Combining some aspects of Informatica's PowerCenter data extraction and PowerAnalyzer visualization tools, along with a new metadata repository, SuperGlue is designed to provide a visual representation of data flow between disparate systems, according to the Redwood City, Calif.-based vendor.

SuperGlue offers a visual representation of data flow between systems.

Sanjay Poonen, senior vice president of marketing at Informatica, compared SuperGlue to FedEx's tracking system. "This is a Web-based application,business intelligence applied to the IT data problem," he said. "It tracks all the data that interconnects systems. At the 30,000-foot level, it tracks and documents all the contextual information around a particular number,a dollar figure in a balance sheet, for example."

Integrators know firsthand that managing the "data about the data" is no trivial matter. "Every product captures its own version of metadata, and the age-old problem is bringing together all of that data in a repository," said Shari Rogalski, associate partner at New York-based Accenture. "Presumably, SuperGlue is one solution to that and the next attempt to make metadata more practical, manageable and [available in] realtime in a Web-based way."

Adrienne Tannenbaum, president of Database Design Solutions, Bernardsville, N.J., said she boils the problem down to five questions: "What data do we have? What does it mean? Where is it? How did it get there? And how do I get at it?"

With stricter regulatory requirements such as last year's Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which mandates responsible financial reporting and oversight, those questions have become even more critical, executives said.

"Systems integrators are building systems supporting Sarbanes-Oxley, and there is a lot of documentation needed," Poonen said.