IBM Recognizes Top Innovators on iSeries Systems

COMMON -- IBM and COMMON, an iSeries users group, honored five companies that are setting new standards for iSeries innovation as the winners of the first ever eServer iSeries Innovation Awards at the COMMON users conference in Chicago today.

The eServer iSeries Innovation Awards, designed to showcase end-user achievements in IT innovation using the IBM iSeries platform, recognized the following winners in these categories: U-Bix Konica Minolta (Industry), Kingland Systems Corporation (Insurance), GHY International (Infrastructure Simplification), ScottKlement.com (Intellectual Solutions) and Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (Invention).

"Our clients around the world are finding more and more ways to save money, and make their businesses more flexible and resilient," said Mark Shearer, IBM iSeries general manager. "In fact, by using an iSeries platform, customers can reap the rewards of becoming an on demand business. IBM and COMMON wanted to create a program to annually recognize those leaders who are consistently striving to unleash innovation on the iSeries server to create and deliver greater business value and cutting-edge solutions."

--  U-Bix Konica Minolta, the largest office equipment company in New
    Zealand, is the winner of the Industry Solution category, for two
    innovative projects based on the iSeries. Project PDA enables U-Bix
    technicians on customer service calls to "talk" directly to the iSeries
    platform back in the home office using PDA devices with cellular modems. U-
    Bix saves time and money by allowing their PDA technicians to more easily
    log and track their work through this innovative technology. This solution
    manages service calls and inventory, acknowledges job status, and ensures
    billing accuracy resulting in saved time, financial resources and increased
    productivity. Project Sentinel relies on the iSeries server's autonomic
    capabilities to allow U-Bix Konica Minolta to attach customers' copiers and
    printers directly to the iSeries to detect issues before becoming problems.
    Sensors in the copies and printers alert U-Bix Konica Minolta to a
    potential failure, which automatically dispatches the technician or the
    "remote diagnostics" support desk to seize the problem before it occurs.
    This allows the customer to avoid downtime, and save resources and time. U-
    Bix Konica Minolta was nominated by Cosyn Software Limited.

--  Kingland Systems Corporation, a software services company providing
    services for the retail financial industry, the accounting industry,
    government agencies, and general corporate governance, received the
    Insurance Award. Kingland Systems' mission-critical data centers provide
    customers with turnkey software and hosting solutions from its primary data
    center in Clear Lake, Iowa. Kingland has customers in over 80 countries
    that rely on the company's continued service. Downtime is not an option and
    the iSeries platform has improved its great service with its High
    Availability solution. By using the iSeries platform and implementing
    strong procedures, Kingland is able to switch to other systems at remote
    sites without interruption and deliver an exceptional proven record of
    availability for Kingland's clients.

--  GHY International, one of Canada's oldest privately held customs
    brokerage companies providing brokerage and international trade services to
    clients, received the Innovation Award for Infrastructure Simplification
    for its "Good, Better, Best" project, which took its IT infrastructure to a
    superior level. With an IT staff of three, this iSeries customer
    consolidated a total of 14 servers including Windows servers, Linux
    servers, Domino on WinNT onto two iSeries platforms including existing
    business applications, saving the company resources that could be
    reinvested for future growth. After the first year of running the system,
    GHY was 14% under budget with nearly $100,000 of savings that could be
    directly attributed to the simplification process on the iSeries platform.

--  ScottKlement.com, a website of tutorials designed to assist iSeries
    users on various programs and applications, was honored with the
    Intellectual Award after being nominated by Partner400. Scott Klement
    developed a website filled with in-depth tutorials and open-source software
    making it possible for the average RPG programmer to access web services
    from leading companies, write sockets based-communications programs in RPG
    IV, read and write files in the IFS directly from RPG IV programs, and
    process XML documents from an RPG program. Available free of charge to
    iSeries users, ScottKlement.com enables the iSeries server to be a more
    viable player in an on demand world while giving users access to additional
    software applications, saving money and delivering better satisfaction of
    IT infrastructure.

--  The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, a two-year
    accredited, private college with campuses in Los Angeles, San Francisco,
    San Diego, and Orange County, Calif., received the Invention Award, given
    to the iSeries end user demonstrating best practices in innovation and
    custom deployments. FIDM arms its students with the creative tools needed
    for their industry, as well as career advice and access to job
    opportunities. To assist in getting employment information to students,
    FIDM created a secure online site for industry contacts to post job
    opportunities with FIDM's Career Development and Placement Center at
    www.fidm.com. Last year, FIDM expanded this job service to more than 20,000
    alumni who can search posted jobs using various search criteria via the
    Internet through the FIDM Portal, myfidm.fidm.edu, powered by the iSeries
    platform. Now, alumni have unlimited access to the search vehicle, freeing
    up on-site career counselors for current students.