IBM enables smart businesses to survive and thrive

In light of this, IBM's Impact Middle East 2009 road show focused on cost optimization, business agility and rapid response which enabled participants to gain insight into the issues and solutions to not only survive but thrive in the current economic environment.

By transforming business processes and improving collaboration across the workforce, organizations can become more agile and responsive to rapidly changing market conditions as well as better able to pursue new revenue opportunities; becoming 'Smarter' organisations.

"Working smarter means becoming more intelligent about the way we use the resources that we have, making processes better, faster and more cost-efficient. The solutions and business process management capabilities that we are bringing to the market are enabling our customers to do just that," said Takreem El Tohamy, general manager, IBM Middle East and North Africa.

"The recent Impact event in the US was a huge success and the Riyadh event was equally a great opportunity for our customers and business partners who learned more about our applications and technology enabling them to become the smart enterprises that the future requires."

And according to Michael Fadi Fawal, SBM Software Group manager, the record attendance at Riyadh event showed significant interest in the 'smart' technology by organizations across all sectors in Saudi Arabia.

The roadshow was hosted by Saudi Business Machines (SBM), IBM's general marketing and services representatives in Saudi Arabia, and the key note speaker of the event was John McLean, Vice President WebSphere Connectivity Development & Hursley Laboratory Director, who shared his wealth of experience across WebSphere and SOA with the audience.

John 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. By sharing his experience and customer stories, John also showed how IBM Smart SOA approach can build a structured future proofed plan for cost optimization and agility.

Impact 2009 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.

Every week businesses waste 5.3 hours per employee due to inefficient processes and two-thirds of employee believe there are colleagues who can help them do their jobs better, but don't know how to find them. In addition, 42% of people are forced to make decisions with the wrong information at least once per week, while a good number of CEOs surveyed by IBM said they needed to restructure the way their organizations work.

By taking advantage of today's increasingly instrumented and interconnected world, regional organizations can vastly improve their infrastructure enabling them not only to save costs but gain a real insight into their businesses and discover where business processes need to be changed to make them more effective organizations.

"Organizations understand that using service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a preferred method of delivering sustainable agility. 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."

said Bashar Kilani, Software Group business unit executive, IBM Middle East.