CONTACT INFORMATION

IBM
www.ibm.com/partnerworld

Hannah Unkefer
Text 100 Public Relations
hannahu@text100.com

SOMERS, NY, March 15, 2004 - IBM today announced SPL Worldgroup as the first to join its new ISV Advantage for Industries program. IBM also announced that as a result of its close collaboration with Frontline Consultancy through the ISV Advantage for SMB initiative, Johnston Sweepers has chosen the joint IBM/Frontline service management solution over the Microsoft alternative to improve efficiency and productivity.

As part of IBM's recently announced $1 billion investment in independent software vendor (ISV) programs, ISV Advantage provides a growth path for select ISVs who want a deeper relationship with IBM, offering developers an array of technical, marketing and sales resources. The year-old ISV Advantage for SMB initiative has attracted more than 200 members worldwide who are developing customized solutions to meet the specific needs of SMB customers and committing to go to market with IBM for a majority of their business, Built on the success of ISV Advantage for SMB is the new ISV Advantage for Industries program, which is designed for select ISVs who are influential in the vertical markets they serve and dedicated to delivering industry solutions on IBM's on demand platform. ISV Advantage is an extension of the PartnerWorld Industry Networks for ISVs (PWIN), a major new initiative that is designed to build an ever-expanding ecosystem of ISVs specific to each of IBM's key vertical industry groups.

SPL Worldgroup, a provider of customer care and billing software for the energy and utilities industry, is the first ISV Advantage for Industries participant.

"We're very pleased to be participating in IBM's ISV Advantage for Industries program," said Dave Mulit, SPL WorldGroup's General Manager for the Americas. "The expertise and core competencies of IBM and SPL are a winning combination, and will help energy and service companies take advantage of SPL's industry-leading billing and customer care CorDaptix solution. We feel confident that customers will gain a competitive edge through the joint consulting, implementation, operation services and business process optimization that this relationship provides."

Johnston Sweepers Brushes Away the Competition for IBM and Frontline Consultancy
Johnston Sweepers has chosen the joint IBM and Frontline Consultancy service management solution over Microsoft to help manage their services business, improve efficiency and increase revenue. Frontline Consultancy was the first company in EMEA to join ISV Advantage for SMB last year.

Based in the UK with operations worldwide, Johnston Sweepers manufactures outdoor surface cleansing equipment. Its comprehensive product range includes sweepers for the Ministry of Defense, airports, shopping centers, city streets, building sites and pedestrian areas. Service plays a vital role in Johnston's business, as many customers' operations rely on its vehicles in order to function.

Johnston chose KUDOS, Frontline's open standards-based service management solution, to help manage post-sale customer service support. By using KUDOS, Johnston will experience improved productivity among the company's field and workshop-based engineers, who currently perform around 100 customer services jobs per week, by optimizing their time more efficiently. Enhanced field service and customer relationship management will also help Johnston improve service engineer utilization, reduce communication costs and lower office based overhead, ultimately resulting in increased revenue.

"KUDOS and IBM enables our complete business to communicate and operate with a customer focus, from the front to the back of the company," said Steve Douglas, Marketing Director, Johnston Sweepers. "At the touch of a button, we now have access to customer history, customer activity and everything from a Christmas card list to sophisticated fleet management. The potential to our business is invaluable."

The KUDOS solution will make use of IBM WebSphere* Internet infrastructure software, DB2* Universal Database, Lotus Domino, Lotus Notes and IBM eServer* xSeries*.

"ISVs such as SPL Worldgroup and Frontline Consultancy are at the core of IBM's billion dollar commitment to meet our customers' needs, industry by industry," said Buell Duncan, general manager, IBM ISV & Developer Relations. "The winning combination of IBM's open platforms with the expertise of our ISV network is unmatched. Through the ISV Advantage initiative, IBM is teaming with influential ISVs worldwide who share the same mission - in this case, companies in the energy, utilities and service industries - to help them transform into on demand enterprises."

About IBM
IBM's ISV and Developer Relations initiatives are administered by PartnerWorld for Developers, the developer resource for IBM Business Partners. It is a worldwide program designed to help software developers reach broader markets, lower their costs of doing business, and take their products to market faster. With 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate, IBM is the world's largest information technology company. IBM is a leading provider of e-business solutions and is dedicated to helping companies, Business Partners and developers leverage the potential of the Internet and network computing across a wide range of businesses and industries. The company offers a host of cross-industry and industry specific solutions designed to meet the needs of companies of all sizes. For more information on partnering with IBM, please visit: www.ibm.com/partnerworld

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