IBM PartnerWorld: SOAs, SaaS In Spotlight

IBM plans a number of SOA-themed announcements, including the release of several new Solution Builder Express packages that pull together IBM tools and methodologies intended to help partners assist midmarket clients in creating services-based infrastructures.

The bundles will address five common SOA project areas: improving operational efficiency, employee access to data, customer retention, employee productivity and reducing administrative costs, IBM said.

IBM also plans to focus on partner momentum around the forthcoming update of DB2, code-named Viper. Now in beta and slated for release this year, Viper promises to handle both structured and unstructured data. Several partners at the conference plan to discuss applications they’re developing to take advantage of Viper.

On-demand software again will be a hot topic, with IBM spotlighting the resources it has to support partners that would like to make their applications available as services hosted by IBM, said Amy Wohl, an analyst at Wohl Associates.

IBM for years has provided hosted-software support, most notably for Siebel Systems’ CRM OnDemand service and SAP’s new CRM on-demand offering, but the company has not thrown its weight around in a market dominated by upstarts like Salesforce.com.

“They’ve sort of decided to come out from underground and talk about the ways they have to help ISVs become software-as-a-service providers,” Wohl said.

Partners also want to know IBM’s strategy for fending off Oracle. Having gobbled up a number of IBM’s top apps partners, including PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards and Siebel, Oracle now is making aggressive moves into infrastructure, with buys like Sleepycat and Innobase.

“Oracle’s changed the game in terms of its acquisitions. IBM’s stated policy is that it will not compete with applications vendors, but I’m curious if that will change going forward,” said Alan McMillan, CEO of Avokia, an IBM partner in Toronto.

BARBARA DARROW contributed to this article.