ARMONK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 10/04/06 -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new program to help customers make the switch from Mercury Interactive* software to IBM Rational and Tivoli software tools to improve the quality and management of their complex IT environments. Backed by a global team of more than 150 consultants and technologists, the goal of the program is to help make it easy for clients to move from Mercury Interactive's testing tools over to IBM.

IBM is rolling out new sales incentives, workshops, training and services to help customers and business partners simplify their development processes, improve efficiency, manage risk and compliance, and cut costs associated with building and managing new products and applications.

Under the new program, effective today worldwide, IBM will help eligible clients save up to 25% on license fees when migrating from Mercury, Borland and other competitive testing products to IBM Rational and Tivoli software tools.

In addition, customers can receive at no cost IBM Rational Performance Tester along with 100 virtual tester licenses when they purchase an IBM Rational ClearQuest and IBM Rational Functional Testing quality management solution. This promotion, which can save clients more than $21,000 in software license charges, runs through December 22, 2006.

IBM also introduced new customer resources to help improve software governance and systems development. They include:

-- More than 40 technical workshops held worldwide to help development teams shorten the time to market of new software systems without compromising quality. Customer response to these sessions has been enthusiastic; in India alone, more than 1,000 developers are registered to attend the workshops.

-- The first in a series of educational webcasts on www.ibm.com to help clients fully understand the benefits of Enterprise Quality Management in software projects. Clients can access the "Achieving Predictability and Quality in Business-Critical Software Application Deployment" and "Enterprise Test Management" webcasts at http://www.ibm.com/software/sw-events/.

-- A Tester eKit that provides test practitioners with a collection of materials that can help them better understand and use IBM Rational software quality solutions and best practices to deliver high-quality software and systems. It is now available for download on developerWorks at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/kits/tester.

-- New whitepapers on IT service management, including one titled "Software Testing -- A Strategic Business Advantage," are available for download on http://www.ibm.com/software/rational.

-- A new Software Quality Survival Guide for project managers and testers, which is filled with valuable whitepapers, webcasts and other resources to help clients improve the functionality, usability, reliability and scalability of their software and systems.

-- IBM Tivoli Unified Process (ITUP), the industry's first solution to prescribe specific actions for the IT Infrastructure Libraries (ITIL) through tool mentors that help improve IT process integration. This online tool is available now at http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/itservices/.

-- IBM Tivoli Open Process Automation Library (OPAL), a comprehensive online catalog of product extensions from IBM and IBM Business Partners that integrate with the IBM Tivoli IT Service Management platform of products. OPAL can be accessed at http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/opal/.

Managing software quality key to project success

Quality management is a critical part of an organization's requirements when developing, deploying and releasing new software products to the marketplace. Organizations in every industry -- from automotive to healthcare -- are faced with the high cost and the complex nature of developing and deploying software. Typical testing processes are too slow to keep pace with today's rapid development environment and customers faced with rising IT costs are demanding a more integrated approach. By governing the software development and deployment process, clients can reduce IT costs and improve management capabilities and quality, while ensuring their enterprise applications perform and scale to meet market demands.

IBM Rational client Ohio Casualty, the 47th largest property/casualty insurance group in the United States, writes auto, home and business insurance policies through approximately 3,500 independent agencies across the country. Faced with obvious business implications if a breakdown occurred in their software development process, Ohio Casualty required a solution that would help govern their software development and deployment processes and minimize IT costs.

"Our goal was to improve the quality of our software applications by implementing a standardized software development process that is supported by industry leading tools," said Mark Robinson, Assistant Vice President of Information Systems Administration Unit, Ohio Casualty. "With IBM Rational testing products and the IBM Rational Unified Process methodologies that we have implemented, we have been very successful in doing that cost-effectively."

"IBM clients are continually innovating. To stay on top of the market while juggling compliance mandates, our clients recognize the quality of software developed and deployed to the marketplace, and the automation of IT processes to align with business goals, is incredibly important," said Scott Hebner, vice president, marketing and strategy, Rational Software, IBM. "IBM's market leading offerings help our clients develop quality software and manage their IT infrastructure while integrating quality management across the software development lifecycle."

Today's news builds on IBM's leadership in helping customers govern their software and systems. IBM was recently named the worldwide market share leader in the application development and project and portfolio management software marketplace based on total software revenue for 2005 for the fifth consecutive year, according to independent analyst firm Gartner Inc. According to the report, IBM was the leading market share vendor in total software revenue in 2005, more than double the market share of its nearest competitor. In addition, according to IDC, IBM was the 2005 worldwide market share leader in software used to manage system performance and the response of systems to events such as server failures or security breaches.

For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/software/rational/support/migrations or http://www.programmers.com/ibm.

*Hewlett Packard recently announced a definitive agreement to purchase Mercury Interactive.

Contact:
Leigh Ann Schmidt
IBM Media Relations
1-914-766-1362
leighanns@us.ibm.com