IBM Invests $1 Billion in Information Management

IBM embarks on a company-wide initiative that combines its software and industry consulting expertise to help clients better compete in the global economy through uninhibited access to accurate business information. To capture this business opportunity, IBM will invest $1 billion over the next three years to expand its information management software development. Six new solution portfolios and new software products are expected to enable clients to exploit both existing information assets as well as proactively take advantage of emerging information sources to create a seamless flow of all forms of information, regardless of format, platform or location. The offerings address a wide range of specific business information challenges including risk and compliance, business analysis and discovery, business performance and process management, master data management, process innovation and workforce productivity. IBM also announced the IBM WebSphere Information Server, which leverages a service-oriented architecture to ensure data quality, data transformation, data movement, federation and metadata management. This software is already being used by beta customers and is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2006.