As IBM continues to accelerate its market growth in the application server space with Websphere, a recurring theme among Websphere customers is the need for robust performance management solutions. To address this need, IBM has formed a new strategic alliance with Dirig Software, a leader in the performance management space with its industry acclaimed solution Fenway. This relationship has been formed with our Global Services division and endorsed by the Websphere group, designed to provide our customer base with new services that help maintain the performance and availability of web applications built on the Websphere platform. The combination of Dirig’s Fenway and our consulting has allowed Global Services to begin to offer a Performance Audit service for Websphere that will identify individual components of an eBusiness that are possible points of failure or elements that impede the performance of the site. Upon completion of the Performance Audit, there is an obvious opportunity to offer additional services to fix web applications and provide longer-term management for the customer’s eBusiness. This relationship brings tremendous value to you and your sales teams, and most importantly your customers. By offering services built on this alliance, you can earn remarkable customer loyalty while at the same time helping your customers protect valuable eBusiness revenue. IBM and Dirig have committed significant resources to drive the success of this program and we have setup a program office to support our efforts. Over the coming weeks and months the alliance team will be conducting on-line demonstrations of Fenway, so you can see first hand the management capabilities this solutions offers. In addition we have jointly launched a new website called Webspheremanagement.com. This site will continue to grow with valuable information on the services, management of websphere and other information that will help Websphere users be more successful employing Websphere. I encourage you to learn more about Fenway and the services offering by clicking the available links in this e-mail. Please bookmark Webspheremanagement.com, register as an IBM sales person and visit this site frequently to catch all of the updates. The alliance team along with Robert Hoyt, CEO of Dirig, myself and Scott Hebner from our Websphere Group are extremely encouraged by this relationship and wish all of you the best in selling and promoting our new services. Sincerely, XXXXXX IBM Vice President