ARMONK, N.Y., Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new software that helps companies simplify and integrate their business processes, enabling them to advance the development of new products and services.

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As a critical first step in determining how all aspects of product delivery will be managed, new IBM Rational software helps to enable software developers and systems engineers to meet precise design criteria, comply with industry standards and compatibility challenges and ensure accurate data exchange among design and development teams.

Today, organizations are struggling with the need to manage thousands of systems, integrate their development resources around the globe and adopt industry standards to meet compliance mandates. As increasingly complex products become interconnected with disparate systems, other devices, global users and online services, organizations need an all-encompassing approach to software design and development. In the growing field of sustainable energy, for example, sophisticated wind turbines, control stations, power generation systems, power grids and utility companies must operate as one to provide clean electricity to consumers' homes.

"Software has become the invisible thread that makes 'smarter' products possible," said Danny Sabbah, general manager of IBM Rational Software. "An unprecedented level of coordination is now required among the companies, partners and customers who produce, manage and consume them. These efforts must span the entire product lifecycle, and IBM's extensive cross-industry expertise, business transformational services and software solutions are helping customers meet these challenges."

IBM Rational Software has extended its portfolio of offerings in three areas to create the environment necessary to support the complex solutions to help manage the smart product proliferation including:

Systems Management -- Organizations require a high-level systems view of their solution architecture and information systems infrastructure to improve processes and manage various scenarios. Rational System Architect enterprise architecture management software helps businesses evaluate the potential impact of change and other modifications. The new version of Rational System Architect is integrated with Rational Focal Point, which includes advanced analysis and decision support capabilities to help organizations execute the right projects at the right time.

Defining Product Requirements -- In order to help businesses, requirements management software defines and manages product and project requirements when building and connecting systems. New enhancements to IBM Rational DOORS Web Access allow users to create new requirements and add traceability links to demonstrate compliance with critical design criteria through a simple Web browser interface.

Innovative Development -- Software developers and systems engineers must be able to evaluate software designs before they are written into code. New enhancements to IBM Rational Rhapsody include features that increase collaboration between development and quality assurance teams, improve the specification, capture and documentation of systems engineering designs and extend Rhapsody's native language capabilities to include Japanese.

New IBM Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software helps developers who have little or no service oriented architecture experience develop SOA solutions with greater speed and use them to connect and support distributed smart devices. IBM Rational Software Architect also includes features that allow the design and development of next-generation communication services, such as "click-to-call" features and integrated voice, video and web.

And, with the explosion of intelligent devices in industries, from telecommunications to energy to consumer electronics, IBM's new Enterprise Verification Management Solution creates a comprehensive test and simulation environment that helps "System on a Chip" manufacturers improve quality, reduce development costs and deliver products faster.

Market Advantage for EADS

EADS, a global leader in aerospace, defense and related services with headquarters in the Netherlands, is using IBM software requirements management and enterprise architecture solutions in the design of an increasing number of its complex products and systems for its Airbus and Security divisions. "The IBM Software platform helps us to differentiate ourselves in the market. We will be able to increase our quality while reducing the time to market for our products," said Simon Bradley, vice president, Technology Capability Centre, Engineering, Physics, IT, Security Services & Simulation at EADS Innovation Works.

For more information: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/rational/announce/smartproducts/?sa_campaign=message/leaf2/swg/information/smartproducts

http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/index.html?ca=v_smarterplanet

Contact: Holly Barnett, 949-202-7218, hbarnett@us.ibm.com

SOURCE IBM

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