Press Releases

Ideas International Announces Single Company Branding Combined with New Unique i~STACK Product Architecture

February 10, 2005 - Sydney, Australia

Ideas International provides leading-edge online IT research and analysis services to both the buy and sell sides of the global IT enterprise marketplace. During the first half of 2005 the company added a number of major new corporate end-user customers including prominent names such as ING Amsterdam, Suncorp Metway and Citigroup. Also new distribution partnerships have been established by the company in 2005 with established and highly regarded representatives in Japan, Germany and France.

The leading Australian-based worldwide IT research and advisory firm, Ideas International Limited (ASX: IDE), today announced three major new customer–focused initiatives:

  • The global adoption of the Ideas International branding and company name across all of their research offices and deliverables.
  • The release of its new research product architecture (known as i~STACK); featuring a series of integrated deliverables designed to meet the broad spectrum needs of IT infrastructure research users.
  • The unveiling of a new customer research delivery website that provides enhanced functionality for users of the company’s deliverables.

The single company brand also completes the integration of DH Brown Associates, a research advisory company that Ideas International acquired in 2004 . Ideas International had previously maintained separate deliverables under this brand.

Effective immediately, all deliverables from Ideas International will be provided under the single brand ensuring consistent presentation and recognition of materials generated by the firm’s global analyst and research teams.

Ideas International has also announced the market release of their new product architecture which offers the industry a compelling and unique combination of IT infrastructure research building up from the powerful Competitive Profiles database foundation through to specialized and customized research delivery for specific clients on both the buy and sell side of the industry.

The new product architecture has been named as the i~STACK, an incremental building block approach which provides many layers of capability. The i~STACK features a six by six tabular matrix of structured and integrated research service capabilities and associated research practice areas. (see the associated i~STACK graphic).

Ideas International has announced three new product deliverables within the i~STACK framework. They are:

  • i~PBS (Pricing Benchmarking Services) – A detailed monthly delivery which monitors the pricing dynamics of enterprise products and services; predicting trends and highlighting low-cost options.
  • i~PPS (Product Positioning Services) – A detailed monthly delivery of Product Positioning Services; combining the three key elements of features support, pricing and performance to rapidly visualize the comparative positioning of products in a head-to-head analysis report.
  • i~CPS (Competitive Positioning Services) – A powerful set of research deliverables that support Competitive Positioning Services for IT vendors; including focused and tailored competitive analysis reports, sales tactics advice, sales training materials and assistance with competitive intelligence practice development.

Commenting on the new announcement, the CEO of Ideas International, Mr. Ian Birks stated “We are confident that the powerful, integrated and focused set of capabilities that we offer in our new product architecture framework is a unique differentiation in the industry and will become a high-valued set of resources for current and future customers of Ideas International.”

Mr. Birks added “We provide a research capability which leads the industry in terms of its focus on comparative evaluation of technology and which is backed by a powerful and easy-to-use database of research analysis. This latest introduction of i~STACK firmly positions us as a next-generation IT research provider which is ready to revolutionize the way that IT buyers and sellers assess technology decisions.”

The third component of this announcement is the unveiling of a new customer website for use by Ideas International’s research service subscribers and visitors. The new website is located at www.ideasint.com/ra and it provides increased functionality for users in terms of interface, navigation and search capability.

All i~STACK deliverables are available immediately from Ideas International’s worldwide offices. They can typically be licensed either as a continuous information service or as a pay-per-use delivery under the company’s Decision Point packaging that was announced in November 2004. See the company’s general public information website at www.ideasinternational.com for further details..

About Ideas International

Ideas International Limited (IDEAS) was founded in Sydney, Australia in 1981 and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in March 2001 (ASX:IDE). Today, the company is the leading global provider of comparative information for the analysis of features, performance, and ownership costs of enterprise equipment used in IT infrastructure deployment.

The company has a strong worldwide research focus and has staffed offices located close to the business centres in Sydney, New York (USA) and Oxford (UK). In January of 2004, Ideas International acquired the US-based IT research firm, D.H. Brown Associates, Inc. thereby adding a powerful analyst capability to its established database delivery engine.

For further information or interviews / photos, please contact:

Ian Birks
CEO & Managing Director
International Limited

Phone: + 61 (0) 2 9472 7702 (direct)
Mobile: + 61 (0) 408 64 11 22
E-mail: ianb@ideasinternational.com