Strategic Alliances Can Bring Fast Growth; Joint Ventures: When properly structured, they help big companies share risks and costs.(MANAGING FOR SUCCESS)

Byline: BRIAN DEAGON

IBM in 1999 took on a new attitude: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Big Blue stopped developing applications software, the kind used routinely by companies to manage everything from business accounts and inventory to project management.

It was a risky move. Most companies make tech-buying decisions based on the availability of such software. At the time, IBM was marketing about 45 different types of application software, but it was losing business to competitors. It was spending $1 billion a year developing the software, but couldn't break above 10% of market share.

So IBM went to its competitors and extended a hand.

"We decided to partner with them rather than compete head-to-head," said Buell Duncan, general manager of IBM's development relations. "We think it's been an enormous success."

IBM has 100 strategic alliance partners, including Siebel Systems, SAP, J.D. Edwards and PeopleSoft. The alliances have helped it gain share against other tech kingpins in key areas like Web services and data management, and have generated $4.5 billion in sales.