The 7th Annual eWEEK Excellence Awards: The Winners

CATEGORY: BUSINESS INTEGRATION SYSTEMS

WINNER

IBM

Integration can often be a very tough nut to crack, especially nowadays when integration combines classic data system integrations and modern SOAs (service-oriented architectures). A common hassle for businesses in these situations is dealing with multiple products and multiple management interfaces that should work together but dont. Another common integration problem occurs when a large company acquires many vendors but doesnt know how to use and integrate the acquired products.

Enter the IBM Information Server 8.0, which is, to a large extent, a combination of integration products that IBM has acquired over the last few years. Our judges were impressed with the success IBM has had in integrating these disparate components into a single product, but what earned the company this years Business Integration Systems prize was the way in which the server pulls off tough integration tasks for IBMs customers.

Most notably, Information Server 8.0 provides a unified interface for data and application integration chores. With the IBM Information Server 8.0, companies should find it much easier to find, analyze, clean, merge and deliver data wherever and however it is needed within the enterprise.

FINALISTS

Metastorm

While BPM (business process management) is clearly a necessary task for many businesses that need to keep a grasp on their activities, BPM tools have tended to live in their own little worlds. Our judges thought the Metastorm BPM Suite 7 has done a very good job of moving BPM tools into a more integrated posture that works better in todays companies. The new suite combines more outward-facing functionality from Metastorms acquisition of CommerceQuest and also does a good job of integrating with SOA tools and Microsofts SharePoint Server.

WebMethods

WebMethods Fabric 7

Traditionally, when one thinks of WebMethods integration tools, high levels of complexity are what immediately jump to mind. But with Fabric 7, WebMethods makes it much easier for business analysts to create and manage business processes and integrations using simple drag-and-drop development tools. We also liked how Fabric 7 embraces the cutting edge of Web and integration technologies, including support for key Semantic Web standards such as RDF and OWL.

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