IBM and SSA Global Form Worldwide Strategic Alliance to Spur Application Integration for Mid-Size Companies

Business Wire, May 24, 2004

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SOMERS, N.Y. & CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2004

Alliance to provide affordable solution to integrate and extend

enterprise applications

IBM, the world's largest IT company, and SSA Global, one of the world's largest providers of enterprise software for mid-size manufacturers and divisions of large companies, today announced a global strategic alliance to help customers maximize the benefits of new and existing enterprise applications by making it easier to modernize and integrate those systems across the extended enterprise.

Through the cross-industry alliance, IBM and SSA Global will help mid-size companies achieve new levels of end-to-end application integration while sharing more business information, faster, across the organization. With thousands of customers already running SSA Global solutions on IBM eServer xSeries, iSeries, pSeries and zSeries technology, the joint solution will further reduce total cost of ownership and time-to-value, while helping these companies adopt a growing list of industry standards and IT mandates.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will jointly market extended enterprise solutions from SSA Global built on IBM middleware, including IBM WebSphere Portal, IBM WebSphere Business Integration, IBM WebSphere Application Server and IBM DB2 Universal Database. Enterprise applications from SSA Global will include enterprise resource planning (ERP), corporate performance management (CPM), customer relationship management (CRM), product lifecycle management (PLM), supply chain management (SCM) and supplier relationship management (SRM). IBM Business Consulting Services and SSA Global will collaborate to offer implementation and consulting services.

"The joint IBM and SSA Global solution will help mid-size manufacturers extend the value of existing application investments while preparing for future growth and expansion," said Mark Elliott, general manager, IBM Global ISV Solution Sales. "By standardizing SSA Global solutions on IBM's open middleware platform, customers can avoid a costly rip and replace approach because they're able to integrate new applications with old and modernize their entire IT architecture."

"This alliance, and the deep industry expertise it represents, will bring a comprehensive solution to thousands of our joint customers that want to both leverage and extend their enterprise application and systems," said Mike Greenough, president, chairman and CEO, SSA Global. "In addition, IBM and SSA Global will work together to reach new customers in emerging markets that need an affordable enterprise application platform."

Greif Inc., an industrial packaging company headquartered in Delaware, Ohio, is one of thousands of joint IBM and SSA Global customers that need to better integrate their back-end applications while gaining additional value from existing IT investments.

"We now run two different enterprise solutions from SSA Global on multiple platforms to support our back-end processes, which are split between previous deployments of Baan and BPCS software," said Ken Andre, CIO, Greif Inc. "The joint IBM and SSA Global solution will help us standardize these applications on a single, integrated platform and ensure more consistency and flexibility in the flow of enterprise data across our company."

In addition to economic pressures and global competition driving higher levels of efficiency, many manufacturers and distributors face increasing industry standards and customer IT mandates, such as the future adoption of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Today's announcement provides a comprehensive solution that can help these companies prepare to track and share data with downstream customers and suppliers by first tying together their internal enterprise applications.

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: http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld

About SSA Global

SSA Global(TM) is a leading provider of extended enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for manufacturing, services, and public organizations worldwide. In addition to core ERP applications, SSA Global offers a full range of integrated extended solutions including corporate performance management, customer relationship management, product lifecycle management, supply chain management and supplier relationship management. Headquartered in Chicago, SSA Global has 121 locations worldwide and its product offerings are used by more than 13,000 active customers that represent market-leading companies in over 90 countries. For additional information, visit the SSA Global web site at www.ssaglobal.com.