IBM's comprehensive smarter work approach takes advantage of today's increasingly instrumented and interconnected world. By improving collaboration between people and transforming business processes that are critical to success, organizations can become more agile and responsive to rapidly changing market conditions and better able to pursue new revenue opportunities.

Inefficient business processes and barriers to collaboration can hamper business success, especially in a challenging economic environment. According to IBM, businesses waste 5.3 hours per employee due to inefficient processes. Two-thirds of employees believe there are colleagues who can help them do their jobs better, but don't know how to find them. In addition, 42 percent of people are forced to make decisions with the wrong information at least once per week, while 91 percent of CEOs surveyed by IBM said they needed to restructure the way their organizations work.

"Working smarter means becoming more productive and cost-efficient by taking advantage of the tools and information that can yield the greatest benefits in a competitive environment. Through the Lotus and WebSphere software portfolios, IBM is committed to bringing new collaboration and business process management capabilities to the market to better enable customers to work smarter," said Tom Rosamilia , general manager, IBM WebSphere. "With today's announcements, IBM is providing the tools and strategies to help our clients and partners quickly reap the benefits of increased agility."

Since the introduction of IBM WebSphere Business Events software one year ago, IBM has focused on ways to help clients improve their processes. The acquisition of ILOG in December 2008 further enhanced IBM's industry-leading portfolio, extending these capabilities with new business rules management systems.

As part of today's announcement, IBM is expanding on the technologies gained through the ILOG acquisition, while also updating its existing business process management (BPM) suite of products. New products targeted at this rapidly expanding BPM market include:

• IBM WebSphere Business Events updates - Provides reduced costs by uncovering actionable situations in real time. It helps to deliver the extended enterprise infrastructure through integration with CICS and now support for z/OS.
• Business Architecture Services - Aligns business and IT goals through a structured delivery process that is designed to connect an enterprise's business model with its technology models.
• New BPM feature packs with enhanced capabilities for business leaders, business professionals, and IT administrators, providing new ways to link strategy to execution and greater task management for faster business returns.
• Enhancements to products from the ILOG acquisition include an upgrade to IBM WebSphere ILOG JRules; new features for IBM ILOG Optimization Decision Management Enterprise; and enhancements to the ILOG supply chain management portfolio.
• New Key Agility Indicators (KAIs) - All 300 KAIs have been updated on the IBM Benchmark Wizard, reflecting the latest industry and economic data.