Readers today have a chance to learn about one of IBM's most forward-thinking initiatives-IBM Smart Business (formerly IBM Blue Business)-in a new video posted in MC Press Online's Webcast Center.

While limited information has been released by IBM on this new solution delivery model (see IBM Launches Smart Business,) MC Press Online hosted a Webcast Nov. 20 in which the program director for IBM Smart Business, Mike Prochaska, explains in detail exactly how IBM Smart Business and the IBM Smart Market will work, and how they will benefit tens of thousands of businesses around the world.

Sponsored by EXTOL International, the Webcast features two presenters, Prochaska, and Jim O'Leary, EXTOL vice president of product management. After a brief introduction from O'Leary, Prochaska gives an in-depth description of IBM Smart Business, a program that went live Nov. 21, the day after the Webcast. Smart Market went live in both the US and India on that day, but IBM's promotional activities in the U.S. are delayed until the first quarter of 2009.

IBM Smart Business was conceived as a way to increase the value of products and services from IBM and its valued Business Partners by making it much easier to implement the solutions that SMB businesses need today in order to remain competitive, reduce costs, increase security, and meet their compliance mandates. The cost of evaluating, provisioning, installing, integrating, and maintaining business applications can be high. IBM Smart Business, therefore, is designed to help reduce the overall life-cycle costs associated with an entire solution by automating many of the manual processes that have traditionally been needed to support it. Prochaska explains how the model works, the respective roles played by the customer and the independent software vendor, and the IBM Smart Cube hardware that works to support this new paradigm.

Complementary to the advanced integration provided by IBM Smart Business is EXTOL's Business Integrator and EXTOL EDI Integrator products, which automate the integration of external partners with internal applications and data. Companies that need to integrate supply- and demand-side applications with partners must deal with a growing variety of connection protocols, transaction formats, and quality of service requirements. O'Leary explains how EXTOL, one of the first IBM Partners to participate in the IBM Smart Business program, was able to adapt its products to work with the new IBM Smart Market delivery system, so that IBM customers can more easily acquire and manage multi-enterprise integration capabilities.

Fortunately, for the legions of businesses who could benefit from this cutting edge technology but may have missed the live Webcast, MC Press Online had the foresight to record this critical event, and MC Press Online readers may watch it-for free-just by clicking the following link: "Multi-enterprise Integration for IBM Smart Business." The Webcast lasts an hour, and there is a robust question-and-answer session at the end with Prochaska and O'Leary answering questions fielded from the audience by MC Press Online Senior Editor Chris Smith.

This is truly a rare video of a special and timely event readers won't want to miss or even defer viewing. After all, the U.S. launch of IBM Smart Business is only weeks away.

Chris Smith was the Senior News Editor at MC Press Online from 2007 to 2012 and was responsible for the news content on the company's Web site. Chris has been writing about the IBM midrange industry since 1992 when he signed on with Duke Communications as West Coast Editor of News 3X/400. With a bachelor's from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in English and minored in Journalism, and a master's in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Chris later studied computer programming and AS/400 operations at Long Beach City College. An award-winning writer with two Maggie Awards, four business books, and a collection of poetry to his credit, Chris began his newspaper career as a reporter in northern California, later worked as night city editor for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and went on to edit a national cable television trade magazine. He was Communications Manager for McDonnell Douglas Corp. in Long Beach, Calif., before it merged with Boeing, and oversaw implementation of the company's first IBM desktop publishing system there. An editor for MC Press Online since 2007, Chris has authored some 300 articles on a broad range of topics surrounding the IBM midrange platform that have appeared in the company's eight industry-leading newsletters. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..