Middleware Links Apps Over B2B Nets

WebMethods Inc. is readying a new version of its business process management middleware that links applications and transactions not simply across the enterprise but across business-to-business networks, as well.

The extension of the WebMethods Integration Platform, which the Sunnyvale, Calif., company will introduce next month, ties existing enterprise applications and extends them to databases, data warehouses and mainframe systems with WebMethods Mainframe Integration Server, which provides real-time legacy data integration.

The platform will also integrate third-party Web services such as logistics and finance applications and integrate workflow or exception processing. Those last capabilities come from tools that WebMethods gained in its purchase of IntelliFrame Corp. three months ago.

WebMethods is tying all these applications into a single dashboard approach, where users can access different functionalities from a single viewpoint.

WebMethods is also working to offer insight into a customers integration platform through a recent development partnership with Hewlett-Packard Co. announced earlier this month.

HPs OpenView software business unit will collaborate with WebMethods to create software that helps companies monitor and manage the performance of their business IT environments.

"If youre deploying a big legacy ERP [enterprise resource planning] [system], you cant deploy that into a company without having very sophisticated tools to manage [that process]," said Scott Ovitz, vice president of product marketing at WebMethods and former chief technology officer at IntelliFrame. "The problem is, when you look at other people dealing in the integration space, they havent thought of the systems management details."