IBM Opens 7th Client Center in Russia

Part of the Company’s Global Focus on Growth Markets




PERM, RUSSIA - May 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of a client center in the city of Perm in the Russian Federation as part of the company’s regional expansion.

The center, which is IBM’s 7th in Russia, is aimed at supporting its customers and business partners in the Perm region of Russia. IBM is actively investing in hiring and training new staff, establishing new centers of competence and supporting the education of local business partners across the country. Last year, IBM opened client centers in St. Petersburg, Kazan, Rostov-on-Don, Samara and Novosibirsk. IBM’s Russian operation is headquartered in Moscow where IBM has been present for 35 years.
“The next 10 years of economic growth in Russia will be a period where the regions become of increasing importance as the fastest growth moves out of Moscow and St. Petersburg and businesses tap into opportunities and resources across the country,” said Kirill Korniliev, country general manager of IBM in Russia. “Given the growth of the local markets and the increasing complexity of IT projects that we are involved in, it is essential for us to have direct presence in Russia’s most important cities.”

Perm, which is in the Urals region of Russia to the west of the country, is important for Russian industry. IBM is supporting the transformation of some of the biggest companies in Perm across key industries such as chemicals, metals, mining, energy, oil and gas, telecommunications and banking.

For example, IBM business consultants currently are supporting the Perm city administration in creating an IT-strategy focused on the reallocation of the government’s information technologies and services. The strategy is designed to increase the efficiency and value of Perm’s IT resources and create a single, integrated IT platform for all government departments and applications. The platform, based on SOA technologies, also would support the development of e-government services such as online procurement and an information portal for citizens of the region.

“We turned to IBM to help us define our IT strategy due to its international experience in combination with its local knowledge and expertise,” said Michael Bobrov, head of IT, Perm city administration. “We are confident that this piece of work will help us to boost the effectiveness of all our administrative processes.”

In another project, IBM, in collaboration with its local business partner CROC, has provided Kamabank -- one of the biggest banks in the Perm region -- with core data center technologies. Kamabank is using the new data center as the backbone for its new automated banking system for the processing of financial data.

IBM also announced details today of an agreement with the Perm municipal government to launch the KidSmart Early Learning Program to schools in the Perm region aimed at increasing the computer literacy of children and teachers in primary education. As part of the agreement IBM will donate 52 KidSmart PC units with special educational software in Russian language.