IBM Launches Software and Solution to Help Businesses Extend Key Information to Mobile Workers

ARMONK, NY - 07 May 2003: Building on the company's momentum to help customers extend their e-infrastructure through pervasive computing, IBM today announced the availability of a new solution to help enterprises extend business information to mobile workers and gain a greater return on their information technology investment.

Called the Mobile Office Entry Jumpstart, this solution includes IBM e-servers, WebSphere software and IBM services to help enterprises in numerous industries pilot and test run WebSphere software with Palm Tungsten handheld computers supporting up to 50 clients. It enables customers in a variety of industries the flexibility to start small and grow to enterprise scale offering capabilities that help companies extend applications to devices to support Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Field Force Automation (FFA).

Underscoring the company's aggressive charge to create an open standards-based infrastructure capable of supporting different devices, different networks and different types of interaction, the new software adds to IBM's range of solutions for mobile workers. With today's announcement, IBM now supports more of the handheld operating systems worldwide than any other vendor -- including support for the Palm OS, Linux, Symbian, and Pocket PC platforms. Together, these handheld operating systems make up at least 90% of the worldwide market. IBM has made recent announcements with -- Palm, Sharp, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Cisco and Matsushita -- beginning a movement to develop a framework to provide true interoperability across operating systems, devices, markets and operators.

The solution includes the new version of IBM WebSphere Everyplace Access, middleware that enables a wide range of pervasive devices to provide mobile professionals constant wireless access to a wide range of enterprise data in databases as well as personal productivity applications and Lotus Instant Messaging. New features in the product include an innovative capability called Intelligent Notification Services (INS). This feature proactively notifies mobile employees of important information coming from e-mail, supply chain and legacy systems to their preferred device. For instance, a user can configure a preferred way to be notified that an order is coming in and/or it is available for shipment.

The jumpstart solution will include IBM WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager (WECM), software that enables high-speed connections that help users roam seamlessly between wireline connections, PWLAN hot spots and existing public wireless connections without losing the existing session. Additionally, Lucent Technologies has selected IBM to help create an end-to-end solution. Lucent has tested, and can integrate, WECM with its mobile high-speed data offers for service providers, enabling a high level of interoperability and roaming capabilities. The new mobile starter kit will offer customers up to 50 aircards provided by carriers that support 1XRTT networks, allowing customers to access e-mail and other systems remotely. Also known as CDMA2000, 1xRTT is an evolutionary step toward 3G technology based on the CDMA platform that allows network customers to access voice, e-mail and other data services remotely at ISDN-like speeds of up to 153Kbps.

The Mobile Office Entry Jumpstart solution is priced at less than $100,000 depending upon the number of users. It is currently available in the U.S.

"Wireless technology is booming with customers extending their existing IT infrastructure to all types of computing devices," said Rodney Adkins, general manager, IBM Pervasive Computing Division. "IBM's momentum in pervasive computing is driven by our commitment to open industry standards across the IT spectrum. We're partnering with leaders and innovators both inside and outside of traditional computing, and developing frameworks to provide the true interoperability this market needs for continued growth."

"WEA 4.3 sets the bar for a comprehensive mobile worker productivity platform," said Todd Bradley, president and chief executive officer, Palm Solutions Group. "At Palm, mobile productivity is key, and WEA 4.3 provides the platform."

Based on IBM's new Wireless Enterprise Delivery Environment, the offering supports an open framework which provides a common development and deployment platform that helps companies to cost-effectively and rapidly support new applications -- such as mobile sales and field force automation, e-mail access, asset monitoring, supply chain management and mobile commerce -- as well as new devices and networks. Working in this same framework, IBM's Service Provider Delivery Environment brings new voice, text and Internet-based services to customers faster, easier and at a lower cost as part of the new solution.

Hill Air Force Base transforms supply chain with IBM software:
As part of today's announcement demonstrating the company's momentum in the marketplace, IBM said The Air Force Material Center at Hill Air Force Base, HAFB, in Ogden, Utah, has chosen the company to deploy a highly secure, FIPS-140 certified, wireless solution that is expected to enhance aircraft maintenance operations. Hill Air Force Base will use the solution to radically transform the way it manages worldwide logistical support for the repair, replacement and maintenance of thousands of components for the nation's fleet of F-16, A-10 and C-130 military aircraft.

Running both WebSphere Everyplace Access and WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager on IBM AIX eServers, Hill Air Force Base will use the new wireless solution to provide logistics managers real time on-demand access to its Automated Manifest Tracking System (AMTS). AMTS is a critical parts delivery application that helps Air Force Depots keep track of and account for delivery and distribution of parts between worldwide Bases and the Defense Logistics Agency.

"We evaluated several products on the market very carefully and selected IBM based on its industry expertise at providing an open, integrated, secure end-to-end wireless solution that we expect to save the Air Force millions of dollars each year," says Myron Anderson, Provisional IT Director, Hill Air Force Base. "Our requirements for high-grade security, device independence and flexibility were highly demanding. The WebSphere platform offers FIPS-compliant encryption, fast implementation, immediate e-mail access across a range of device and a programming model for legacy applications like AMTS."

Hill Air Force Base is the latest in a large number of IBM bellwether customer deployments including Boeing, CapWIN Honda, Daimler Chrysler, Hyundai, DCX, e-Suds, Air Canada, British Airways, Safeway, the Toronto Police Department, AirToolz and Cirque du Soleil to deliver a variety of wireless solutions -- from Web-enabled, self-service kiosks at airports and washing machines at college Laundromats, to telematics systems that ensure driver safety and wireless innovations that improve crisis communication and information sharing in emergency response situations. IBM works across the entire ecosystem on embedded technologies: from low-power chips specifically designed for devices to smart-cards and the services that tie it all together.

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