Classic Blue Sells Systems Integration Capability to Frontline

Sydney, AUSTRALIA, 13 December 2006 -Classic Blue, an IBM Australia company, has announced the sale of its systems integration operation to Frontline Systems Australia. The divestiture will allow Classic Blue to focus on strengthening its position as a specialist provider of business resilience and continuity services in the Australian market.

Frontline is a privately held Australian IT company with a focus on infrastructure, professional services and managed services. A small number of Classic Blue employees will join Frontline to support the additional capability. The agreement will also enable Frontline to partner with Classic Blue in taking business continuity solutions to Frontline’s clients.

Brenton Hodder, Business Unit Executive, Classic Blue, said; “The value to our clients lies in making their organisations more resilient to the impact of sudden change. The acquisition of the Systems Integration business by Frontline will allow Classic Blue to concentrate on our core business – that of providing business continuity services and security solutions to organisations of all sizes.”

Steve Murphy, Managing Director, Frontline, said; “This is a key opportunity to grow our IBM business specifically, and to broaden our offering to new and existing customers to include business continuity solutions. Frontline’s managed services offerings in particular have strong synergies with the Classic Blue offerings. We look forward to welcoming new employees and clients who will join us as a result of this agreement.”

IBM acquired Classic Blue in January 2006, attracted by Classic Blue’s national reach, skilled staff and deep small-to-medium business penetration within Australia. Classic Blue operates business recovery facilities in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

NOTE TO EDITORS:
About business continuity
The term ‘business continuity’ describes plans and solutions which organisations put in place to ensure critical business functions are able to continue in the event of a disaster, crisis or disruptive event. These solutions aim to avoid essential services being interrupted during and after a disaster or unplanned downtime, and to quickly re-establish ‘business as usual’.

Together, business continuity and business resilience enable organisations to rapidly adapt and respond to risks, as well as opportunities, in order to maintain continuous operations, be a more trusted partner to clients and to enable growth.

About IBM

For more information about IBM, go to: www.ibm.com

About Frontline and Frontline MSP

Established in 1982 Frontline systems is one of Australia’s largest privately owned IT specialists with a strong, profitable track record and a growth rate double the country average. With offices in Sydney and Melbourne, Frontline’s consultants focus on our core business mission to provide: enabling infrastructure, professional services and managed services at out state-of-the-art centre. This is a holistic IT solution, allowing customers to select a specific offering or opt for complete infrastructure management, support and hosting. Frontline MSP is a managed services company operating on the highest quality infrastructure currently available. Frontline MSP delivers scaleable IT outsourcing solutions that help business increase the performance of their systems, refocus on IT strategic initiatives and reduce operating costs, without losing control over their IT operations. Frontline MSP can offer solutions from simple collocation to complex IT outsourced solutions. Frontline MSP is a full service, managed service provider with multiple service levels, security management and value added services. www.frontline.com.au

For more information please contact:

Joanna Jordan
IBM Global Technology Services Public Relations
Phone: 0401 142668
e-mail: mailto:piers@bang.net.au

Piers Twomey (Frontline)
Public Relations
Bang
Phone: 02 9512 0114
e-mail: piers@bang.net.au