Today at its PartnerWorld 2007 Conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) is announcing the significant global expansion of its Express Advantage program for mid-sized businesses. IBM Express Advantage combines a comprehensive set of mid-market offerings, IBM Business Partner resources and customer experience capabilities to create a unified, end-to-end approach to helping mid-market companies innovate and grow.

Launched last year in North America, IBM is introducing Express Advantage in 23 additional countries providing a platform for continued growth in the mid-market. IBM also announced a range of new and enhanced Express Advantage systems, software, and services offerings to complement its industry-leading mid-market portfolio, new end-to-end IBM Business Partner resources to fuel growth in the mid-market, as well as simplified access to IBM and IBM's Business Partners to make innovation easy for customers. To support the global expansion of Express Advantage, IBM will also spend more than $200M to generate demand through its new integrated mid-market program framework.

A recent survey conducted by IBM polled 1,200 mid-market firms from around the world in various industries and found nearly two out of three businesses plan to make more than one change in their business model over the next two years in order to better compete and drive expansion. Around the world, mid-sized businesses are increasingly looking beyond traditional markets and lines of business to expand their operations.

"IBM Express Advantage is the foundation of IBM's mid-market strategy and the catalyst that enables 'innovation made easy' for our customers," said Surjit Chana, Vice President of Marketing for IBM Global Small and Medium Business. "This significant expansion of Express Advantage to twenty-three additional countries demonstrates our company-wide commitment to providing the offerings, business partner ecosystem and tools that mid-sized companies need to solve their toughest business challenges, innovate and grow."

The newest Express Advantage offerings include

- Servers: IBM System i 515 Express, IBM System i 525 Express

- Storage: IBM System Storage TS2340 Tape Drive Express Model

- Software: IBM Lotus Complete Messaging Express Starter Pack, IBM Lotus Complete Collaboration Express Starter Pack

In addition to the new Express Advantage offerings, IBM is also announcing many new resources for IBM Business Partners, designed specifically to provide them with end-to-end support as they deliver solutions to their mid-sized customers.

New resources and tools for IBM Business Partners include enhanced PartnerWorld Express Advantage web portals around the world, new and enhanced Solutions Builder Express starting points and an enhanced Solutions Consultant Express Tool.

IBM also introduced a new Business Continuity specialty offering market insights, technical enablement, go-to-market support and sales linkage to help IBM Business Partners deliver business continuity solutions.

Mid-sized customers around the world will also benefit from an expansion and enhancement of the Express Advantage Concierge/customer support team providing easy access to live mid-market skilled representatives from IBM who can respond to a variety of customer needs. This support team is available to any mid-sized company regardless of whether or not they are a current IBM customer and can help companies find the answers needed to solve business problems, find a local IBM Business Partner, or help them connect to the right IBM resources and technology.

"IBM Express Advantage enables Connectria, and other IBM Business Partners, to offer our clients' valuable business and technology solutions that are specifically designed to meet their needs. With Express Advantage products and services we know it's been designed for and will solve our customers' problems and allow them to continue to focus on the growth and expansion of their business," said Chris Miller, Director of Messaging & Collaboration Technologies at Connectria.

IBM Express Advantage was designed to ensure mid-market businesses have simple solutions to tough problems based on a comprehensive line of offerings that are priced and designed specifically for mid-sized companies with support from our vast network of IBM Business Partners. Additionally, IBM Financing Advantage is available for IBM Express Advantage offerings and solutions. It offers small and mid-sized clients easy access to the capital they need to grow and innovate, great rates and easy to understand contracts.

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