Siebel has released what it claims is the industry's first
supplier-independent, standards-based application integration
solution, writes Antony Adshead.
The Universal Application Network (UAN) suite operates in
conjunction with an integration server and includes pre-written
business processes, business process design tools and integration
server software.
The pre-packaged business processes are customisable and
upgradeable. Siebel also says they are reusable and once created
can be redeployed anywhere in the organisation independent of
underlying applications.
Application integration has a variety of benefits for user
companies. At the most basic level, for example, a business could
put data residing in different legacy environments onto one screen.
In more sophisticated deployments, integration software layers
between existing sets of discrete data can enable not just the
linking of information but the creation of new business processes.
The pre-packaged process flows in UAN include definitions that
orchestrate steps across multiple applications to achieve business
objectives. They are built using common objects based on standards
such as RosettaNet and OAG specifications. Transformation maps
control the mapping of information between application data and
common objects.