Users set to benefit from IBM-MatrixOne partnership

“With this partnership, users can expect very specific, sector-by-sector product collaboration software templates,” says Alberto Costales, MatrixOne’s vp global alliances. This potentially powerful partnership means IBM Global Services will provide all the necessary consulting, customisation and integration services to the client. But together, the two vendors will develop and market MatrixOne’s eMatrix collaboration platform to run on IBM hardware, software and middleware. “IBM’s got the muscle and MatrixOne wants to be a key element in its growth strategy,” adds Costales. “Together, we’ll be aggressively targeting the global Fortune 500 companies, starting with the CPG [consumer packaged goods] and life sciences [pharmaceuticals and medical devices] industries.” According to Costales, IBM chose eMatrix, “Because it’s best-of-breed as far as product collaboration technology goes. And we have a very impressive record of customer success.” IBM Global Services vp buy and supply consulting practice, Murray Mitchell, comments: “We can now offer customers significant opportunities to improve revenues and reduce costs through advanced product collaboration, strategic sourcing and program management software.” And the analyst community likes the deal too. Kevin O’Marah, research principal at AMR Research, comments: “The significance of this partnership is that it brings together a product collaboration technology from MatrixOne that has many loyal users in the field with a powerful sales and delivery capability in IBM.” “Up to now, product lifecycle management [PLM] software has been too horizontal and not specific to industry sectors,” says Costales. “Each time we did an implementation it was client-specific. Now we’ve taken templates from IBM and further developed these to create vertical, specific sector solutions.” And financially, the firm is very buoyant. “Up to September 11, for 10 consecutive Q’s, we exceeded the market’s expectations. We’ve seen a downturn since that date, but in the last Q it’s starting to pick up again.” MatrixOne currently has 575 global customers within the aerospace, defence, automotive, CPG, high-tech, medical and machinery industries.