 49%

6%

6%

6%

15%

29% 45%

18% 28% 50%

20% 27% 49%

17% 25% 52%

16% 22% 51% 11%

20% 25% 50% 5%

5%25% 26% 44%

20% 29% 48%

Ban

kin

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eta

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reW

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Man

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Outside the retail and banking industries, midsized wholesalers have a

gap of their own in the core operational area of supply chain management.

Critically dependent on the transparent and accurate flow of goods, parts

and merchandise, 78 percent of wholesale industry executives agree that

supply chain management capabilities are one of their top imperatives. Even

so, only 16 percent are confident that their current capabilities are complete.

And only 22 percent are currently building effective information technology

capabilities for their supply chains.

Changing how the business runs

Competitive advantage used to be about doing the things you’ve always done

only faster and better. But today competitive advantage is increasingly based

on innovation, speed to market and knowledge. The global landscape is

changing —new industry structures are forcing companies, and even en-

tire economies, to fundamentally change.

Directly addressing customer relations and employee productivity challenges,

forward-looking midsized companies are considering strategic IT capabilities

to help their businesses evolve and grow. About 1 in 2 decision-makers are

planning for new capabilities that can fundamentally change their businesses.

In manufacturing, forward-looking midsized companies are beginning to

plan around energy efficient capabilities. This could mean improving data

center efficiency, automated meter management, IT load balancing, and

environmentally-friendly output architectures, among many others.

Figure 5. About 1 in 2 respondents in each industry are actively planning around

these capabilities.

Emerging Investment Areas

• Business intelligence

• Pervasive communicationsHealthcare

• Disaster recovery

• Business intelligenceWholesale


• Energy efficiency capabilitiesManufacturing

Banking• Business intelligence

• Collaboration tools


• Business intelligenceRetail

Rethinking elderly patient care

Denmark’s Storstrøm Erhvervs Center

(SEC) applied a fresh approach to an

old but growing problem — keeping

the at-risk elderly healthy. Leveraging

advanced sensing and pervasive

communications technologies, SEC

laid the foundation for the automated

monitoring of elderly patients in their

homes. The resulting business case

indicates this new approach can

potentially improve the quality of life

for elderly patients and will reduce

healthcare costs associated with de-

bilitating falls over a ten year period

by an estimated Ú100 million (for a

region of 800,000 citizens).

Learn more

Figure 6. Top three emerging investment areas by geography.

United States


capabilities/CRM


• Pervasive communications

Brazil

• Supply chain management

• IT infrastructure security


France

• Knowledge management

• Energy efficiency capabilities

• IT disaster recovery

Germany




capabilities/CRM

Russia


capabilities/CRM



China




Canada


capabilities/CRM



UK




capabilities/CRM

Italy


• IT infrastructure security


India

• Regulatory compliance

• IT infrastructure reliability


Japan

• Knowledge management



capabilities / CRM

Across all industries, midsized companies are looking to potent business

intelligence and customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities

to change their understanding and interactions with customers. These

capabilities can transform massive volumes of data into a single view of

each customer to analyze their spending history and needs, and help anti-

cipate future purchases.

Furthermore, the challenge of increasing employee productivity is stimu-

lating interest in pervasive communications. These capabilities can change

when, where and how a workforce operates, and can range from RFID and

wireless platforms to telecommuting and the integration of mobile devices

like PDAs, cell phones and laptops.

From a geographic perspective, business intelligence and CRM and

pervasive communications capabilities are the most common emerging

investment areas across the 11 countries surveyed. The United States is

especially high in terms of business intelligence/CRM capabilities, with

65 percent of decision-makers actively planning to build these capabilities.

In Japan, a high percentage of midsized companies are actively planning

around knowledge management/HR capabilities that range from self-

service human resource systems to Web-based e-learning. More than

71 percent of decision-makers either intend to implement these capabilities

in the near future or have established concrete goals and objectives.

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Among some European countries, IT capabilities for energy efficiency are

emerging on the executive planning agenda. In France, Germany, Italy and

the United Kingdom, nearly 60 percent of decision-makers in each country

are actively planning to implement these capabilities.

Overcoming the barriers

Finally, you can talk about new projects to drive operational efficiency and

growth, but at the end of the day it always comes down to cost, skills and

feasibility. Across all industries, the majority of decision-makers indicated

that cost and lack of skills were among their top barriers to investing in IT

projects to enhance operational efficiency or drive change.

About 40 percent of decision-makers in each industry view cost or lack of

budget as a prohibitive factor to either operational or strategic IT investments.

Furthermore, nearly one-third of decision-makers across all industries

indicate that lack of employee skills and training is another top barrier to

IT investments.

To overcome these barriers and move forward, some decision-makers are

revisiting how they fund and execute both operational and strategic IT

projects. Decision-makers at midsized companies are looking to a number

of flexible approaches:

• Financing large infrastructure investments into flexible monthly payments

• Selling existing equipment and leasing it back to fund new projects

• Moving to a pay-per-usage hosting model

• Outsourcing accounts receivable to free capital and reduce the invoice-

to-cash cycle

• Engaging third-party vendors for ongoing IT maintenance and security

Adding flexibility to the equation

Denmark’s top building materials pur-

chasing group, Ditas a.m.b.a. con-

solidates information technology (IT)

systems across 14 of its independent

timber merchants. Instead of each

merchant spending excessive time,

funding and resources maintaining its

own IT operations, Ditas consolidated

all 14 in a flexible hosting model,

paying only for the processing and

capacity used. With the flexible hosting

model in place, Ditas reduced overall

IT costs by 30 percent, while increasing

staff productivity by 20 percent.

Figure 7. Top barriers to IT investments.

Cost/Lack

of Budget

Lack of

Technology Skills

Time to

Completion

Wholesale

Banking

Manufacturing

Retail

Healthcare

Manufacturing

Wholesale

Retail

Healthcare

Banking

Manufacturing

Wholesale

Retail

Healthcare

Banking

Quick

Procurement

These solutions and approaches are helping midsized companies avoid large,

up-front capital investments and build these new capabilities. Some of these

approaches are also enabling midsized companies to redistribute work and tap

into talent anywhere, so work gets done fast, is high in quality and low in cost.

Conclusion

The growing demands of the dynamic global marketplace continue to repre-

sent both a challenge and opportunity for midsized companies. Evolving

industry structures, increased competition and more demanding customers

are forcing these companies to change and adapt in order to grow.

One example of this change is the large majority of midsized companies

that will significantly evolve their business models over the next 24 months.

From entering new lines of business and building strategic partnerships

to centralizing core services, these decision-makers know business model

innovation can be one of the most sustainable forms of competitive advantage.

To support this business model evolution in the near term, decision-makers

know they need to sharpen their focus on operational efficiency. An over-

whelming majority agree that a powerful information technology backbone

is essential to achieving this efficiency. But most of these leaders concede

that their core areas such as IT infrastructure security, reliability and

disaster recovery are currently not complete.

Concurrently, forward-looking midsized companies are considering strategic IT

investments to drive this change and grow. With most decision-makers putting

customer relations at the top of the agenda, it’s no surprise that a majority are

actively planning around new business intelligence/CRM capabilities.

Ultimately, success is about adapting your business model to address market

shifts and customer needs; about complete and effective core operations; and

about simultaneously building IT capabilities that can expand and change

the business. And making all this happen requires that you consider unique,

flexible approaches and models.

Tremendous opportunity exists today for midsized companies. Any company

with the right idea, partners and capabilities in place can expand to reach new

customers—whether they’re around the corner or across the globe.

For more information To find out more about this study, or to

learn more about findings specific to

your industry, contact your local IBM

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