Malta joins in IBM’s 100th birthday celebrations

International Business Machines, known as IBM or fondly as Big Blue, is celebrating its 100th birthday, having been originally founded as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation through a merger of four companies in 1911.

However it was only in recent years that IBM’s presence in Malta has become significant, thanks to the efforts of both the Maltese government and private enterprise.

The American multinational technology and consulting firm headquartered in New York switched to the name IBM in 1924 and as one of the longest established suppliers of hardware, software, infrastructure, hosting and consulting services, IBM is widely considered the grandfather of computing.

Its portfolio of inventions includes the magnetic strip on credit cards, the floppy disc, silicon germanium (an innovative semiconductor that brought huge savings for the industry), the bar code, and the personal computer.

In the span of a century, IBM has evolved from a small business that made scales, time clocks and tabulating machines to a globally integrated enterprise with more than 400,000 employees and a strong vision for the future. Its market capitalisation currently stands at just under US$200 billion, putting it among the top IT companies in the world. Its mainframe computer is still the backbone of many global institutions.

Internationally, IBM operates through a network of distributors and business partners. Shireburn Software is an advanced level business partner joining the network back in 1990 with the Lotus software brand and has participated in 15 of the company’s international exhibitions – Lotusphere – with its Integra for Notes product, which is used by hundreds of organisations worldwide.

“The show typically attracts around 5,000 business visitors and offers Shireburn staff the opportunity to learn about the latest trends and get hands-on experience with IBM’s team of developers. Today, we have seven IBM certified staff,” said John de Giorgio, CEO, Shireburn Software. “In fact in 2009, we won the IBM Chief Technology Officer’s award for our work with the IBM development team in China on Lotus Symphony, an open source office productivity project. This was a huge achievement for a small team in such a large pond of business partners.”

IBM’s presence in Malta has strengthened in recent years, growing beyond software development. In 2006 the Maltese government and IBM signed a vertical strategic alliance to support the Maltese information society. The IT giant is also using Malta as a pilot for the implementation of the smart meters and smart grid in electricity. The agreement, signed in 2009, is worth €70 million over five years.

“Given the worldwide status of IBM and their research and development capabilities, this alliance could prove interesting in the years to come,” Mr de Giorgio said.

In 2010, IBM was awarded 5,896 patents, exceeding the combined issuances of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, EMC and Google. It was the 18th consecutive year at the top of the patents list.