IBM acquires Collation

1. Q: What are you announcing today?
A: IBM has entered into an agreement to acquire Collation, a privately funded company headquartered in Redwood City, CA with 23 employees. Collation is a leading provider of application mapping software, which allows companies to visualize, understand, document and troubleshoot complex business applications such as payroll or accounts receivable by capturing how different parts of an application work together on a detailed map.

2. Q: What are the financial details of this acquisition?
A: The financial details of this acquisition are not being disclosed.

3. Q: Why did IBM acquire Collation?
A: IBM acquired Collation because the Collation technology allows us to deliver on a key capability in the change and configuration area of service management. A big problem in today's IT world is the lack of staff knowledgeable on the inner workings of complex business applications that support their businesses. Staff are hesitant to fix or change anything as one fix could break something in their complex intertwined IT infrastructure. For example, a patch to fix a security flaw in an application server breaks an on-line ordering application that utilizes the same server at the other end. Collation mapping technology helps IBM customers to proceed with changes with greater confidence, knowing that they have gained critical insight to help them make sure that changes made on one end will not balloon into a huge problem on the other end. They are also able to test their changes and understand the implications before rolling them out.

1. Q: What are IBM's plans for Collation products?
A: At this time, Collation will continue to sell the existing product, and we anticipate that an IBM version will ship in or around 1Q 2006. Complete integration of Collation into CCMDB is anticipated in conjunction with the CCMDB General Availability on or around mid-2006. However, customers can get immediate value today via the discovery library adapter that has been written. CCMDB federates IT information spread across multiple databases and provides complete control and documentation of all the components and configurations in an IT infrastructure. The integration provides a rich set of auto-discovery capabilities to the CCMDB, not only of configuration items and their attributes, but more importantly, for the logical application relationships between those configuration items. With this capability, the CCMDB will help users to maintain an accurate view of relationships that can be used for change impact analysis and leveraged by TBSM for business service management.

2. Q: How do Collation products complement Tivoli® products?
A: Collation specializes in discovering detailed relationships among the components of today's complex, distributed applications, as well as detailed configuration information about those applications. IBM's existing portfolio contains many products that find extensive information about the resources in the environment (Tivoli Configuration Manager, IBM Tivoli Monitoring, and many more.) The combination of Collation with IBM's existing products gives customers a variety of complementary capabilities to discover and map their distributed business applications. When the CCMDB adds its reconciliation and federation capabilities to the data provided by these products, customers can obtain comprehensive information about their application environments

3. Q: Which companies use Collation software now?
A: Fidelity, The World Bank, FedEx, McKinsey & Co., SanDisk, Motorola, GEDAS, New York Police Dept., Discovery, NRI, St. Jude Medical

4. Q: What is the timeline for rebranding, availability, etc?
A: At this time, Collation will continue to sell the existing product, and we anticipate that an IBM version will ship in or around 1Q 2006. The existing product's integration to Tivoli Business Systems Manager and Tivoli Provisioning Manager is already available. Integration into CCMDB is anticipated at CCMDB General Availability in or around mid-2006.

5. Q: What platform integration already exists between the two product lines? How will it be enhanced in the future?
A: Significant integration is already announced and available between Collation and Tivoli Business Systems Manager and Tivoli Provisioning Manager. Moving forward we will expand the managed-from server platform to include AIX® and Windows platforms. In addition, we will standardize on IBM middleware such as DB2® where appropriate.

6. Q: Who will provide the Customer Technical Support for the Collation products?
A: The Collation Support organization will be integrated into the IBM Support model under SWG and follow IBM policies once the acquisition is closed. Initially, IBM will be leveraging Collation support personnel to provide the expertise on problem resolution.

1. Q: What is the primary intended value to me as a potential customer of the Collation solution?
A: Collation's solution delivers the capability of automatically creating and maintaining application infrastructure maps, including comprehensive run-time dependencies, deep configuration values and comprehensive change history. This capability removes one of the biggest barriers to IT service management excellence by enabling a deep understanding of your IT infrastructure. When combined with Tivoli Software's core management applications such as Tivoli Business Systems Manager and Tivoli Provisioning Manager, as well as the ITIL-aligned process managers, Collation's capabilities help enable IT departments to discover, understand and optimize the performance of complex business applications while mitigating the risks of unplanned and untested changes. In other words, the IBM/Collation solution helps your IT department deliver more flexible and responsive IT services to their business users.

2. Q: How does this acquisition affect Collation's customers?
A: Collation's customers will not be impacted in the short term, but instead will benefit from the broader support coverage and resources offered by IBM. In the future, IBM expects to further invest in these products, continuing to increase the value provided to customers.

3. Q: Will Collation employees continue to maintain local offices and provide local account management and support to customers?
A: IBM will provide you information concerning any changes to this. It is IBM's intent that you continue to receive the same high caliber of customer support and account management you are accustomed to, and as we integrate Collation's team into IBM we will be working together to help ensure this.

4. Q: How do I get support for my current products?
A: Please continue to contact the support team that you call today. You will receive further instructions about any changes to the support model. You will continue to receive the same high quality of service you have received previously.

5. Q: Can I go to IBM.com or Collation.com to get information on the acquisition?
A: Yes. The press release announcing the agreement is posted on both Web sites. Additional information will be available on IBM.com and Collation.com after the deal closes.

6. Q: My support contract is about to expire. Whom should I contact about it?
A: You should contact your current sales representative.

7. Q: Whom do I call to escalate a support issue?
A: Please follow your existing support escalation process that is in place today. You will receive explicit instructions as to any changes in the support process, including escalation of any issues.

8. Q: Where do I go to get patches and fixes?
You should continue to get any code fixes from your current support team. This process will continue until you are notified in writing as to any changes in the handling of software updates.

9. Q: I have not yet started my Collation implementation. Should I wait?
A: There is no reason to wait for beginning your implementation. Please leverage the existing support teams for any assistance or the Professional Services teams.

1. Q: What value does this acquisition provide IBM Business Partners?
A: This is a technology-driven acquisition. Collation is a leading provider of auto-discovery and application mapping software. Their advanced technology automatically manages the complex and dynamic dependencies between applications and their supporting infrastructure.

This capability, when combined with IBM IT Service Management offerings - helps customers automate and standardize the way they design and integrate information technology (IT) processes.

IBM Tivoli and Collation Business Partners will benefit through an expanded solution footprint that makes IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) actionable for our joint customers.

2. Q: What value does this acquisition provide to Collation partners?
A: After the transaction is complete, Collation Business Partners will possess an expanded capability to help our joint customers to automate and standardize the way they design and integrate information technology (IT) processes - from releasing a security patch to changing or adding a server - across separate departments within their enterprise.

This is a major step in helping customers transform their business operations into an on demand environment. Customers can evaluate their business designs, processes and infrastructure to build responsive and automated IT environments.

Moreover, Collation Business Partners will be able to take advantage of IBM's worldwide resources through our award winning, world-class Business Partner Program - IBM PartnerWorld.

The synergy created between Collation and IBM will accelerate Collation Business Partners' growth into more verticals, across more geographies and into additional markets.

3. Q: Does IBM plan to continue relationships with Collation's Business Partners?
A: IBM is very interested in continuing the relationship with Collation's Business Partners. IBM can leverage the support of their extended selling and marketing teams and draw upon their Collation knowledge base to continue reaching new customers wanting to transform their businesses.

We are dedicated to delivering the quality of product innovation, support and service you expect from IBM.

4. Q: What benefits will be available to Collation Business Partners as a result of this acquisition?
A: After the transaction is complete, Collation Business Partners will benefit directly from IBM's worldwide resources and Business Partner focus through IBM PartnerWorld.

IBM PartnerWorld members have access to benefits that help them market and sell their solutions, including online code, tutorials and forums through its PartnerWorld Web-Site, as well as Web-based education and support via the IBM Virtual Innovation Centers.

5. Q: When can IBM Business Partners sell Collation products; are there any limitations?
A: Respective current relationships continue to govern activities.

6. Q: Will Collation Business Partners be able to sell IBM products; are there any limitations?
A: Collation business partners will be required to work through the standard IBM PartnerWorld programs, which provide access to IBM solutions. IBM is committed to making the transition seamless and successful so Collation Business Partners can leverage the benefits of the program and sell IBM software and hardware.

7. Q: Do Business Partners also have to update their sales/marketing collateral to reflect the rebranded products?
A: Yes. IBM will integrate the Collation solutions into the IBM portfolio and therefore re-branding will occur. Business Partners will thus be able to take advantage of the IBM brand when selling their products.

8. Q: What partner initiatives will be available for Collation?
A: IBM invites all Business Partners to join IBM PartnerWorld by visiting http://www-1.ibm.com/partnerworld/pwhome.nsf/weblook/index.html

We will integrate into PartnerWorld more content, and resources related to this announcement over the coming months.

9. Q: Can Business Partners OEM or resell Collation?
A: Post acquisition, the Collation products will be available through the IBM ordering and fulfillment systems and Collation Business Partners will only need to follow standard ordering procedures.