Infosys to Pump Out EAI Adapters for Tibco

As the enterprise application integration space continues to heat up, adapters become a crucial part of getting companies enterprise software connected to that of external partners and suppliers.

Middleware developer Tibco Software Inc. and Infosys Technologies Ltd. announced a strategic alliance Wednesday that will call for Infosys to build a slew of EAI adapters for Tibcos line of integration software.

As part of the agreement, Infosys, an IT consulting firm and software developer based in Bangalore, India, will establish an EAI Center with the charter of building and supporting up to 100 application adapters, which will support the integration of legacy, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management software. They will tap into SAP AG, Siebel Systems Inc., PeopleSoft Inc. and Oracle Corp. systems.

While Tibco, of Palo Alto, Calif., is a major player in the EAI space – along with competitors webMethods Inc., Vitria Technology Inc. and SeeBeyond Technology Corp. – Infosys now stands to capture a big share of the middleware market predicted by Gartner Group Inc. to reach $8.7 billion by 2005.

Infosys applications perform a number of business functions, including automating bank operations and assisting with inventory, distribution and warehouse management.

Tibco already has a longstanding relationship with Infosys through its consulting arm. Some big-name customers the two share include Toshiba Corp., Adidas-Saloman AG and Telstra Corp. Ltd.

In other news from the EAI industry, Tibco competitor SeeBeyond, of Redwood Shores, Calif., will announce late Wednesday that Ray Lane will head its board of directors. Lane, former president of Oracle, also of Redwood Shores, Calif., is currently a SeeBeyond board member.