GOVERNMENT

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. and SAN JOSE, Calif.-- IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Callidus Software(R), an industry leader in Enterprise Incentive Management (EIM) solutions for enterprise customers, today announced a global strategic alliance to deliver comprehensive incentive compensation management solutions for tens of thousands of employees in the insurance, banking and telecommunications industries. Companies with complex sales channels and sophisticated incentive structures are challenged with managing incentive compensation effectively. The joint IBM and Callidus Software solutions will enable companies to reduce costs by automating and improving the processes involved in aligning employee performance with business strategy. This can allow organizations to increase sales and grow revenue. The expanded relationship provides EIM products that enhance IBM's existing e-business on demand solutions in the insurance, banking, and telecommunications industries, while increasing the international reach of Callidus Software. "Developing and managing an appropriate incentive strategy is critical to driving improved revenue and expense optimization for insurers to fully realize their value potential," explained Bill Pieroni, general manager, IBM Global Insurance Industry. "Callidus' EIM applications, combined with IBM's open infrastructure products, consulting and integration services, provide a comprehensive solution for insurance, banking and telecommunications customers who want to streamline and automate their incentive compensation processes." Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will jointly market Callidus TrueComp which makes use of IBM WebSphere* Internet infrastructure software, IBM DB2* Universal Database, and IBM eServer* pSeries*. Additionally, IBM will provide business consulting, process reengineering, and customization and integration services for joint IBM and Callidus solutions. "This alliance with IBM allows Callidus Software to provide its enterprise customers around the globe with the best of all worlds -- the world's leading EIM solution delivered by IBM's Business Consulting Services business," said Reed Taussig, CEO of Callidus Software. "Leading telecommunication and insurance vendors have already assessed the benefits of this partnership and have embarked on development. IBM's technologies and services and Callidus' grid-based architecture are crucial to these customers' ability to deploy mission-critical Enterprise Incentive Management solutions that meet their global requirements for scale and reliability." The strategic alliance with Callidus Software is another example of IBM's commitment to go-to-market with leading independent software vendors (ISVs) through the PartnerWorld for Developers program. Under this initiative, IBM has signed agreements with recognized software leaders. These alliances target industries such as financial services, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and solution segments including enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management and business intelligence. The goal is to provide developers with access to new customers and revenue opportunities through IBM's marketing, sales, and solutions resources. As part of the agreement, developers commit to lead with IBM's middleware, server platforms, and services in offerings to customers. For more information, visit www.ibm.com/partnerworld, or call 1-800-426-9990 in North America, 1-770-863-2048 outside North America.