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IBM announced today that its consulting division, Business Consulting Services, has been awarded a contract by the Swedish Road Administration to help them build, integrate, implement and run their new congestion charging system in the City of Stockholm. The contract between IBM and the Swedish Road Administration covers the pilot project as defined by the Swedish Government. IBM will bring to bear its deep knowledge of working with governments on similar projects around the world and its expertise in building, integrating and transforming business processes. IBM will be working with its business partners to deliver a top class solution to the Swedish Road Administration. The on demand solution will help Stockholm City meet the needs and challenges in a flexible and scalable way as the nerve of the system: customer service, the payment channels and the services places are fully scalable and can be adapted in response to changing needs. In the Swedish project IBM has used its experience from Singapore where IBM took part in the development of the first electronic road pricing system in the world. IBM's global team also brought in skills from relevant project work in Canada, UK and Austria. IBM is investing in on demand solutions for the international road charging market which is expected to develop quickly blending skills and innovation in road charging business operations, on-board and roadside equipment, wireless communications, multiple payment channels and other value added services. "With this initiative, IBM will provide the City of Stockholm and the Swedish Road Administration with industry-leading transformational consulting experience, combined expertise in scalable, open-standard technology infrastructure," says Per Larsson, general manager, IBM Business Consulting Services, Nordic region. "In doing so, IBM is able to assemble a unique transformation solution that enables the City to meet its congestion challenges." IBM's on demand solution is designed to be extended and scalable as all components like servers, software and applications are built to meet a highest expected traffic volume. Building the system on open standards will secure that potential extensions will easily be integrated to other compatible systems. IBM's ability to provide total solutions, from the technical implementation and management of the system to the operations of business processes, in addition to access to the best partners and competencies, allows for the stability, flexibility and innovation required in a successful implementation. Elsewhere in Europe, London was the first major European capital to introduce congestion charging. In November 2003 IBM Business Consulting Services Transport Development group in the UK published a report conducted by MORI Research that states that almost two-thirds of British citizens surveyed supports urban congestion charging. For more information please see: http://www.ibm.com/news/uk/2003/11/uk_111103.html With consultants and professional employees in more than 160 countries worldwide, IBM Business Consulting Services is the biggest service organisation in the world. IBM Business Consulting Services provides advice about business procedures and has a profound understanding of technology solutions for specific industrial problems, as well as the ability to design, develop and run these solutions, so that they create value on the bottom line. For further information, visit www.ibm.com/bcs