IBM Expands Information Server Software Platform

New Capabilities Automate and Accelerate Data Integration Projects



ARMONK, NY - Mar 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today expanded its IBM Information Server software platform to help customers improve productivity and results within their information integration projects through improved collaboration and automation.

Today’s announcement includes the introduction of IBM Information Server FastTrack, a new module for IBM Information Server, designed to help customers simplify and speed deployment of information integration projects that solve complex business problems. Information Server FastTrack includes new capabilities that automate time-consuming processes required to translate business requirements into software code.

During beta testing, customers concluded that it can help save substantial time and costs by reducing information integration project development time up to an estimated 40 percent. The automated features of the new IBM software will help businesses of all sizes more effectively use their IT and development resources for information integration projects, enabling them to focus efforts on solving strategic business problems.

IBM Information Server is a first-of-its-kind complete platform for integrating and cleansing data from across heterogeneous enterprise systems that delivers a complete view of trusted enterprise information whenever and wherever it is needed.

“FastTrack enables our analysts to capture more complete business requirements,” said Roderich Hofmann, project manager, WAVE, IT-Solutions provider of Bank Austria and member of UniCredit Group. “The ability to translate this information directly into DataStage jobs with up to 70 percent of the code completed will significantly shorten our development lifecycle.”

FastTrack enables business analysts, data modelers and developers to easily collaborate for faster implementation of data integration projects, ensure documentation consistency, and maintain historical tracking for data governance and auditing requirements. Designed to work with Microsoft Excel, business requirements are completed within a simple user interface, and then translated directly into integration code for use by the IBM Information Server data integration engine.

For customers in the retail, banking, finance, healthcare and telecommunications industries, FastTrack can be used with the IBM Industry Models and Rational Data Architect to simplify and speed the deployment of data warehouses based on the IBM models. FastTrack can also be used to speed up implementation projects related to the recently announced IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management Server.

“IBM Information Server FastTrack is a valuable addition to our complex data integration environment,” said Randy Stone, manager, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. “FastTrack reduces our data integration cycle by automating manual analysis and documentation tasks. The resource savings represented by ensuring that critical business requirements are consistently and efficiently incorporated into the technical solution makes FastTrack an exceptionally productive solution for Blue Cross.”

Also announced today is a new version of IBM Information Server Business Glossary Anywhere that includes additional support for AIX, Solaris and Red Hat Linux. Business Glossary Anywhere is accessible directly from any desktop application, allowing users to click on a term and view its business definition in a pop-up window providing instant understanding of business terms.

“Information Server is an industry-unique platform designed to massively simplify data integration,” said Jim Welch, vice president, IBM Information Platform and Solutions. “Built on a unified metadata foundation to ensure information is consistent, reliable and reusable, IBM Information Server FastTrack helps automate and accelerate the translation of business requirements into completed data integration projects to solve complex business problems.”

IBM Information Server FastTrack and IBM Information Server Business Glossary Anywhere are currently available from IBM and IBM business partners.