IBM Launches Business Process Integration Tool

IBM

WebSphere Business Connection enables solution providers to integrate companies' business processes with trading partners and suppliers outside of the enterprise, said Scott Cosby, manager of WebSphere business process integration for IBM.

Cosby said the product is intended to meet the growing need for seamless integration of business processes not only within the enterprise, but also outside of the firewall.

"What our customers have told us is, 'We don't want to think of anything outside the firewall as different [from our apps,' " Cosby said. "They said, 'I want to integrate my own apps as well as [those of business partners, suppliers etc.' "

WebSphere Business Connection is available in express, standard and enterprise editions, Cosby said. All three will be available in September.

The express edition of the new product allows companies to use Web services to integrate business processes for 10 partners and is priced at $5,000, Cosby said. IBM initially will make it available for AIX, Windows 2000 and Solaris operating systems.

WebSphere Business Connection, Standard Edition, has the functionalities of Express Edition, but adds support for integration via standard Web protocols and data-transfer technologies such as RosettaNet and EDI, Cosby said. It also can handle more complicated document exchange and data management capabilities, he said.

The Standard Edition initially will be available for $28,000 on Windows 2000, Cosby said. The package includes integration via Web services for 50 partners, as well as one partner connection using another Web protocol.

The Enterprise Edition of the product features all the capabilities of the Standard Edition with more robust support for EDI transformation, Cosby said. Companies can use it not only to send and receive EDI messages, but also for message acknowledgement and transformation for connecting to back-end processes, he said.

WebSphere Business Connection, Enterprise Edition will be available first on Windows 2000 with a price tag of $87,000, Cosby said. The package includes integration via Web services for 100 partners, as well as one partner connection using another standard Web protocol.