Interbrands has ranked IBM #2 in the Best Global Brands 2008. Each year Interbrands rankglobal brands and puts together a list of 100 best global brands.

It's interesting to look at where the companies on the list of the top 100 global brands originatefrom and what industries they're in. For example, 3 out of the top 10 are in the computerhardware or software business with a fourth in the internet services business.

Together, computer-related business makes up 40% of the top 10 best global brands in the2008 list. A strong brand is a tremendous asset; it provides the basis for trust and confidencefor every client doing business with IBM and all the stakeholders we touch.

Customer Newsletter - Issue # 5

IBM Ranked #2 in theBest Global Brands 2008

It points to the opportunity to make IBM come alive in the hearts and minds of clients and constituents with focus and passion.

That said, it is also a tremendous opportunity for us to redouble our efforts to be a value-driven brand. As the IT brand leader, and the second most valuablebrand in the world, it gives us high significance as to how IBM finds ways every day to meaningfully act on: dedication to every client's success, innovationthat matters, for our company and the world, and trust and personal responsibility in our relationships.

U.S. Department of State Taps IBM to Extend Telemedicine'sReach to Remote Regions of PakistanIBM at the request of the U.S Department of State has led a team of respected players in the successful launch and development of a humanitarian, high-technology telemedicine project for some of the country's neediest and most remote residents. With a population of almost 179 million, Pakistan is the world'stenth most populous nation. More than 75% of all Pakistani's live in remote, rural regions, but these people benefit from fewer than 15% of all hospital beds.

The program is a key initiative under the U.S. Government's Digital Freedom Initiative. It is bringing high-quality medical services directly to the patients'points of need at affordable costs, benefiting from round-the-clock, ubiquitous WiMAX connectivity, the largest such network in the developing world to date.As it has for weeks, the initiative demonstrates the power of moving information instead of people where healthcare delivery is concerned, healthcare thatwould otherwise be lacking or absent in remote locations without sufficient availability of medical specialists. We have experts from IBM, the US Departmentof State, and Pakistani physicians who are working on this project.

For more information please visit: ibm.com/pk

1 CocaCola2 IBM3 Microsoft4 GE5 Nokia6 Toyota7 Intel8 McDonald9 Disney10 Google

2008 Rank Brand

For almost 100 years we've been solving some of the world's toughest problems, making the world better, pushing the limits ofprogress. The technology changes, the problems morph, yet at IBM together have forged an icon in business that clearly perceivesthe present, changes the future, and collectively we roll-up our sleeves to do something about it every day.

AlBaraka Islamic Bank (AIB) has signed anagreement with GBM, an IBM BusinessPartner, for the provision of Power Systemsfrom IBM to support the core bankingapplications for its new venture in Pakistan.AlBaraka, a Bahrian-based Islamic Bank,chose IBM Power Systems, one of the IBM’sfastest growing products, specifically for itsperformance, scalability and stability, as thebank seeks to implement a core bankingplatform in order to provide a cost-effective,resilient and scalable platform for its newoperations in Pakistan.

Shafqaat Ahmed, Country Head Pakistan ofAlBaraka Islamic Bank, welcomed thisdevelopment saying, “We have chosen IBMfor its world class hardware solutions, sincewe wanted to acquire state-of-the-art ITsolutions as part of our decision to acquirea new core banking system and to supportour Bank’s strategic growth objectives,involving conversion of our operations intoa locally registered Islamic Bank in Pakistanover the next few weeks as per plans, paving

the way for exponential growth in the networkof our branches and customer outreach”.

“As AlBaraka extends its pioneering Islamicbanking services into Pakistan, the resilienceand scalability of its core banking systemswill be critical,” says Humayun Bashir,Country General Manager of IBM Pakistan.“This agreement provides a sure foundationto enable AlBaraka to expand into thePakistani market in a cost effective manner.”

AlBaraka Islamic Bank already uses IBMPower Systems in its head office in Bahrain.In particular AlBaraka will use BladeCenterServers along with i Series Servers to runMisys Equation, a core banking applicationfrom IBM Business Partner Misys. This willhelp the bank support a broad range ofbusiness applications and consolidate oradd new applications to extend capabilitiesand collaboration across the value chainresulting in enhanced flexibility and reliabilityalong with outstanding pr ice andperformance.

AlBaraka Selects IBM Power Systems to Support Core BankingSystems in Pakistani Expansion

Picture shows: (L-R) Humayun Bashir, Country General Manager,IBM Pakistan with Shafqaat Ahmed, Country Head, AlBarakaIslamic Bank Pakistan, with their teams at the agreement signingceremony.

IBM System Storage DS5000 Series

IBM PRODUCTS & SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENTS

The IBM System Storage DS5000 series storage system is designed to meet today's and tomorrow's demanding open-systems requirements while establishing anew standard for life cycle longevity. Building on many decades of design expertise, the DS5000 series' seventh-generation architecture delivers industry-leadingperformance, real reliability, multi-dimensional scalability and unprecedented investment protection.

The DS5000 series is equally adept at supporting transactional applications such as databasesand OLTP, throughput-intensive applications such as HPC and rich media, and concurrentworkloads for consolidation and virtualization. With its relentless performance and superiorreliability and availability, the DS5000 series storage system can support the most demandingservice level agreements (SLAs). And when requirements change, the DS5000 series canadd or replace host interfaces, grow capacity, add cache and be reconfigured on the fly-ensuring that it will keep pace with your growing company.

This multi-dimensional scalability enables the DS5000 series storage system to extend beyondthe normal three to four year life cycle, protecting your storage investment by delaying (oreven eliminating) the expense of migrating data to a new system and allowing you to amortizeits acquisition costs over extended periods of time. This life cycle longevity enables the DS5000series to continue delivering value long after other systems have been retired.

IBM has a long history of designing highly reliable and available storage systems, and the DS5000 series is the culmination of that expertise. With redundantcomponents, automated path failover and extensive online configuration, reconfiguration and maintenance capabilities, the DS5000 series helps to ensure that yourdata will be available 24x7x365. The DS5000 series also offers multiple replication options and a persistent cache backup to help ensure that any data in cache iscaptured and safe in the event of a power outage.

For more information, visit www.ibm.com/systems/storage/dish/ds5000

IBM Builds on Industry-LeadingUNIX Portfolio with New Servers,Software

IBM the world’s leader in UNIX revenue share, announcednew POWER6 processor-based servers for enterprise andSMB clients and updated virtualization and systemsmanagement software designed to help clients improveperformance, drive innovation, and maximize return on theirIT investments in the new enterprise data center.

The new offerings provide a clear alternative to HP, Sun andother competitive systems by helping customers consolidatetheir data centers or departmental workloads, increaseoperational efficiencies, and reduce energy costs.

For more information, visit: ibm.com/pk

New IT Optimization Offerings from IBM ReduceCost and Complexity for Midsize CompaniesIBM announced new BladeCenter servers and System Storage offerings designed to help midsizebusinesses simplify and automate the management of information technology resources, applications,processes and services.

IBM is also introducing a new version of WebSphere's industry leading application server that willhelp midsize businesses reduce both cost and IT complexity, while enhancing the speed ofcustomer response time on the Web. The new version will also provide a highly scalable andreliable platform for midsize businesses to collaborate and securely exchange data.

These Express Advantage IT optimization solutions are built on an open architecture to optimizecomputing resources and feature advanced virtualization capabilities in addition to dynamiccapabilities that reduce the number of hardware components and software resources. This allowsmidsize companies to free up floor space, save energy and simplify administrative tasks. The newofferings are the latest addition to the Express Advantage portfolio, reflecting IBM's ongoingcommitment to help midsize businesses find new and affordable ways to apply technology forgreater value.

For more information, visit: ibm.com/expressadvantage

IBM Named "Most Admired GlobalCompany" in ContractManagementIBM has been named the most admired company in contractmanagement in a survey conducted by the International Associationfor Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM), a non-profitfoundation recognized as the international authority on the role ofcontracting management in the global networked economy.

"As the largest provider of IT services in the world, IBM managesthousands of client and partner relationships in some 170 countries.Effectively managing contracts of all durations across complexjurisdictional, regulatory, corporate governance and riskmanagement requirements is fundamental to the value we bringto our clients, partners and investors," said Rick Kaplan, vicepresident and assistant general counsel, IBM Global BusinessServices.

For more information, visit: ibm.com/pk

Energy-Efficient Power System Outperforms HP by 2x

IBM Builds on SOA Leadership withNew Software and ServicesIBM enhanced its position as the worldwide leader in the service oriented architecture (SOA)market with new products and services that help clients respond to rapid changes in themarketplace to gain a competitive advantage.

With this announcement, IBM is focusing on the areas that clients and business leadersworldwide have identified as the most critical to their success: gaining effective insight intotheir markets; tuning their business processes to take advantage of these insights; enhancingtheir infrastructures to execute these new business processes; and making sure they get themost out of their talent and expertise.

"Combined with this experience, our new products and services will help us to increase thevalue we bring to clients and continue the SOA momentum we have in both established andemerging markets worldwide."

For more information, visit: ibm.com/pk

Pakistan Reinsurance Company Limited (PakRe) has recently procured IBMPOWER6 machine for their in-house based Reinsurance & Financialapplications. This procurement of new machine will help PakRe to smoothlymigrate from their Ten year old machine to the newly announced IBM POWER6server and run their existing applications without any change and modification.PakRe decided for IBM POWER Systems because of the overall lower totalcost of ownership and investment protection for their stable financial application.

IBM POWER Systems are optimized for small and midsized businesses andwith features like built in i5/OS, Database, Virus Resistance, Security toolsand Capacity on Demand, IBM POWER Systems provides the ability to supporta broad range of business applications and consolidate or add new applicationsto extend capabilities and collaboration across the value chain. Advancedvirtualization technologies allow the IBM POWER Systems platform to runIBM i5/OS, Linux, IBM AIX and Microsoft Windows. This enables companiesto choose from a broad selection of applications and consolidate operationson a single, highly flexible and reliable system with outstandingprice/performance.

Inbox, IBM Business Partner Served the Customer.

IBM PRODUCTS & SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENTS

CAA Selects IBM for Supply ChainManpower OutsourcingCivil Aviation Authority (CAA) has signed an agreement with IBM GlobalBusiness Services (GBS) for outsourcing of human resources for ERPProject for the tenure of two years. This is the third win for GBS to furtherstrengthen CAA's automation process and infrastructure development.

The engagement of IBM resources will boost the CAA ERP project byproviding value added services and helping the employees in developingstrong knowledge base in ERP environment. IBM GBS has spearheadedthe ERP implementation in Pakistan by successive wins in a very shortperiod of time.

Pakistan Reinsurance Continues to Rely on IBM POWER Systems

Recently, IBM conducted “InnovationJam 2008”. This was IBM's firstjam focused on, for and with our clients. This unique virtual event broughtIBMers and our clients together in a virtual THINK TANK to pave theroad for enterprise of the future.

IBM in Karachi organized “iJam Cafe” where IBMers participated andJammed. InnovationJam at iJam Café was a one day activity whichinvited all the employees to share their ideas, views had participatedin the worldwide discussions.

InnovationJam 2008

Picture shows (L-R) Syed Tahir Ali Manager - DPD, Pakistan Reinsurance Company Limited, Syed ImranSaeed, POWER Systems Sales Specialist, IBM, Samiya Hussain, Account Manager Financial Sector, IBMand Mr. Imtiaz H. Qureshi - Manager - I.T, Pakistan Reinsurance Company Limited with their team

Meezan Bank has signed an agreement with IBM Global Business Services(GBS) for the implementation of Oracle E-business suites which include OracleFinancial and HRMS solutions. IBM is already providing System P and SystemStorage products to the bank. To formalize the agreement, a signing ceremonywas held at the Meezan Bank head office at PNSC building in Karachi.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Arif ul Islam, Chief Executive Officer MeezanBank said that achieving business automation through ERP is one the keychallenges in today’s competitive environment and this particular project willhelp Meezan Bank to achieve process efficiency and the transformation of itsbusiness processes according to industry’s best practices.

Mr. Faizur Rehman, Head of Information Technology Department has sharedhis vision of transforming the IT department in to a modernized and well versedentity and keep embarking such initiatives in the near future as well.

Asif Akram, Country Leader Global Business Services, IBM Pakistancommented that Meezan Bank and IBM are long term strategic partners andGBS will be looking forward to continue working with Meezan Bank to providebest quality services to its customers. He also appreciated the dedication andhardworking of both Meezan and IBM team and particularly Mr. Iqbal Ahmad,the Project Manager from Meezan who is leading this project.

Meezan Bank Selects Global BusinessServices for Oracle E-business SuiteImplementation

Picture shows few IBM employees who participated at InnovationJam 2008

Picture shows: Imtiaz Ahmed, Financial Lead, IBM, Jawaid Rizvi, GM Logistics CAA, Tahir Omar,Project Manager ERP, CAA, and Irtiza Haider, Project Manager, IBM

IBM PAKISTAN & BUSINESS PARTNER NEWS

ABM Data Systems Appointed asIBM System x Distributor

The training was conducted by Tim Birdsall and ably supported by Zaib. This was a salesenablement session where Channel Partners were educated on the IBM Sales methodologyand more specifically the following topics were covered: building & maintaining relationshipswith customers, identifying & assessing opportunities, building & creating the buying vision.The enablement session was attended by sales specialists of Business Partners from ABMInfoTech, GBM, Inbox, InfoTech, InterActive, MegaPlus, Ovex, TechAccess.

IBM Hosted Sales Process OverviewEnablement Session for its Business PartnerABM®

Data Systems (Pvt.) Ltd.

ABM Data Systems Pvt. Ltd. has signed agreement with IBMPakistan as IBM Distributor for System x. ABM Data Systemsbegan its operations in 1983 with a focused business objective ofproviding total computing solutions to the corporate world inPakistan. ABM is recognized as one of the leading IT companiesin Pakistan with over 100 employees and based in Karachi andhas offices in major cities of Pakistan.

a a av nzS O L U T I O N S

Avanza Solutions has BecomeIBM Software Partner

IBM Pakistan signs with HBL for BC&RS in Karachi and Islamabad. IBMPakistan has been able to show value-addition to HBL and provide asolution that would cater to all their requirements. HBL has, therefore,signed for enhanced offerings of BC&RS of IBM Pakistan. This solutionwould provide High Availability for Karachi Site and Warm Availability forIslamabad Site in case of city wide disaster for next 3 years.

HBL has been using the base services of Business Consultancy ofResiliency Services of IBM Pakistan for the last 4 years. With theexponential growth that HBL has seen in the business with the completerollout of Misys application in all the branches, they wanted High Availabilityfor their online branches where replication can be performed on highspeed links.

The wining team included Adeel Naseer, Athar Mahmood, Kashif UlHaque, Salman Qayam, Syed Shariq Kalam, Rashid Saeed, Zaheer AKhan and Zahir Durrani.

Ring the Bell - HBL ❋❋

Avanza, as an IBM Partner, will focus on Websphere and TivoliBrand offerings. Avanza Solutions is a U.S based company withrepresentation in Spain, Pakistan and UAE. They are a globalsolution and services company providing specialized IT products,solution and services to financial institutions, mid-large corporationsand government. Picture shows participants of the Enablement Session

IBM Pakistan recently participated at InfoSec 2008, an Annual InformationSecurity event. IBM through its participation showcased its resources,capabilities and dedication in the domain of IT and Information Security forPakistan.

Dr. Khaled E.A. Negm, Security and Privacy Business line and GatewayDelivery Manager, IBM Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan presentedon this event and highlighted the subject of “Information Security onMultidimensions - How many are under your control?”.

During the event, IBM ISS team gave specific focus to the TelecomCustomers, for which IBM has developed some top-of-the-line highperformance security boxes. IBM ISS offers pre-emptive protection that istightly integrated with existing IT business processes to help fortify virtuallycustomer's entire infrastructure-from the gateway to the core to even themost remote endpoints.

The foundation of IBM's capabilities is the IBM Proventia product family.Consisting of anti-virus, firewall, virtual private network (VPN), intrusiondetection and prevention, application protection, anti-spam, and contentfiltering technologies. This robust and comprehensive protection platformis built on security intelligence gathered by the IBM X-Force research anddevelopment team.

IBM Participates in InfoSec 2008

Picture shows: Hifz-ur-Rehman, Secretary IT Federal presenting the memento to Dr. KhaledE.A. Negm, Security and Privacy Business line and Gateway Delivery Manager, IBM MiddleEast, North Africa and Pakistan and Akbar Adil, Global Technology Services Manager, IBMPakistan.

IBM Open Day on IT Industryand Trends

Picture shows journalists and reporters at IBM Open Day

IBM Open Day was aimed at educating and enhancing the knowledgeof the participants regarding the IT industry and helping them betterunderstand how information technology and trends are advancing.