IBM Global Business Services Placed in Leadership Quadrant by Leading Analyst Firm

ARMONK, N.Y. - IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Gartner, Inc. has positioned IBM Global Business Services in the leaders quadrant in its “Magic Quadrant for Global Business Intelligence and Performance Management Service Providers, February 2011”(1) for its Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO) service line. In positioning vendors in its Magic Quadrant, Gartner evaluates completeness of vision and ability to execute.

“Analytics and business intelligence are about helping clients build better products and services and helping society solve difficult challenges, ranging from traffic congestion to food traceability to managing financial risk,” said Fred Balboni, global leader, business analytics and optimization, IBM. “IBM’s capabilities in this key area draw on the expertise of the largest mathematics department in global industry, 8,000 consultants dedicated to business analytics and a software business that has invested more than $14 billion in 24 analytics acquisitions during the past five years – all dedicated to helping our clients take action through analytics.”

Recent research by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, in conjunction with the MIT Sloan Management Review, illuminates the need for Business Analytics and Optimization services: 20 percent of the 3,000 executive managers and analysts surveyed globally said they are under intense or significant pressure to adopt advanced information and analytics approaches; and 60 percent of respondents said their organization has more data than it can use effectively.

Market Definition/Description

Gartner’s definition of Business Intelligence, Analytics and Performance Management include “professional services offerings to optimize an enterprise’s processes and integrate related technology applications and platforms, which include application-related work.”

For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com/smarterplanet. For a copy of this report, visit http://imagesrv.gartner.com/media-products/pdf/reprints/ibm/external/volume6/article4.pdf.

(1) Magic Quadrant for Global Business Intelligence and Performance Management Service Providers, January 27, 2011, Alex Soejarto, Neil Chandler.

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted January 27, 2011 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.