ARMONK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 01/05/07 -- A new, independent research report on service oriented architecture found that "IBM (NYSE: IBM) leads in overall Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) offerings." The Forrester Wave(TM): EMEA SOA Integration, Q4 2006, December 2006, examined IBM Global Services' current SOA offerings, SOA strategy and market presence.

SOA is a way of reusing a company's existing technology to more closely align it with business goals, helping to result in greater efficiencies, cost savings and productivity.

In addition to finding "IBM leads in overall EMEA offerings" Forrester also found that IBM "has impressive R&D and intellectual property investments in SOA, coupled with its already expansive breadth and depth of services, software, and hardware."

Additionally, Forrester reported that "While IBM's current EMEA capabilities are strong, the recent announcements of two new development centers located in Beijing, China and Pune, India will enable its clients to take advantage of cutting-edge SOA innovation. IBM continues to promote SOA, enabling IT's responsiveness to the business and increasing the focus on business process."

"We believe IBM's recognition in this report is a direct result of our experience with thousands of SOA customers and a strategy that builds upon strengths in business consulting, IT services and software to develop high-value, repeatable tools that help companies optimize and transform their businesses," said Bridget A van Kralingen, Global Business Services Managing Partner, Northeast Europe IBM Global Services.

IBM recently announced a series of initiatives to extend its position as a strong performer. In addition to the SOA Solution Centers, IBM also recently announced an intent to acquire security provider Internet Security Systems, and asset and service management technology developer MRO Software. IBM now has more than 2,500 partners in its SOA partner initiative and more than 3,000 IBM and business partner software assets are available in the IBM SOA Business Catalog. This resource allows customers to search for pre-engineered SOA technology components that solve specific business problems. More than 90,000 IBM consultants around the world are currently being trained on SOA and IBM has a worldwide network of SOA design and development centers.

For additional information visit www.ibm.com/SOA.

Contact:
Ron Favali
IBM
727-489-7202
Favali@us.ibm.com