Computer giant IBM Corp., today announced it will enter into a five-year agreement with The Dow Chemical Company to provide Dow with end-to-end Web-hosting services for the company’s e-business sites.
While the financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, IBM days the alliance will enable Dow to expedite application introductions, reduce Web development costs and enhance the quality of service delivered to customers through its online resources.
“Dow and IBM have a long and successful history together,” says Jim Corgel, general manager of e-business hosting services for IBM. “We look forward to working together to develop solutions to meet Dow’s technology needs; in new ways and on-demand.”
IBM will provide Web-hosting services for Dow’s corporate Web site, Dow.com; MyAccount@Dow, the company’s extranet used for transactions, collaboration and information sharing with customers and Dow’s other industry-specific Web sites.
IBM’s says its involvement will cover each stage of the Web production cycle including development, testing and production environments. It is responsible for ensuring the availability of the dozens of new servers supporting Dow’s Web-based tools enabling the company to manage their increased use — Dow reports that use is growing at 10 percent monthly since the beginning of 2001.
According to David E. Kepler, corporate vice president, electronic business, and chief information officer for Dow, the relationship furthers the company’s commitment to using technology to assist customers doing business with Dow.
While Dow expects the agreement to enable faster and more cost-effective migration to new applications from development to production, Kepler says access to additional server resources also gives the company increased flexibility when respond to customers:
“Information delivery is becoming a utility – like electricity, gas and water,” he says. “Quality customer care in today’s e-business environment requires the predictability of a utility-based computing model.”
He continues: “Our agreement with IBM enables us to maximize the availability, performance and quality of our online information and services for customers. Information delivery should be as simple and reliable as flipping a switch and getting light.”
