• Ashnasoft Upgrades AshnaMQ JMS Platform
• Covasoft Offers Auto Management for WebLogic
• Europe still spending on IT
• HNC Software Announces New Data Management Product for the Insurance Industry
• Instinet to take over Island?
• JACADA REPORTS 2002 FIRST-QUARTER RESULTS
• Mercator Is First Integration Solution Provider to Offer ACORD, XML, EDI, HIPAA, and SWIFT
• Misys and Persistence Software Team to Deliver Successful e-Banking Solutions
• TELEMATICS MARKET ON VERGE OF DRAMATIC SHIFT
• TIBCO ADDS WEB SERVICES TO BPM SOFTWARE
• Vitria Introduces New Web Services Capabilities for BusinessWare
• WRQ and AltoWeb Deliver Web Services Solution
• BroadVision bets on portal architecture with product consolidation

Ashnasoft Upgrades AshnaMQ JMS Platform

05/22/02--Messaging infrastructure provider Ashnasoft Corp. has released AshnaMQ 2.1 Standard and Enterprise Editions, updated versions of its real-time JMS messaging platform. The new releases build on the 2.0 platform, adding support for the JMS 1.1 API; backward compatibility to the JMS 1.0.2 API; and common server, administration console and client libraries for both APIs. AshnaMQ provides a messaging infrastructure for delivering integrated data to platforms such as Web browsers, desktops and wireless devices. The latest versions support the XA interface for tighter integration with J2EE servers and offer continued support of real-time Web, wireless and Microsoft .NET clients along with Java clients.

www.ashnasoft.com/pr-052002.html

Ashna gets a JMS 1.1 jump on the rest of us; one benefit of having few legacy customers to deal with

Covasoft Offers Auto Management for WebLogic

05/16/02--J2EE management solutions provider Covasoft has announced automatic management for BEA WebLogic Server 7.0 through its CovaOne solution. The new CovaOne Knowledge Pack for BEA WebLogic enables the software to diagnose and resolve problems in a company's application servers and the applications and technologies connected to them, employing out-of-the-box diagnostic knowledge from product partners such as BEA, eFORCE and the Middleware Co.

CovaOne provides in-depth management of all clusters and managed servers in an environment. It aggregates average servlet and EJB performance metrics across clusters, and provides standard deviation metrics to pinpoint clusters that may be overloaded or underutilized. CovaOne also provides full JMX support as outlined by the J2EE 1.3 specification.

Covasoft Inc. provides software that manages complex environments supporting Internet-enabled business processes. Covasoft is a BroadVision Premier Technology Partner, Vignette Alliance Partner, BEA Systems Star Partner and Rational Software Unified Partner. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas

http://www.covasoft.com/

One of a growing flood of vendors into the application management space... Check out http://www.messageQ.com for many more examples

Europe still spending on IT

The collapse of the dot-com sector notwithstanding, European businesses are still spending on information technology, reports the Financial Times (22 May 2002). Citing a report from IDC, the 'European Technology Barometer 2002', the UK business daily notes, however, that, while 82% of continental businesses do not intend to reduce IT spending over the year, they will, by and large, focus their spending on projects "aimed at leveraging systems already in place".

(Infoconomist Deal Watch - Thursday, 23rd May 2002)

we are seeing more and more of our customers looking for direct cost reductions and "intelligent" use of existing assets

HNC Software Announces New Data Management Product for the Insurance Industry

Leading XML-Based Tool Improves Communications Between Agents and Carriers, Increases Speed and Efficiency of Processing Policy Applications May 20, 2002-- HNC Software Inc. a leading provider of high-end analytics and decision management software, today announced the release of HNC XML Manager For Insurance, a new product using ACORD SPX standards so carriers and agents can easily exchange insurance data for faster policy issuance and reconciliation. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020520/200139_1.html

It's specialized for the Insurance industry, but this seems like a workflow/message broking solution to me...

Instinet to take over Island?

See the attached article on Instinet in the FT. It reports that they are in talks to take over Island (following recent closure of the Fixed Income service)

http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3WPQMZA1D&live=true&tagid=ZZZZV1CYA0C&subheading=financial%20services

JACADA REPORTS 2002 FIRST-QUARTER RESULTS

Jacada recently reported another quarter of improving results. Total revenue for the 2002 first quarter was $6.0 million, up from $5.8 million in the 2001 fourth quarter. Software license revenue grew to $2.9 million,

up 32% from $2.2 million in the 2001 fourth quarter. Gross profit for the 2002 first quarter was $4.6 million, or 76% of revenue, up from $4.1 million, or 72% of revenue, in the 2001 fourth quarter. Net loss for the quarter was $786,000, or $0.04 per share, compared to $2.6 million, or $0.14 per share, including $1.24 million in non-recurring charges, in the 2001 fourth quarter.

Read the press release at http://www.jacada.com/News/PR144jn.htm

Jacada develops BPM/workflow and legacy (GUI) connectivity tools. Year on year growth _may have been helped by their purchase of Propelis from CNT_

Mercator Is First Integration Solution Provider to Offer ACORD, XML, EDI, HIPAA, and SWIFT

May 21, 2002--Mercator® Software, Inc. announced today that it received ACORD's Certification Award for ACORD XML at the organization's annual conference. The award officially makes Mercator the only integration solution provider to offer ACORD, XML, EDI (X12, EDIFACT), HIPAA, and SWIFT. ACORD, the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development, is the insurance industry's nonprofit standards developer, a resource for information about EDI, XML, and electronic commerce in the United States and abroad. The ACORD Certification complements Mercator's offerings in the Financial Services and Insurance/Healthcare sectors. Only Mercator offers insurance providers and other financial services customers a complete suite of integration solutions, including EDI, XML, SWIFT, HIPAA, and now ACORD

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020521/212170_1.html

This is the kind of investment in vertical applications that makes or breaks an EAI vendor. It's expensive to maintain all these interfaces, but they do add credibility in these key markets.

Misys and Persistence Software Team to Deliver Successful e-Banking Solutions

May 21, 2002--Misys International Banking Systems (Misys-IBS), one of the world's leading suppliers of IT solutions and services to the banking industry, has chosen Persistence Software's PowerTier and its patented Distributed Dynamic Caching (DDC) technology to deliver quick and efficient data management for Fontis iBanking, part of its e-banking solution used by more than 60 banks in 40 countries.

Fontis iBanking enables banks to launch e-banking products and financial instruments to their customers within ten weeks using Persistence PowerTier(TM). Persistence delivers faster transactions for complex data, with ease of use and versatility to banks and their online customers due to Persistence's unique DDC technology. Misys selected PowerTier for its rapid application development capabilities, the platform's consistent and proven ability to handle mission critical applications while delivering peak performance.

As the largest company in Misys PLC's Banking and Securities Division, Misys-IBS has developed a series of products designed specifically to address the requirements of every sector of the international banking systems market. The Misys-IBS development team for Fontis iBanking, an e-banking solution, knew that for a corporate Internet banking system to be of benefit to the end-user it must provide reliable information fast which required data to be updated synchronistically as a pre-requisite. With the option of creating a data caching tool in-house or sourcing an existing product from a third-party supplier they decided on the second option and selected Persistence Software's PowerTier(TM) for its functionality, rapid implementation and ROI.

Customer tests have confirmed that the product is fast and reliable. Leslie Duckett, sales & marketing manager, Fontis, said, "Fontis iBanking would work without PowerTier(TM) but it would be significantly slower, so much so that it would not really be viable."

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020521/212112_1.html

Note the application of caching technology to a specific (in this case vertically focused) workflow application - the key points (eg caching of reference data) are exactly those that we have presented in seminars and workshops recently

TELEMATICS MARKET ON VERGE OF DRAMATIC SHIFT

The consumer telematics industry is poised for a dramatic shift this year, according to the findings of a new report from Allied Business Intelligence. According to the report's findings, the aggregate global market for telematics is expected to grow to over $12.3 billion by 2007 from $2.2 billion for 2001. As an indication of how fast this new technology and market is growing, the first directory of telematics companies will go on sale this week at the Telematics 2002 Conference in Detroit. Click here: http://www.m-travel.com/20509.shtml

"Telematics" covers markets like in-car computing; residential devices (the smart home) and so on

TIBCO ADDS WEB SERVICES TO BPM SOFTWARE

eWEEK Enterprise application integration developer Tibco is set to announce the Web services enablement of its business process management (BPM) platform. Tibco BPM 2.0 is part of the company's strategy to enables the exchange of documents over the Internet, as well as the management of partner interactions. http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=720&a=27006,00.asp

Vitria Introduces New Web Services Capabilities for BusinessWare

First Solution to Fully Integrate Web Services in Business Processes Management May 20, 2002--Vitria, the leading provider of innovative integration solutions, today released version 2.0 of its Web Services Module for the BusinessWare® platform. With this new capability, BusinessWare is the only business process management solution that enables companies to expose business processes as Web services and provide a single seamless environment for business integration. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020520/202053_1.html

Another first in web services! That must be the 234th "first" or "only" announcement this year already...Is there anyone who hasn't released a web services module out there?? One asks - who is really going to pay $30k for this...

WRQ and AltoWeb Deliver Web Services Solution

05/22/02--Integration software and services company WRQ has partnered with AltoWeb, a provider of application production platforms and Web services solutions, to deliver an end-to-end Web services solution. The joint offering enables customers to use WRQ's Verastream software to expose existing business logic as Web services and then assemble and deploy them as J2EE applications using the AltoWeb Application Platform.

WRQ's Verastream extracts business functions from legacy systems without changing host code, and transforms them into reusable Web services. "Customers use WRQ Verastream to expose the business functions locked in their enterprise systems and then combine them in new ways to create fully integrated services," says Mike New, WRQ's director of integration strategy. "Now they will have the added advantage of using the AltoWeb Application Platform to put those services to work faster."

So, here is another BPM and legacy access vendor (Verastream is not unlike Vitria) moving into web services...

BroadVision bets on portal architecture with product consolidation

By John K. Waters (eADT for Monday, May 20, 2002) BroadVision, Inc.'s launch last week of the latest version of its namesake business portal application marked more than a mere product release, according to president and CEO Pehong Chen. "We almost feel like we're launching a new company," Chen said. "This is not about technology. This is about an organizational transition."

Chen believes that personalized enterprise portals are becoming the "platform that powers business transformation." The new version of his company's flagship product, BroadVision 7.0, integrates personalization, content management and commerce capabilities into a single portal offering. The product architecture is now focused primarily on the portal, which has been enhanced with features aimed at easing deployment, reducing the cost of entry and enabling more dynamic communications between members of teams within and between companies. BroadVision 7.0 is Java2EE-based, and runs on the company's own legacy app server, as well as app servers from other vendors, such as BEA and IBM.

"We are known as the personalization company," Chen said. "But we have achieved a nice balance as a portal company." And the new product "dispels any lingering concerns about BroadVision's commitment to independent standards," he said. "We are now future-proof."

Critical functions in the Commerce platform, such as the sales engine and order management, have been rewritten, according to Bill Zujewski, BroadVision's vice president of product marketing. A single interface/console called the Commerce Center allows users to manage the Commerce platform, configuring marketing and campaign management functions, create pricing incentives and so on.

"Today more and more organizations view enterprise portals as a resource for fluid collaboration, rather than simply a single, central online destination," said Nathaniel Palmer, vice president and chief analyst of Delphi Group. With this release, BroadVision enables quick deployment of multiple, personalized workspaces, without the overhead often associated with this type of collaborative environment, Palmer said.

BroadVision 7.0 will be available at the end of June, Chen said. Under the new CPU-based pricing, customers will pay starting costs of $60,000 per CPU for BroadVision One-To-One Portal and BroadVision One-To-One Commerce, and $40,000 for One-To-One Content. The company is also offering a "departmental bundle" promotional price of $99,000, which includes the portal to run on two CPUs, several toolkits and two connectors to back-end applications. The promotional pricing is good

until June 30.

See how, just like a girls' football team, everyone flocks to the latest fad - last year web services, this year portals...