IDS Teams with IBM for Business Solutions to the Food Industry

Integrated Distribution Solutions L.L.C. (www.ids-world.com) and IBM (www.ibm.com) today announced that they will develop and deliver comprehensive, Linux-based solutions to help food and consumer goods distributors optimize their supply chains, customer management, and other critical business processes.

Building from a base of 800 joint customers already running IDS software on IBM eServer systems(TM) and IBM middleware, the joint IDS-IBM Linux(TM) solutions will benefit distributors in the foodservice, grocery, convenience, and consumer goods industries by giving them a highly reliable, flexible platform for deploying business applications to help them gain competitive advantage, while dramatically reducing costs.

IDS Power Enterprise is a portfolio of software modules exclusively designed for companies in the food and consumer goods distribution industry. It includes customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, operations and warehouse automation, financial accounting, and business intelligence components.

IDS Power Enterprise solutions are currently used by some of the world's largest and most advanced food distributors.

"Our customers depend on IDS to deliver total solutions that work in an integrated fashion," said Todd P. Michaud, IDS President, "and we have learned over the years that we must pick our strategic technology partners carefully so that our customers get comprehensive solutions to their business problems. With our IBM strategic alliance, our customers can rest-assured that our joint implementations will deliver meaningful business results rapidly, smoothly and in an integrated fashion."

The IDS-IBM agreement is an extension of a strategic alliance formed by the two companies in 2002. It is another example of IBM's commitment to go-to-market with leading independent software vendors (ISVs) through the PartnerWorld for Developers program.