IBM advocates e-business with new solutions 

IBM has launched a series of special-priced software solutions for eight areas of e-business. The Big Blue calls these, 'Start Now Solutions' and says that these can be applied in areas such as technology infrastructure, CRM and host integration.

Pawan Sharma, Country Manager, Software Group & Developer Relations, IBM India, is not worried of the fact that IBM is launching these solutions when market is facing a slowdown. Says he, "We are offering a test-proven, replicable software to our clients. We want our partners to carry the message, 'start small, start now' to our customers." 

The Start Now Solutions for e-business are meant to provide small and mid-size companies with tools, sample customer scenarios, software, hardware and direction that they need in doing web-based businesses. 

Nearly 20 business partners have committed to leverage eight middleware packages of IBM to build applications that address the needs of small and mid-size companies. Says Pawan, "We want customers to look at these applications as value coming to them."

Pawan says that IBM has worked out attractive pricing for Start Now Solutions packages. For instance, the host integration package is priced around $15,000 while the Start Now CRM package is pegged at $45,000.

The Start Now Solutions are aimed at areas such as analyzing and understanding business data for better decisions, building and deploying a foundation for e-business, and buying and selling over the Internet. 

These solutions also manage and secure a company's Internet presence, develop and nurture customer relationships, and extend and enhance web sites with human interaction. The solutions can manage and maintain business-critical content and extend legacy applications to the Web.