The IBM-LEGO wedding

[Jipay]

Lego builds a future with IBM

Issue Date Aug 11, 2003

ARMONK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 11, 2003--IBM today announced it has been selected by the LEGO Company to help it use technology to more efficiently meet seasonal peaks in demand for its products.

As part of the multi-year agreement, LEGO will lower costs and gain efficiencies by consolidating its existing global informational technology (IT) platform from over 220 Hewlett Packard servers to a fully integrated, open infrastructure using 34 of IBM's eServer and IBM Enterprise Storage Server systems.

Today's announcement represents a strategic decision by the LEGO Company to work with IBM globally as a strategic IT partner. After a reassessment of its IT requirements based on the need for a closer alignment between business and IT, the LEGO Company chose IBM for its ability to offer flexible costs, along with an innovative IT usage model that allows the company to pay only for the computing capacity it uses. As part of the agreement, IBM will make spare computing capacity available to LEGO to meet peak surges in customer demand.

"We are operating in a very competitive environment and need to respond to the dynamics of our market at a moment's notice," said Hal Yarbrough, senior director, Global IT, LEGO Company. "The IBM solution allows us to drastically reduce the number of servers and storage units we have across the business, which is clearly a positive benefit. However, the key reason for going with IBM was the flexibility their solution offered. IBM was able to provide an on-demand solution that matched our business needs for a cohesive, worldwide IT infrastructure, while also adapting itself to our very cyclical business and need for rapid introduction of new products."

LEGO Company, the only European manufacturer listed in the world's top ten best selling toys, competes in a dynamic market place where demand for its products fluctuates and is impacted by seasonal peaks such as the pre-Christmas purchasing rush and large scale marketing campaigns. The new IBM e-business on demand solution will enable the company to more easily set up new projects and test their viability without major investments in new systems.

The LEGO Company will consolidate its existing IT platform from over 220 HP and Compaq servers to a fully integrated, open infrastructure using IBM's leading Unix eServer pSeries p690 (2) and p650 (4) servers, eServer xSeries x440 servers (24) and IBM Enterprise Storage Server systems servers (4). The solution also includes Tivoli Storage Manager software. IBM's e-business on demand approach not only reduce the total amount of servers used by LEGO by a factor of seven, but also provides new levels of business flexibility through dynamic addition and reallocation of processing and storage capacity according to varying business volumes and priorities. Working with IBM, the LEGO Company will be able to purchase fully configured server and storage systems at a lower cost and turn on additional capacity only when required.

"We are very excited to work with the LEGO Company and see this as a significant milestone in our mission to deliver the best e-business on demand solutions to our worldwide customers. Our commitment to the LEGO Company enables them to gain a competitive advantage in the market through an on demand computing infrastructure that permits new levels of integration and productivity. LEGO can now access computing power and capabilities when and wherever their business demands it" said Lars Stanley Nielsen, director of IBM eServer Systems Sales.

LEGO Company

LEGO Company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of play materials for children. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, CEO and president, is third generation of the family-owned company. The LEGO Company is committed to the development of children's creative and imaginative abilities, and its employees are guided by the motto adopted in the 1930's by the founder Ole Kirk Christiansen: "Only the best is good enough". The name "LEGO" derives from the Danish expression for Play Well (LEg Godt). Visit: www.LEGO.com/info

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key IBM Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM eServer is available at http://www.ibm.com/eserver. For additional information, see: http://www.ibm.com.

IBM, the IBM logo, the e logo, e-business on demand, eServer, pSeries, xSeries, and Tivoli are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. © 2003 IBM Corp. All rights reserved.

LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks of the LEGO Group. © 2003 The LEGO Group.

Contact:

IBM

Media Relations

Christopher Rubsamen, 914-766-4728

rubsamen@us.ibm.com

[ApophisV]

erm.. yes... :lol:

am i the only one that had NOT found a hint about 10131?!? I'm sure its somewhere in this text!!! :P

[DoubleT]

Well one big corp helping an other..

[jonfett]

Cool, this sounds great. I hope it works out for both Lego and IBM. :D

It may end in a divorce though! :P

Jon.

[DoubleT]

Dont be negative ;)

[ApophisV]

half of all couples are divorced after some time... :(

[Jipay]

39,9% in France. thanks for putting this thread out off topic in the 3rd message ! We've never been that fast :rolleyes:

[ApophisV]

sure?!? everything is possible here!!! :P and actually it was number four... :P

[DoubleT]

I dont think we will fell any change (this is bak to topic)

[ApophisV]

yeah, thats all internal infos... the only people that should be interested very much in this are the ones working at lego / ibm and maybe the shareholders... and US of course... :lol:

[DoubleT]

Well I think it is the least of there problems ;)

[Jipay]

You shouldn't minimise this info. Almost everything is automatoc in the billund factory : you have robots everywhere and good programs for the supply chain are requested !

Good manager are also requested, this should be the next step for LEGO ;)

[DoubleT]

Lets hope it helps :)

[Jipay]

It will help their supply chain. As I'm now working on a supply chain organisation, I know how important it is IN CASE THE BUSINESS WORKS.

So if Lego needs to product a lot of pieces, it will help them. But they first need some people to buy sets :huh: This is another problem

[jonfett]

Well Im sure more people would buy the sets if they could listen to those who buy them first. If they listened to our suggestion then they could make better sets and more people will buy them.

Jon.

[DoubleT]

Im sure they do that, but do they do more?

[jonfett]

Yes they do listen to us fans a bit but I think they should try as do it more. See what the consumer wants to buy.

Jon.

[DoubleT]

Uhhh alot lol

[Jipay]

I guess their main problem is that they still focus on childs will childs focus on computer games. Then they try to attract childs with weird sets. In the same time adults (that is to say us) are attracted by lego but they are trying to attract kids with sets we dislike.

In my opinion an adult is buying Lego 20 times more than a kid (if not more). Yestrday I went to a toy shop were a child told his mum "oh no, please don't buy me lego !"

When I saw this I thought "ok, it's time for lego to move on selling to adults"

[ApophisV]

if it were me, who saw this kid, i dont know, if i hadn't done something bad to it!!!

devilish children, can't do anything but playing ego-shooter!!!!