Sterling Commerce and Formis to tap on Malaysia’s Enterprise and Financial Services market

Strategic Partnership to tap on Malaysia’s growing financial services market and increased need for B2B collaboration solutions

23 June 2008, Malaysia – Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) subsidiary, today appointed Formis Computer Services Sdn Bhd (Formis) as its Strategic Partner in Malaysia. Formis will market, sell and provide after sales service and support Sterling Commerce’s suite of solutions, including the Sterling Gentran Integration Suite, Connect Direct and Sterling Control Center.

The financial services market in Malaysia is expected to grow, with the Malaysian Government highlighting Islamic Banking as one of the key pillars for growth in this sector. Therefore the need for B2B collaboration solutions will be critical in ensuring smoother and more visible business processes.

Formis will be leveraging on their current customers base to market Sterling Commerce suite of products. Initial response is encouraging and Formis has put in place a strategic go to market plan. A consultative program and go to market workshops has been initiated to penetrate the local financial services as well as the enterprise market.

“Malaysia is an important market for Sterling Commerce, and our partnership with Formis is a strategic step towards growing our customer base in financial services and large enterprises,” commented Dave Robinson, Senior Vice-President, International Operations, Sterling Commerce. “This is in line with Malaysia’s growing banking and financial services sector and the increased need for B2B collaboration solutions for large enterprises with the Malaysian Government, through MSC Malaysia, promoting Malaysia as a shared services hub,”

Sterling Commerce recently expanded its channel ecosystem and strategy as a step to boost indirect sales through partnerships. As part of this commitment, Sterling Commerce has developed a Partner Education & Development Program to support partners such as Formis in the Asia Pacific region. Training will range from product familiarization to Go to Market workshops with sales or technical focus.

Formis is the first partner in Malaysia to be appointed as part of this new strategy. Sterling Commerce will work closely with Formis to invest in training programmes for its pre-sales and technical teams on Sterling Commerce’s product and services. They will also be embarking on joint marketing activities.

Wong Wai Wah, General Manager of Formis said, “Partnering with Sterling Commerce allows us to offer our customers a wider and more comprehensive range of solutions. We are looking at providing solutions that will enhance B2B collaboration for our customers”.

“We already have a large pool of customers in the financial sector such as Bank Negara Malaysia, Great Eastern Life Assurance and Bursa Malaysia. Leveraging Sterling Commerce integration business solutions experience and our understanding of the local market, the partnership would allow us to draw out the core competencies for our clients; helping them optimize IT performance, manage IT complexities and improve the IT processes for greater efficiency. We see this partnership as highly complementary to our business focus and we are excited to embark on this business opportunity.”

Sterling Commerce already works with 93 percent of the financial companies in the Fortune 1000.