As part of its effort to reach the SMB (Small and Midsized Business) sector, IBM is fast gathering software development partners to augment its middleware, database and other offerings.
IBM and Intentia International AB announced today an expansion of their relationship that will bring ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software to SMB customers.
As part of its expanded relationship Intentia will standardize its J2EE-based Movex applications on IBMs WebSphere middleware and hardware running on Linux.
Intentia will pre-integrate Movex with WebSpheres Application Server, Portal Express and DB2 Universal Database. Every SMB customer ordering Movex will also receive embedded versions of IBMs technology. Movex includes a number of modules, including: Enterprise Management; CRM (Customer Relationship Management); SCM (Supply Chain Management); Business Performance Measurement; Value Chain Collaboration; and e-business.
Intentia will also develop a version of Movex for Linux, and promote IBMs eServer iSeries, xSeries and pSeries hardware. Both companies will market and sell the joint solution.
Big Blue also announced today a partnership with Engineous Software Inc. to provide PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) capabilities. IBMs rela-tionship with the Cary, North Carolina company will bring engineering process integration and design optimization capabilities to the SMB sector. Through the agreement, IBM customers can incorporate Engineous FIPER and iSIGHT technologies as a process integration and design optimization layer within their existing PLM infrastructures, officials said.
iSIGHT enables the integration and automation of CAD (Computer Aided Design and CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) tools. FIPER – Federated Intelligent Product EnviRonment) is a Web-based product development in-frastructure that helps companies access, execute and reuse design tools and proc-esses.
FIPER is co-funded by Engineous and the National Institute for Standards and Technology. The group, which also includes a handful of companies and universities, is working to streamline the design of engineering products. A new version 1.5 of FIPER is under development, and should be available in 2004.
Both iSIGHT and FIPER use WebSpheres infrastructure software and DB2s database. Through this agreement, IBM Global Services will provide im-plementation, training and hosting ser-vices to SMB users.