IBM Announces 2007 PartnerWorld Beacon Awards Winners Recognizing Market-Proven Innovation and Collaboration by Business Partners

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the winners of its annual IBM PartnerWorld Beacon Awards competition, recognizing IBM Business Partners for their outstanding innovation and customer satisfaction in providing innovative solutions to clients worldwide. Winners were selected in 38 award categories, including a number of new categories, by panels of leading-industry journalists, analysts, and IBM executives.


The Beacon Awards are an important component in IBM’s PartnerWorld program recognizing the essential role our Business Partners play in driving real innovation for their clients and making a difference in today’s highly competitive marketplace. The awards recognize innovative ways of collaborating with IBM and other Business Partners as well as new flexible approaches to the marketplace. Through close teaming with IBM, Beacon Award winners bring powerful business impacting solutions across nearly every horizontal and vertical market which enable their customers to lower costs, increase efficiency and achieve significant return on investment.

"The IBM PartnerWorld Beacon Awards recognize Business Partners that have delivered powerful, innovative solutions and services to customers around the world" said Ravi Marwaha, general manager, IBM Global Business Partners. "Through collaboration, a commitment to deep skills and a focus on innovation that matters, these Business Partners have developed unique solutions that solve real business issues for clients while delivering consistently high customer satisfaction"

This year IBM added several new award categories to recognize the continued drive to global innovation and market responsiveness our Business Partners bring to their clients. New award categories this year include Driving Innovation that Matters in Education and Learning, recognizing a Business Partner that delivered creative and innovative solutions to help schools and higher education institutions achieve greater operational productivity and student success, Driving Patient-Centric Healthcare, for the Business Partner that teamed with IBM to implement innovative, leadership solutions that empower patients through access to information, and Best IBM System x Energy Management Solution highlighting the importance of managing actual power consumption. A comprehensive listing of award categories and winners is included below.

Winners and finalists from around the world will be honored during the PartnerWorld 2007 Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, April 29 - May 2. This year’s PartnerWorld Beacon Award winners by category are:

Software

Best Information Management Solution: CSC Australia, Macquarie Park, Australia

Best Lotus* Software Solution: PSG Group, Schaumburg, IL, United States

Best Managing Technology Tivoli* Solution: Encode, Freehold, NJ, United States

Best WebSphere* Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) Solution: Ultramatics, Oldsmar, FL, United States

IBM Software Best Open Computing Solution: OpenDemand, Wayne, NJ, United States

Rational* - Most Valuable Partner Award: BSD Group, Denver, CO, United States

Software as Services (SaaS) Innovation Award: BIPT, Inc., Sarasota, FL, United States

Systems and Technology

Best IBM System i* Solution: 3Com Corporation, Marlborough, MA, United States

Best IBM System p* AIX* Solution: Fiserv Insurance Solutions, Brookfield, WI, United States

The Best IBM System z9 and eServer zSeries Solution: Cornerstone Systems, Inc., Irvine, CA, United States

Best IBM System x* Solution: Datatrend Technologies, Inc., Atlanta, GA, United States

Best System p Linux: Sybase, Dublin, CA, United States

Best IBM System Storage Virtualization Solution: FRITZ & MACZIOL Software und Computervertrieb GmbH, Ulm, Germany

Best IBM System x Energy Management Solution: Sirius Computer Solutions, San Antonio, TX, United States

Semiconductors

Best Semiconductor Solution: Avnet, Inc., Phoenix, AZ, United States

Best IBM Embedded Power Architecture Solution: Mercury Computer Systems, Inc., Chelmsford, MA, United States

Best Common Platform Technology Ecosystem Solution: Synopsys, Mountain View, CA, United States

IBM Services

IGS Teaming Award for Consultants and Integrators: Pasporte Limited, Surrey, United Kingdom

IGS Teaming Award for Independent Software Vendors: Axentis, Inc., Cleveland, OH, United States

IGS Teaming Award for Resellers: Advanced Systems Group, Irvine, CA, United States

Technical Excellence

Overall Technical Excellence in an IBM Business Partner: Logicalis, Inc., Berkshire, United Kingdom

Overall Technical Excellence in an IBM Business Partner: NIWS Co., Ltd, Tokyo, Japan

Overall Technical Excellence in an IBM Business Partner: Prolifics, New York, NY, United States

Overall Technical Excellence in an IBM Business Partner: Sogeti Group, Paris, France

Consultants & Integrators

Best Regional Consultant and System Integrator Solution - Americas: Primitive Logic, San Francisco, CA, United States

Best Regional Consultant and System Integrator Solution - Asia Pacific: Worxcode, Jakarta, Indonesia

Best Regional Consultant and System Integrator Solution - Europe, Middle East, and Africa: Informatikk, Oslo, Norway

Global Small & Medium Business

Best of IBM SMB Business Partner Teaming: Mainline Information Systems with Soft-Pack, Tallahassee, FL, United States

Most Innovative ’Built on IBM Express Portfolio Solution: Rumbo Sistemas, S.L., Valencia, Spain

Global Solutions

Global Solutions - Best Industry Solution: MSC Software Corporation, Santa Ana, CA, United States

Global Solutions - Success: Core IT, Strongsville, OH, United States

Industry

Most Innovative Industry Optimized Solution: Ancept Media Server, LLC, Bloomington, MN, United State

Driving Innovation that Matters in Education and Learning: SmartWeb Technology, Inc., Aberdeen, United Kingdom

Driving Patient-Centric Healthcare: Cerner Corporation, Kansas City, MO, United States

Innovation that Matters in Government: Cognos Incorporated, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

IBM Global Financing

Most Innovative Financing Program - Americas Group: Strategic Computer Solutions, Inc., Syracuse, NY, United States

Most Innovative Financing Program - Asia Pacific: Japan Business Computer Corporation, Tokyo Japan

Most Innovative Financing Program - Europe, Middle East, and Africa: Computer Gross Italia spa, Empoli, Italy

About IBM PartnerWorld Beacon Awards

For more information about the IBM PartnerWorld Beacon Awards, including descriptions of the winning entries and details about the finalists, please visit: http://www-1.ibm.com/partnerworld/pwhome.nsf/weblook/pw2007_awards.html to learn more about IBM PartnerWorld, a comprehensive program that offers marketing and sales resources, training, certification and technical support to help create new revenue and market opportunities for IBM Business Partners, please visit http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld.