IBM and COMMON have announced the six winners of its third annual IT Innovation Awards. The clients were chosen for best-in-class, innovative uses of technology that deliver true benefits to their businesses.

The awards specifically showcased the achievements of clients who use the System i to deliver IT innovation. The 2007 award winners are: Bank of America Foreign Items Systems, The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM), Walt Disney World Co., FedEx Ground, Gateway Technical College, and www.AngustheiTChap.com.

"For the third year, the Innovation Awards showcase System i innovations that help our clients succeed as well as deliver more value to their own customers," said Mark Shearer, IBM System i general manager. "Innovation is what the IBM System i is all about ù taking the very best technologies available and integrating them in a way that helps customers simplify their IT environment, reduce costs, and fuel innovation in their businesses."

Bank of America Foreign Items Systems, based in Toronto, successfully implemented a service oriented architecture and Web services solution that provided a return on investment of over 385 percent and an estimated 32 percent savings in operating cost after the first year.

The solution, powered by System i, supports the integrated foreign currency banknote needs between Bank of America's Global Banknotes division and a top U.S.- based banking customer. Bank of America successfully integrated two disparate systems with transaction flow in real-time, enabling support for a network of over 2,000 branches and tens of thousands of tellers. The company has earned the award for Solution Innovation.

The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) migrated from a traditional telephone environment to an integrated VOIP environment based on the IBM, 3Com System i IP Telephony solution. FIDM significantly reduced telephone costs, consolidated voice and data applications onto one platform, and integrated a unified messaging system to include existing Lotus Notes e-mail and Genifax solutions. In the process, FIDM was able to replace expensive ATM lines and reduce six telephone private branch exchanges down to one using a Linux partition on the System i platform. FIDM has earned the award for Infrastructure Simplification.

Walt Disney World Co. used native i5/OS technology to modernize the user interface of a legacy application that controlled the front desk cashier check-in and check-out procedure across 27 Walt Disney World resorts. The modernized, Web-based application improved front desk cashier productivity and reduced training costs at the resorts. Walt Disney World Co. has earned the award for i5/OS Focus.

FedEx Ground developed a high availability and disaster recovery solution in a multiple System i environment in order to keep service to its customers continuously available, providing the speed and efficiency needed to accomplish high volume package sorting and vehicle and contractor management. Now, FedEx Ground has the capability of supporting field operations continuously in the event of system outages. FedEx Ground has earned the award for Business Resiliency.

Gateway Technical College, in Wisconsin, brought together the local System i user group with current students to increase job opportunities for graduating students and to educate businesses of the latest System i tools and technology. James E. Buck, an IT System i programming instructor, identified an untapped opportunity for Gateway Technical College, which has had an IBM midrange programmer/analyst program for 15 years. The program developed evening and one-day seminars; created an advisory board with recruited local professionals to help design the System i curriculum; and created networking opportunities for students. Gateway Technical College has earned the award for Education Excellence.

Angus the iT Chap (.com) is devoted to the System i platform and its community with a blog as well as a Web site that collects marketing ideas and encourages others to become more vocal and public about their own passion for the System i. Created and led by Trevor Perry, an IBM System i consultant, IT strategist, industry and motivational speaker who has made countless contributions to the System i community, AngustheiTChap.com has earned the award for Community Support.

"COMMON and IBM are very pleased to recognize outstanding customer achievements by honoring innovation in businesses and data centers where users are finding new ways to deliver even greater value using IBM System i," said Randy Dufault, COMMON board president.

The winners and finalists, honored at an awards ceremony hosted by Shearer and Dufault, were chosen by a panel of 25 judges that included IT-industry leaders, analysts, and IBM and COMMON executives. Current IBM System i customers could be nominated by an IBM Business Partner, IBM employee or themselves. Winners represent the United States and Canada.

About COMMON

COMMON is the world's largest users group of midrange IBM and IBM-compatible information technology users. The organization comprises more than 4,000 individual and corporate members. They represent more than 22,000 IT professionals involved with the IBM System i, i5/OS, and related solutions.

About IBM

For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com. For more about System i, visit www.ibm.com/systemi.