IBM, Aspen Technology to Deliver E-Business Products to Chemicals, Petroleum, and Other Process Industries

Meeting the special needs of process industry companies

On July 5, IBM (White Plains, NY) and Aspen Technology Inc. (Cambridge, MA) announced a strategic alliance to provide integrated products to help supply chain management (SCM) customers in the chemicals, petroleum, plastics, paper, metals, pharmaceutical, and other process industries transform themselves into e-businesses.

Under the new alliance, IBM and AspenTech will work together on marketing, sales and future product development and will jointly market and sell AspenTech's products worldwide. AspenTech will incorporate standards and technologies of IBM's Application Framework for e-business—a technology roadmap based on industry standards that helps developers integrate Internet technologies with traditional information technology.

"We believe that the global B2B SCM market will grow to $8 billion by 2005," said Eric Leon, general manager of the IBM Chemical and Petroleum Industry Unit. "The process industries represent a significant portion of this market and this new alliance between IBM and AspenTech puts us in a strong position to play a major part in that growth."

The alliance exploits IBM's IT industry expertise and AspenTech's application development skills to deliver cost-effective e-business strategies through integrated supply chain, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and plant optimization systems. IBM and AspenTech will work together worldwide to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of the $5 trillion process industries.

AspenTech's solutions are used by 46 of the 50 largest chemical companies, 23 of the 25 largest oil and gas companies, and 18 of the 20 largest pharmaceutical life sciences companies worldwide. To date, it has more than 2,500 supply chain management solutions installed with over 300 customers—more than any other supply chain vendor.

"Until now, process manufacturing enterprises have faced challenges in transforming themselves into true e-businesses, with agile extended supply chains capable supporting entirely new business models," says Larry Evans, chairman and CEO of AspenTech. "The evolving strategic relationship between IBM and AspenTech combines a full suite of technologies, services and a global delivery capability unmatched in the industry."

Customers hope this agreement will give them a competitive advantage for optimizing scheduling, production, and delivery while ensuring superior customer service.

This alliance is part of an initiative through which IBM forms strategic relationships with leading application developers. Under the initiative, developers gain access to new customers and revenue opportunities through IBM's extensive marketing, sales, and solutions resources. At the same time, developers commit to lead with IBM's middleware, server platforms, and services.

AspenTech's eSupply Chain, engineering, and manufacturing suites operate across the extended supply chain.

This means AspenTech will port and optimize its applications on IBM's DB2 Universal Database as well as Netfinity servers and IntelliStations. In addition, IBM's MQ Series* message queuing middleware will be made available alongside MSMQ, its Microsoft alternative, for complex application integration. IBM Global Services will provide systems integration for AspenTech. IBM and AspenTech also will support the development of industry standards, such as XML, which will facilitate multi-company collaboration necessary to increase the velocity of product flows through integrated plants and the supply chain.

The Companies
Software application developers receive support from IBM's PartnerWorld for Developers (PWD)—a worldwide program designed to help software developers reach broader markets, lower their costs of doing business, and take their products to market faster.

Developers may contact IBM at 800-627-8363 or 770-835-9902.

Aspen Technology develops and markets integrated software that enable process manufacturers to automate and optimize their plants and extended supply chains, while enabling e-business. AspenTech's Plantelligence products automate and optimize critical business processes at the plant level. AspenTech's Enterprise Optimization extend the scope of optimization across the enterprise and extended supply chain. The company's eSupply Chain software enables manufacturers to link seamlessly to customers, suppliers and on-line trading exchanges, creating a collaborative, flexible extended enterprise.

For more information: Brian Harkins, Aspen Technology, Inc., 1293 Eldridge Parkway, Houston, TX 77077. Tel: 281-584-1086. Fax: 281-584-4329.