ARMONK, NY--(MARKET WIRE)--Apr 4, 2008 -- IBM (NYSE:IBM - News) today announced the winners of its annual IBM Beacon Awards competition, recognizing IBM Business Partners for outstanding delivery of value to clients and innovative approaches to solving business issues. Winners were selected in 37 award categories by leading industry journalists, analysts, and IBM executives.

The IBM Beacon Awards are an important part of IBM's PartnerWorld program, providing industry recognition, increased visibility and promotional opportunities to winners and finalists. Members of PartnerWorld take advantage of worldwide IBM marketing and enablement initiatives to drive new revenue and market opportunities through the delivery of innovative, high-value business solutions.

"The IBM Beacon Awards recognize the best solutions and services that Business Partners deliver across our business and around the world," said Ravi Marwaha, general manager, IBM Global Business Partners. "Through their dedication to innovation, business value and customer satisfaction, these Business Partners combine their deep technology and industry expertise with IBM technology to deliver exceptional solutions that solve real business problems."

Chosen from over 725 nominations, winners and finalists from around the world will be honored during a gala event at the IBM Business Partner Leadership Conference in Los Angeles on April 30 - May 2, 2008. This year's Beacon Award winners by category are:

Software

Outstanding Information on Demand Solution: TriTek Solutions, Inc., Boston, MA, United States

Outstanding Lotus® Software Innovation: GoPro ltd, Reykjavik, Iceland

Outstanding Tivoli® Solution for Data Backup and Recovery: mySoftIT GmbH, Kerpen, NW, Germany

Outstanding WebSphere® Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) Solution: Prolifics, New York, NY, United States

Rational® Excellence in Software Delivery: Sogeti, Paris, France

Systems and Technology

Excellence in the Use of System z(TM) for New Workloads or Applications: Sirius Computer Solutions, Inc., Beaverton, OR, United States

Innovation in Green IT Data Center Solution: Southern Cross Computer Systems Pty Ltd, Hawthorn East, Victoria, Australia

Innovative IBM Business Systems Solution: Dynamix Group, Inc., Roswell, GA, United States

Leadership in Blade Center Solution Deployment: PEAK Resources, Inc., Denver, CO, United States

Leadership in Optimizing IT Infrastructure: Synergy Plus Pty Ltd, Southbank, VIC, Australia

Outstanding Business Critical Solution for Linux on IBM: Inter Access Nederland, Hilversum, Netherlands

Outstanding Client Centric System x Solution: Metro Systems Corporation Plc, Bangkok, Thailand

Outstanding IBM Information Infrastructure Solution: Agilysys, Inc., Alpharetta, GA, United States

Outstanding IBM Power Systems Solution: Paragon Solutions Group, Inc., Denver, CO, United States

Outstanding Virtualization System Solution: Evolving Solutions, Inc., Hamel, MN, United States

IBM Global Services

IBM Global Services Business Partner Newcomer of the Year: Chief Security Officers, LLC, Scottsdale, AZ, United States

IBM Global Services Product Affinity: Logicalis, Bloomfield Hills, MI, United States

Outstanding Collaboration Solution with IBM Global Business Services: Kevlertech, Inc./ MIT Consultants, Chicago, IL, United States

Outstanding Collaboration Solution with IBM Global Technology Services (tied): Motorola, Nashville, TN, United States, MSI Systems Integrators, Inc., Omaha, NE, United States; Pasporte Ltd., Bagshot, United Kingdom

Outstanding Complementary Services Growth with IBM Global Services: Insight Inc., Tempe, AZ, United States

Sales and Distribution

Overall Technical Excellence - Americas: Prolifics, New York, United States

Overall Technical Excellence - Asia Pacific: MindTree Consulting Ltd, Bangalore, KA, India

Overall Technical Excellence - Europe, Middle East, Africa: Fritz & Macziol Software und Computervertrieb GmbH, Ulm, Germany

ISV and Developer Relations

Outstanding Industry Solution by an ISV: Geocom Uruguay S.A., Montevideo, Uruguay

Software as a Service (SaaS) Innovation: Global Groupware Solutions Ltd., Gurgaon, HR, India

Consultants and Integrators

Regional Consultant and System Integrator - Outstanding Integrated Solution - Americas: Silverblaze Solutions Incorporated, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada

Regional Consultant and System Integrator - Outstanding Integrated Solution - Asia Pacific: Ontrack Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Regional Consultant and System Integrator - Outstanding Integrated Solution - Europe, Middle East, and Africa: Sowre Consulting España, sl, Barcelona, Spain

Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs

Outstanding Corporate Citizenship Initiative: Sogeti Group, Paris, France

Global Small and Medium Business

Excellence in the Mid-Market: Solarsoft Business Systems (formerly CMS Manufacturing Systems), Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada

Global Solutions

Outstanding Cross-Industry Solution by an ISV: iEnterprises, Inc., Murray Hill, NJ, United States

Industry

Innovation Excellence in Education: The rSmart Group, Phoenix, AZ, United States

Innovation Excellence in Government: Avatar S.A.C, San Isidro, Peru and Cosapi Data S.A., Lima, Peru

Innovation Excellence in Healthcare & Life Sciences (tied): BlueWare Inc., Cadillac, MI, United States; Vocera Communications, Inc., San Jose, CA, United States

IBM Global Financing

Outstanding Financing Program in Asia Pacific: CSI SOLUTIONS Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

Outstanding Financing Program in Europe, Middle East and Africa: Computer Gross Italia Spa, Empoli, Italy

Outstanding Financing Program in the Americas Group: Arrow Electronics, Englewood, CO, United States

About IBM Beacon Awards

For more information about the IBM Beacon Awards, including descriptions of the winning entries and details about the finalists, please visit http://www-1.ibm.com/partnerworld/pwhome.nsf/weblook/2008_awards.html. To learn more about IBM PartnerWorld, a comprehensive program that offers marketing and sales resources, training, certification and technical support to help create new revenue and market opportunities for IBM Business Partners, visit http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld.

     Contact:
     Cary Barbour
     IBM Communications
     917-472-3564
     barbour@us.ibm.com