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Enterprise application integration software developer SeeBeyond Inc. announced today the launch of its European Demonstration Center that will showcase Siebel Systems Inc. Universal Application Network.
Siebel in April announced its UAN, which brings together its CRM (customer relationship management) technology with leading integration vendors to provide an integration solution for Siebel customers.
The new demo center will allow business users to see how UAN and SeeBeyonds technology works to accelerate business process integration among CRM, ERP (enterprise resource planning), legacy and custom-built systems.
The Braknell, U.K., center should be up and running in the next couple of weeks, according to SeeBeyond officials. Additional demo centers are planned for Germany, France and the U.S.
In the midst of building out its new headquarters in Monrovia, Calif., SeeBeyond also plans to house the first U.S UAN demo center. That opening is expected sometime late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter, officials said. Additional centers will be considered for the Midwest, Northeast and Asia/Pacific to showcase the UAN package.
Seibels UAN consists of three major components: a business process library, a business process design tool and an integration server. The business process library is a set of pre-packaged, vertically oriented, standards-based processes. The design tool provides a graphical user interface for configuring and extending business processes. Siebel, of San Mateo, Calif., is developing these pieces of the UAN.
The integration server is designed to execute standards-based business processes, and uses integration technology from a host of enterprise application integration software makers including SeeBeyond, Tibco Software Inc., webMethods Inc. and Vitria Technology Inc.
In this case, SeeBeyonds eGate Integration platform provides a scalable infrastructure for executing the standards-based business processes offered through the UAN, officials said.
Customers who visit the demo center will view a real-time demo of UAN as it drives business processes across Siebels e-business applications, SAP AGs R/3 ERP system, custom-built warehouse management applications, Oracle Corp.s Transportation Management module and legacy IBM OS/390 systems.
“This is really about showing business people that they can get visibility into different systems,” said Kate Mitchell, senior vice president of marketing and business development at SeeBeyond, in Redwood Shores, Calif.
“This is a different conversation than with an IT person. [With IT people] you show them how the product is structured and how things actually work, how it handles the messaging, transformation, what happens with EDI…and protocols,” said Mitchell. “That doesnt work when you sit down with someone who is in charge of a supply chain. You have to show them, heres an order coming in and heres how to get it routed. They frankly dont give a hoot how the messaging works. That stuff makes their eyes glaze over.”
At the demo centers, SeeBeyond will concentrate on demonstrating graphically how to move an order through a system using generic data first. As a project moves into proof-of-concept phase, a customers actual data will be plugged into the system.
The demos are free of charge; the proofs of concept, which often are akin to a pilot, according to Mitchell , can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.