IBM's new specialty: government

What is PartnerWorld?

IBM Corp. today announced the first four members of its new Government Specialty for e-business, a distinction given to members of IBM's PartnerWorld program who have extensive experience in delivering solutions to federal, state and local government customers.

The four charter members are:

* Ezgov.com, an electronic services provider for governments.

* Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., a leader in the development and implementation of geographic information systems.

* HTE Inc., a provider of integrated software solutions for public-sector organizations, specializing in financial management, community services, public safety and justice, utility management and school administration.

*JPH International Inc., a provider of customer relationship management solutions for governments, focusing on the delivery of information and services.

Government Specialty members agree to comply with IBM's Application Framework for e-business, which entails providing government customers with solutions defined by open standards, easy-to-use interfaces and scalability to handle rapid growth.

"We expect this to be the first in a large number of our business partners who agree to make all of their applications comply with this scalable, highly-secure platform," said Todd Ramsey, general manager of IBM's global government industry. "This means government customers are not restricted to IBM [services] but can take advantage of the platform right away. Over time the goal is to have the different [vendor] applications interact even better with each other."

Ramsey said IBM is working with other companies to ensure that their applications work on the platform, and that he expects more additions to the new program in upcoming weeks.

Companies interested in applying or seeking more information should contact David White at (850) 599-4330 or dwhite@us.ibm.com.