SAN MATEO (04/03/2000) - IBM Corp. is expected to outline a new plan intended to move its IBM Global Services division more into the dot-com arena. Believed to be much like a program offered by competitor Hewlett-Packard, the new strategy will target companies that are focused explicitly on the digital network economy for partnership deals, company officials said. The partnerships are intended to boost IBM's presence in the dot-com market and provide services that have typically been unavailable for start-ups, according to an IBM representative.
Sprint, MS partner
Sprint has three announcements planned for Internet World, one involving a partnership with Microsoft. Although the company would provide few details, the Microsoft alliance will be aimed at giving Sprint a value-add in its current e-business services, according to a spokesman. Sprint also will detail its plans to get into e-business trading by playing up the role of the network in such transactions. Finally, Sprint plans to unveil enhancements -- including new security features -- for its Internet Collaboration Center. The Collaboration Center is a Web-based voice, video, and data conferencing site that was unveiled last fall.
Audiopoint expands
Audiopoint will launch a new host of categories available through its speech-recognition audiopoint service. The service will be expanded to include business, sports, local traffic (in 20 cities), weather, and entertainment, according to Nick Unger, president and CEO of Audiopoint. The company also intends to release myaudio.com, a programmable profiling mechanism for Web site retrieval customization.