Recently, currencies such as the Euro, Pound, and Canadian Dollar have appreciated significantly against the U.S. Dollar. This is bad news if your business relies on imported goods, or if you plan to travel overseas. You'll find that your dollar buys a lot less than it used to

However, the fall of the dollar is great news for exporters in the United States. Foreign buyers are discovering that U.S. goods and services are significantly less expensive and there is increasing demand for these goods.

As foreign consumers look to the U.S., business will face a variety of new opportunities and threats. On one hand, there is the ability to build new relationships and expand the customer base. On the other, there is the possibility of dealing with potentially harmful or undesirable individuals / organizations.

IBM has developed a powerful middleware solution that can help organizations maximize the efficiency of their international business efforts. IBM's Global Name Recognition (GNR) solution consists of a variety of technologies that help companies better understand "people names". Here are a few examples of what can be done with GNR:

- A Canadian Company implemented GNR within a compliance program and was able to avoid costs associated with hiring 24 fraud analysts (estimated cost savings of US$1.2 million per year)

- A German company realized a full return on their GNR investment within three months.