Somers, NY, November 12 - IBM today announced WebSphere - Express - a new addition to IBM's industry-leading WebSphere software family -- built for mid-market companies and the business partners that serve them. IBM WebSphere - Express offerings are priced dramatically below competitive offerings and are easy to deploy and manage while extending IBM WebSphere's strengths in open standards, security and reliability to companies with 100 to 1,000 employees.
IBM WebSphere - Express addresses the need of mid-size companies for an open infrastructure that allows information to flow across independent business operations, such as those for managing customer relationships or the supply chain. This type of integration is a major ingredient in becoming an on-demand e-business -- able to respond quickly, intelligently and flexibly to customer demands and changing market conditions.
Typically capital constrained and risk-averse, mid-market businesses are looking for reliable and easy-to-deploy solutions that leverage the Web to better serve their customers. With the WebSphere - Express offerings, IBM is providing an entry point to on-demand e-business with enterprise-class security and the ability to grow as business needs change.
"Mid-market business are demanding solutions that deliver immediate business value," said Jocelyne Attal, Vice President of Marketing, IBM WebSphere Software. "Their focus is on implementing easy, flexible solutions that can grow quickly. IBM WebSphere - Express is extremely well suited to this market because it lowers the cost of those initial solutions while establishing a secure platform for continued growth."
Priced dramatically below competitive offerings, the IBM WebSphere - Express platform is easy to deploy and manage. With simple, consistent pricing across the family, IBM WebSphere - Express offerings can be purchased on a per-user basis or by processor. For example, the new WebSphere Application Server - Express is priced as low as $25 per user, or $2,000 per processor when supporting an unlimited number of users. This is less than half the price of competitive products and includes everything needed to build and deploy Web applications, including the application server, development tools and templates, and support and maintenance.
IBM WebSphere - Express Offers Fast Installation, Integrated Tools, Partner Incentives
With only five clicks, a business can install a portal or an application server, allowing customers to build and run a Web site with minimal technical skills. Customers can create and deploy interactive Web content quickly via integrated development tools using the latest Web services standards for Java and XML. With WebSphere - Express, a business can build personalized Web sites where users can share documents, monitor inventory in electronic catalogues, or check account or shipping updates. A visual page designer and animation tools help developers create attractive, easy-to-use interactive Web sites and connect to back-office applications and data.
The software supports a wide variety of platforms including Linux, the open-source operating system popular with midmarket companies, IBM iSeries eServer, whose predominant customer base is mid-sized companies, and Windows.
Members of the IBM WebSphere - Express family include: WebSphere Application Server - Express, software based on the latest Java and Web services standards for a ready-to-go reliable, secure infrastructure. WebSphere Portal - Express, enabling mid-market businesses and departments within larger companies to more easily deploy employee, business partner, and customer portals WebSphere Business Connection - Express, an entry-level edition of IBM WebSphere Business Connection software for business-to-business process integration and data sharing among trading partners of all types.
IBM WebSphere - Express development tools offer developers greater productivity to build and deploy applications. The product includes wizards, templates, and step-by-step developer "guides" that make even novice or non-Java-savvy programmers highly productive.
"Delivering world-class business solutions to our customers is Job One at Intuit," said Michael B. Honig, Vice President, Business Development, at Intuit, the leading provider of business and financial management solutions for mid-market businesses. "We've looked at the WebSphere - Express offering from IBM, and it hits the mark on functionality, usability, and price. We are working with IBM to seamlessly integrate WebSphere Application Server - Express."
The new software gives mid-market companies room to grow, and it provides smooth migration to the rest of the IBM WebSphere family as more advanced development and deployment capabilities are required. Mid-market businesses implement business solutions, not technology, and IBM research shows that almost two-thirds of those solutions are delivered by channel partners. As part of its mid-market initiative, IBM is also announcing an Express partner pack for partners, which bundles education, training, and porting assistance. In addition, to help facilitate customer pilots, partners receive five free WebSphere Application Server - Express licenses to resell. The WebSphere - Express partner pack also includes (strikethrough: )on-line mentoring, demand generation programs that include "call-me" buttons to link partner solutions to telesales specialists, and advanced direct marketing services. The program will be open to any Business Partner building applications on a WebSphere - Express product.
"The IBM WebSphere - Express platform provides enteprise-class, secure infrastructure at an affordable price and with excellent ease of use," said Emile Hamou, worldwide CEO of Adonix, a worldwide provider of business software and solutions to mid-market companies. "Combined with the top-notch support from the partner pack, the WebSphere - Express software enables us to address the critical needs of our small and medium business customers."
Price and Availability:
IBM WebSphere Application Server - Express will be available on December 13, 2002, at $25 per intranet user; $2,000 per processor for unlimited users on intranet, Internet or extranet web sites, and $400 for additional copies for developer use only.
IBM WebSphere Portal Server - Express (previously announced) is currently available at $77 per intranet user, or $30,000 per processor for an unlimited number of users in an extranet environment. A Plus version of IBM WebSphere Portal Server - Express is currently available at $122 per intranet user, or $47,820 per processor for an unlimited number of users in an extranet environment.
IBM WebSphere Business Connection - Express (previously announced) is available at $5,000 per processor which includes the ability to connect to 10 trading partners.
IBM WebSphere - Express products are available from IBM Business Partners, ibm.com, or IBM Passport Advantage.
For more information on IBM WebSphere - Express, go to ibm.com/websphere/express