IBM AND SYSTEMCORP: STRATEGIC ALLIANCE.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Systemcorp have announced a strategic alliance to market, sell and deliver comprehensive Enterprise Project-portfolio Management (EPM) web solutions to global organizations across all industries.

Bridging the gap between the front and back office, IBM and Systemcorp are implementing PMOffice Enterprise in organizations seeking to improve their core business areas and strategically align people, projects and priorities.

Under the terms of the agreement, Systemcorp and IBM have joined forces to set a new standard in Enterprise Project-portfolio Management by delivering best-of-breed technologies with industry-leading EPM consulting, customization, and integration services. Systemcorp's PMOffice Enterprise EPM solution leverages the power of IBM's WebSphere(1), MQ Series(1) and DB2(1) database software, and is deployed in some of the largest financial, pharmaceutical and high tech organizations around the world.

IBM brings to the alliance its vast expertise in project management. "Based on our experience delivering hundreds of successful projects, we recognize that success falls heavily on the execution of world-class project management principles, techniques, and processes," said Kathleen Colyar Piontek, practice executive with IBM Global Services (IGS). "Leveraging PMOffice Enterprise as the cornerstone of our offering, we can further assist our customers in assessing, applying and deploying project management disciplines across core business areas, processes and systems. The breadth and depth of knowledge and experience provided by IBM combined with PMOffice Enterprise software enables our customers to define their priorities, align their projects, and then rigorously manage critical activities across their entire workforce."

According to Murray Schwartz, Systemcorp's Director of Strategic Alliances, companies have previously focused on the automation of front and back office processes, neglecting the automation of their internal departments. "Depending on the industry, internal organizations such as IT, R&D, consulting services, marketing and corporate governance departments, together can represent anywhere from 16% to 54% of a company's business costs," he said (Systemcorp internal research, 2002). "More importantly, the bulk of these costs are incurred by work performed in the context of a project. But with 28% of projects failing before completion, (Standish Group Chaos Report, 1999) and 51% of projects exceeding costs by more than twice their budgets (excerpt from various Gartner Advisories, from Sep-Dec 2000), organizations have painfully recognized that the lack of an automated enterprise project system is a critical liability affecting their delivery process."

PMOffice Enterprise assigns all resources from within a central automated system. It facilitates a dynamic decision process which evaluates, selects and prioritizes an organization's list of new projects. Active projects may be accelerated, rescued, killed or de-prioritized. Resources are constantly reallocated to all remaining initiatives, aligning people, projects, and organizational priorities with a company's business strategy. By implementing PMOffice, Systemcorp's customers have experienced a 25% decline in project failures, slashed their budget overruns by as much as 28%, and substantially optimized their resource management processes. Companies managing a typical $60 million project-portfolio are saving over $12 million per year (Systemcorp internal research 2002).