IBM Receives SMB Excellence Award From Major Industry Analyst Firm For Express Advantage

ARMONK, New York, November 12 - IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announces it has received IDC's first SMB
Excellence Award for the effectiveness of its Express Advantage program in
helping mid-market businesses thrive in a rapidly changing business
environment. IBM, the only firm to receive awards in two categories, was also
recognized in the "Innovative Alliances" category for the Intuit QuickBooks
Enterprise Solution via IBM Smart Cube.

(Logo: www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )

IBM's Express Advantage program was recognized in the category of "New
Application Approaches" — and was awarded for excellence in product
development and promotion. Express Advantage includes IBM's broad portfolio
of targeted hardware, software and services that have met stringent criteria,
including affordability, ease of implementation and ownership to ensure their
value to midmarket businesses. Express Advantage also incorporates IBM's
Business Partner ecosystem, industry insights and connections to help midsize
companies succeed in today's smaller, flatter and smarter world.

"Mid-market companies typically have extraordinary IT needs, but not
extraordinary budgets to meet those needs. IBM, through its Express Advantage
program, has established and nurtured a portfolio of technology resources
that leverages a variety of development resources across technology areas to
meet the sometimes conflicting needs of General Business customers," said
IDC's Raymond Boggs, Vice President of SMB Research.

For example, this Fall IBM added Cognos Express to its Express Advantage
portfolio — the first integrated reporting, analysis, planning, budgeting
and forecasting solution purpose-built and priced for midsize companies.

"IBM has been recognized by IDC for its breadth and depth of offerings
and solutions for the midmarket that help them to do more with less, manage
and mitigate risk, and take advantage of flexible delivery choices like cloud
computing," said Marc Dupaquier, IBM General Manager, Global Midmarket.

Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise Solution via IBM Smart Cube was also
recognized in the "Innovative Alliances" category for excellence in product
development, distribution and delivery.

The Smart Cube appliance combines Intuit's QuickBooks Enterprise
Solutions financial management software with IBM hardware, middleware, and
technical support. As part of IBM's Smart Business initiative, SMBs that
purchase a Smart Cube also gain access to Smart Market, a Web-enabled
marketplace for browsing, rating, and downloading applications from a growing
network of independent software vendors.

The solution is targeted to firms that aren't quite ready for cloud-based
solutions as well as forward-looking firms that are prepared to outsource a
growing share of their IT needs. In partnering with Intuit, whose accounting
software is currently used by more than half of firms with fewer than 100
employees, and adding distribution through Ingram Micro, IBM has expanded its
reach into the mid-market.

Other award categories included: Market Segmentation/Customer Targeting,
Software-as-a-Service and Cloud Computing for SMBs, Streamlining/Enhancing
Customer Engagement and Technology Deployment.

For full profiles of the SMB initiatives of the 16 award-winning
companies, please see the recently published document, 2009 IDC SMB
Excellence Awards - Innovative Product , Marketing, Support and Promotions
Products to Enhance Customer Appeal and Competitive Success (IDC #220604).

About IBM

Learn more about new midsized business solutions from IBM.

About IDC

The IDC SMB Excellence Awards are granted to technology providers who in
IDC's view are serving the SMB market in innovative ways, providing advanced
technology capabilities to firms with fewer than 1000 employees. Nominees for
the IDC SMB Excellence Award are evaluated on the basis of three key
criteria: the creation of products and/or programs that specifically address
the unique needs of SMBs; the business implications of these products or
programs for the nominated firm; and the competitive impact of these products
or programs. The award recipients are selected by IDC's SMB Research team in
consultation with the IDC analysts that follow the relevant technology market
associated with these products or programs. The full report is IDC#220604.

IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory
services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and
consumer technology markets. To learn more about IDC, please visit
www.idc.com.

    Contact:
    Jennifer Clemente
    IBM Communications
    +1-919-418-6169
    jennic@us.ibm.com

Jennifer Clemente, IBM Communications, +1-919-418-6169, jennic at us.ibm.com