IBM Wins Systems Integrator Best Practices Award for Business Process Redesign at T-Com Croatia

NICE, FRANCE - May 2008: IBM (NYSE: IBM) received the Best Practices Award for Supplier or System Integrator at the TeleManagement Forum, Management World 2008 conference in Nice, France. IBM was recognized for its world-class leadership in eTOM (Enhanced Telecom Operations Map(R)) customization and real world applications and solutions for the telecommunications industry, based upon its outstanding business process redesign work at T-Com Croatia.

Eduardo Argueso Lopez, Telecommunications Solutions Manager, Communications Sector in Europe, accepted the award on behalf of IBM. Mr. Argueso Lopez said, “I am pleased to accept this distinguished award and would like to thank T-Com Croatia for the opportunity to work with them. Using the TMF’s eTOM as a foundation, coupled with our business process redesign expertise, we were able to re-engineer and improve several key business processes that enable end-to-end DSL service rollout and delivery for T-Com Croatia’s customers.”

Commenting on the award, Ivana Soljan, CEO of T-Com Croatia, said, “We are pleased to have our project highlighted by the TM Forum. IBM gave us a level of process insight we could not have gained elsewhere. We are very excited to put that insight to work for the benefit of our customers and to make us a stronger competitor.”

The project highlighted IBM’s unique ability to push beyond the boundaries of traditional business process transformation by extending the eTOM standard into deeper levels of process detail, as well as into broader business architecture areas such as organizational change and information flow. Key business improvements identified include: optimized network deployment, better integration between marketing and network planning, optimized quote-to-service activities, strengthened supply chain reliability, higher customer satisfaction and retention, and improved competitiveness and profitability.

“In order to promote best practices, it is critical that service providers request and implement industry best practices to provide the motivation and market for standards-based products and processes,” said Martin Creaner, President and CTO of the TM Forum. “This year we have seen some major, highly ambitious projects and are thrilled that IBM has won this prestigious category.”

TeleManagement Forum’s Management World 2008 is the global conference attracting more then 3,000 attendees from 74 countries, where distinguished speakers, analysts, service providers and technologists from the world of information, communications and entertainment services come together to identify opportunities and the vision for the converging telecommunications marketplace.

TM Forum is an industry association focused on transforming business processes, operations and systems for managing and monetizing on-line Information, Communications and Entertainment services. The Forum has over 650 global members from across the converging industries of telecom, cable, media and the Internet. The Forum provides strategic leadership, business guidance, best practices, and pragmatic standards that empower companies to reduce costs, reduce time to market and improve service quality.