IBM today announced the signing of a long term agreement under which IBM will provide application management services to W. R. Grace & Co. .

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Grace is a specialty chemical and materials company with about 6,000 employees in more than 40 countries, including application support staff in the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

As part of the agreement, IBM Global Business Services will create a technology platform, enabling Grace to update and standardize application delivery across its enterprise and adjust its resources to meet demands from emerging growth markets.

Gloria L. Keesee, Chief Information Officer for Grace, commented: "Our work with IBM will create an IT organization for Grace that has the scalability and flexibility to meet the business' future needs, whether supporting customers, integrating acquisitions or opening new offices. Being able to efficiently and quickly deploy the most advanced technology solutions across diverse geographies will be essential to our company's future."

IBM will provide Grace with an on-site IT presence that will work with Grace's IT professionals as well as access to IBM's network of Global Delivery Centers. The IBM solution includes a Level One Help Desk offering support in multiple languages. IBM will also provide full application life cycle support and will enhance the manner in which Grace's business analysts gather requirements and support user acceptance testing.

"Grace selected IBM due to our commitment and our ability to support their application environment worldwide," said Russell Doby, Vice President, IBM Global Business Services. "This implementation will help transform Grace to further integrate their IT processes and systems, leading to continued success and growth."

  The agreement was signed on June 2, 2009.

  About W. R. Grace & Co.

Grace is a leading global supplier of catalysts and other products to petroleum refiners; catalysts for the manufacture of plastics; silica-based engineered and specialty materials for a wide range of industrial applications; sealants and coatings for food and beverage packaging, and specialty chemicals, additives and building materials for commercial and residential construction. For more information, visit Grace's web site at www.grace.com.

  About IBM
  For more information visit www.ibm.com.


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SOURCE: IBM