IBM launches new products at Impact 2009

The Impact 2009 roadshow which kicked off in Riyadh on 24th May followed by Doha on 25th May 2009 was held under the theme 'Smart Planet'.

The Impact 2009 roadshow offered an exclusive opportunity to quickly gain practical knowledge about topics related to cost optimization strategies, business agility, business user empowerment and how to respond rapidly to business events with IBM Regional and Global executives in addition to SOA experts.

IBM also unveiled its comprehensive 'Smarter Work' strategy including 'Smarter Workforce' and new services for collaboration and business transformation. IBM's comprehensive smarter work approach takes advantage of today's increasingly instrumented and interconnected world.

"We unveiled new solutions and services in support of Smart Work, organizations will learn ways to work smarter by building dynamic processes and models, developing smarter collaboration, all on a smart SOA technology base," said Takreem El-Tohamy, General Manager, IBM Middle East and North Africa. "By working smarter organizations are able to embrace change, transforming their business processes."

IBM worked closely to achieve the success of the event with Gulf Business machine (GBM), sole distributor excluding selected IBM products/services throughout the GCC, except for Saudi Arabia. John McLean, VP WebSphere Connectivity Development & Hursley Laboratory Director, shared his wealth of experience across WebSphere and SOA with the audience during his keynote speech.

He provided a unique opportunity to gain valuable insight about cost optimization strategies to reuse existing assets and connect disparate systems, enhancing business agility through process improvement and smarter collaboration as well as using the IBM Smart SOA approach to build a structured future proofed plan for cost optimization and agility.

With more than 7,000 customer implementations worldwide, IBM is the SOA market leader. This leadership in SOA is further illustrated by a thriving community of greater than 120,000 architects and developers, 300 SOA-specific technology patents, 2,000 universities advancing the SOA curriculum, and 7,420 Business Partners building SOA skills, solutions, and practices.

"We will offer our business partners a series of new, flexible and understandable solutions to help customers who need to acquire SOA solutions today, a preferred method of delivering sustainable agility," said Bashar Kilani, Software Group business unit executive, IBM Middle East.

"The flexibility and scalability of such systems enable regional businesses to build smartness into their structure and as such be better enabled to overcome the challenges of rapidly changing market conditions," he added.