NEW YORK-IBM announced alliances with eight Internet professional services firms to build mobile e-commerce solutions for IBM’s wireless Internet initiatives.
IBM said the companies-Agency.com; Answerthink; Luminary Worldwide Corp.; Organic; R/GA; Rare Medium; Razorfish; and US Interactive-will use IBM technology to help businesses create content and services for wireless devices.
As part of the alliance, IBM said it will invest in special support programs tailored to meet the needs of its partners. In return, the companies will build a percentage of their wireless Web solutions on IBM middleware, a software layer providing the linkage between different operating systems and the applications businesses use to run their companies.
“These companies will have tremendous influence over which platforms businesses use to create content and services for these devices, and we’re committed to provide them with the support they need to develop and deploy wireless solutions using IBM hardware and software,” said Mark Hanny, vice president of IBM’s Web Integrator Initiative.
The companies will initially use IBM’s WebSphere Everyplace Suite as a foundation for the mobile solutions they develop for clients. According to IBM, the software automatically translates Web data into an appropriate format that can be read from handheld devices.
“To put it simply, if you’re not already planning for wireless deployment, you are behind the curve,” said David Flaxman, managing director of e-commerce at Answerthink. “The concept that you should not have to redeploy content for every existing and potential device is a compelling one. IBM’s approach, through standardized transcoding, combined with IBM’s end-to-end suite of e-commerce products provides a powerful enterprise-to-anywhere toolset.”
