IBM to unveil new Web services products

NEW YORK: International Business Machines Corp. is expected to unveil
products that will allow its customers to build software links over the
Internet, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Monday.

These new products fall into the area of "Web services,"
essentially software tools that give firms means to connect their software
applications with other companies, usually suppliers or customers, reducing the
time and costs of developing such links, the paper said.

The Web-services offerings, to be announced Monday, are mostly expected to
become available during this quarter, the paper said. Web-services capability
will be added to its major software-product groups including its DB2 database,
its Internet-infrastructure software, WebSphere, Lotus Notes and Tivoli
security-and-monitoring software, the paper noted.

Separately, IBM's global services division has agreed with Lucent
Technologies to sell and service Lucent products such as the switches and
software used in phone and computer networks, the paper said.

Citing a person familiar with the agreement, the paper said the two companies
expect to split $300 million in revenue generated by the pact over the next two
years. IBM has similar service agreements with Lucent’s rivals including Cisco
Systems Inc., Alcatel and Nortel Networks Corp.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.