COMMON Europe is conducting its third "top-concerns" survey among members, who have until May 9 to complete their Web-based survey forms.

The annual survey is a strategic feature of COMMON Europe for sounding out member priorities and influencing IBM labs and Business Partners (BP's) to address them.

The 2007 survey showed that the customers' top concerns were: "assure high availability and disaster recovery," and "satisfy internal customers." The Business Partners' top needs were "assure business continuity" and "do fast application development to satisfy business needs." The full list of top-concern results from last year is available at the COMMON Europe Web site, http://www.comeur.org/.

For the first time, this survey addresses members of COMMON North America, Australasia, and IBM clients through the Web. It is a multilingual survey with a worldwide reach. Prizes will be awarded to three lucky participants from a random drawing. All attendees of the annual COMMON Europe Barcelona Congress, May 17-20, will receive the English-Spanish Top Concerns form along with a ballpoint pen during the opening session. Delegates, speakers, IBM executives, Business Partners, product exhibitors will be asked on the spot to prioritise their top 10 concerns out of a set of 15, write out their "golden concern" and reply to three questions on Power processors and IBM i 6.1. A raffle of three Apple iPods will be the direct reward for their work. The final results will be disclosed at the closing session May 20.

Last year's survey results were graciously acknowledged by Mark Shearer, IBM Vice President Marketing and Offerings, Business Systems Group, who said, "Thank you very much for sharing the results of the Top Concerns survey. It's very helpful to have the collective views and priorities from the COMMON Europe members. I've forwarded this information to my executive team to factor into our overall product and business plans as appropriate." To participate in the survey, visit CE Top Concerns Survey 2008.

About COMMON Europe Congress (CEC)

The COMMON Europe Congress is the Power Systems/System i educational event in Europe. This year it will be held in Barcelona, Spain, May 17-20. It will also host the RPG and DB2 Summit and have five parallel streams covering the new Power Systems, V6R1, security, database management and Linux. For more information, please visit http://www.comeur.org/ or contact Ray Titcombe, COMMON Europe technical director, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

About COMMON Europe (CE)

COMMON Europe, an association of IBM computer users, is an umbrella organization of national IBM user associations, representing most European countries. Its aims are to "boost peer networking, provide advanced education and training, spearhead IBM strategy, accelerate an ongoing open dialogue with IBM, and influence the setting of international standards." It is a nonprofit association of companies, organizations and individuals, who are involved in IT solutions, using IBM midrange architecture and solutions. For more information, visit http://www.comeur.org/ or contact Olga Miralles i Mulleras, COMMMON Europe president at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

About Top Concerns Survey

The Top Concerns survey is a strategic feature of COMMON Europe. For previous results, visit http://www.comeur.org/ or contact Ranga (Shrirang U.) Deshpande, project leader, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..