IBM Expands Express Advantage Program, Fueling Mid-Market Innovation and Growth

IBM Expands Express Advantage Program, Fueling Mid-Market Innovation and Growth

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.”

Read the complete Press Release