The IBM WebSphere software platform provides the fundamental middleware infrastructure for integration and transaction capabilities that companies require for virtually any on-demand business initiative, such as customer relationship management (CRM), e-commerce, supply chain management (SCM) and broader business performance management (BPM) projects.

Information that business collect is doubling every five year, and companies are analyzing less than 10% of that information. Middleware, such as Db2 Universal Database, Db2 Content Manager and Information Integrator as well as Informix, is focused on gathering, managing and analyzing reams of data, such as inventories, accounts payable, order information, point-of-sale transactions, customer demographics, to gain knowledge and insight to improve the decision-making process.

IBM Lotus products are focused on leveraging an organization's collaboration activities to increase responsiveness and innovation, reducing the enormous complexity of today's workplaces. Collaboration technologies are about bringing people and processes together, helping them collaborate with partners, supplier, colleagues and customers over the Web.

As technology resources grow and companies move towards an on-demand business model, system complexity increases dramatically. Tivoli business impact management software, including systems, security and storage management allows CIOs to centrally manage all of their technology resources (hardware and software) - from PDAs to networks. This increase the efficiency and effectiveness of an enterprise's IT shelf and frees them to focus on business-driven initiatives while reducing costs.

Software development is a strategic business process that allows organizations to codify their unique business knowledge and sustain competitive advantage. Rational's strength is in software development tools that analyze, model and design, manage and test e-business on-demand applications. Rational's tools are also used to build technical software, including commercial software products, build software for embedded devices and real-time systems, such as pagers, cell phones, medical devices, air traffic control systems and government defense systems.