Unlocking the Secret To Successful Relationships

Companies in the highly competitive enterprise application development and deployment tools category are riding the wave of product integration begun last year and taking it to a new level, defined by simplicity and usability. Packages stuffed with features aren't enough--analysis reveals that today's customers expect a high degree of positive user experience from their development tools as well.

This year, the VARBusiness Annual Report Card (ARC) looked at four leaders in this sector. Macromedia took top honors, with a score of 75, beating out competitors IBM (74), Microsoft (72) and Oracle (70).

The company, which wasn't even a contender in last year's ARC, became a major player when it acquired Allaire in March. Allaire won last year's ARC for enterprise development tools (the precursor to this category), due in large measure to success with its JRun Java development tool and ColdFusion Studio, a content-publishing system with business intelligence solutions and self-service applications.

Now, the combination of the two companies' assets puts Macromedia in a strong position with regard to enterprise application-development solutions. "There are some great, growing applications markets out there for us, like e-learning, Internet advertising, corporate training and content management," says Macromedia chairman and CEO Rob Burgess. "People are beginning to do more creative things on the Web, and even though we've seen a downturn in a lot of markets, it has been offset by growth in new markets."

According to Jeremy Allaire, Allaire's co-founder and now Macromedia's CTO, ColdFusion's popularity shows a trend toward Web services and services-based software models. "It offers a richer user experience, moving beyond HTML and browsers to richer, connected clients," he says."

Macromedia has several applications in the development and deployment channel, including ColdFusion Studio and two other former Allaire labels, JRun and JRun Studio, for working with the Java environment. Other offerings are Macromedia's Dreamweaver Ultra, Flash and newcomer Sitespring. Dreamweaver Ultra is used to develop database-driven Web applications in a visual environment using Active Server Pages, JavaServer Pages and ColdFusion Markup Language. Flash creates vector-based, low-bandwidth animation, presentations and Web sites. Sitespring is designed to enhance team consulting over the Internet.

Aside from its products, the company says it has renewed its focus on channel partners, giving them the support they need to deliver solutions to their clients. "We're increasing our investment in the channel," Burgess says. "I want to do whatever I can to make sure they're making money off our products."

Runner-up IBM, close behind Macromedia with a 74 score, far exceeded its goal this year of reaching 5 million developers with its WebSphere environment. "We had great success with more than 9 million partners this year," says Mark L. Hanny, vice president of IBM's software channel marketing. "Our huge investment in training and support worldwide has helped our partners reach profitable results."

IBM's cornerstone product is WebSphere Application Server, a business application-deployment environment for Web commerce that is built on open standards-based technology. The Standard Edition provides tools for using Java servlets, JavaServer pages and XML to create dynamic Web content. The Advanced Edition adds a high-performance EJB server for implementing EJB components that incorporate business logic. Other IBM products in this category include DB2 Universal Database Developer's Kit for Windows and Linux, WebSphere Commerce Suite for multicultural e-commerce support, and Tivoli, which provides flexible management solutions for e-business infrastructures.

Like Macromedia and IBM, third-place Oracle strove this year to expand its integrated database and server software to achieve what John Magee, senior director of product marketing calls "a war on complexity" with Oracle 9i Application Server and Oracle 9i Database.

Oracle employs a marketing strategy similar to Microsoft's. That strategy allows new and existing customers to download free products from its Oracle Technology Network. These products are fully functional, allowing customers to test the actual productivity and then opt to purchase ongoing support and development tools from Oracle. "Download distribution has been hugely successful," Magee says. "It's strategic to our marketing strategy and so is all of the training we make available online."

Microsoft's objective is to provide an open toolset for enterprise development teams, says MS Visual Studio .NET product manager Daniel Hay. He was somewhat puzzled by the low scores Microsoft received, noting that many of his enterprise customers have expressed satisfaction with the overall level of tools provided by Microsoft. The three applications Microsoft markets in this category--MS Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Developer and Visual SourceSafe--focus on the rising interest in XML Web services.

Part 2: A Convergence of Trends