The IT market is a dynamic and exhilarating environment -- fast-moving, global, and intensely focused on customer value. Network computing is driving new ways of doing business, spurring dramatic improvements in productivity, changing the competitive landscape of whole industries, and creating entirely new markets.

    As profound as IT’s impact has been to date, we’re on the cusp of something even more profound. Network computing is propelling us toward a world of on demand e-business, where enterprises will be able to respond "on demand" to anything the world throws at them: changes in supply, demand, competitors' moves, customer preferences, capital markets, labor supply. In short, everything from hackers to hurricanes.

    In the on demand era, the enterprises that thrive will be those which successfully achieve totally new levels of integration: of processes, applications and employees inside; of suppliers, distributors and customers outside. Make no mistake, this kind of integration is hard work, but the rewards are well worth the effort -- an enterprise that is responsive to changes in its environment, flexible in its operations, focused on its core competencies, and resilient to all manner of challenges and threats.

     IBM has been a part of the IT industry from day one, and we’ve never been more optimistic about the future. We’ve committed our entire company -- the energies and expertise of our global workforce, our unmatched leadership in innovation, and the industry’s deepest portfolio of technical assets -- to helping our customers become on demand businesses. It's been a fascinating and rewarding journey. And the best is yet to come.