You would think that Tibco Software, an early innovator
and leader in enterprise application integration (EAI), would be
heavily promoting the addition of open-standard web services
interfaces to its traditional messaging architecture and library of
EAI adapters.
But because web services interfaces have become mandatory for
all integration products it has become tough to differentiate based
on open protocols. So Tibco is focusing on enabling the dynamic
enterprise by putting business process management (BPM) and
analytics functionality higher in the stack.
In the early days of the real-time enterprise - the 1990s -
Tibco pioneered messaging and integration technologies for
demanding markets such as brokerage trading desks, where packets of
information had to be there in a fraction of a second.
The supplier then prospered by packaging these tools and selling
them as part of an integration server that could tie together any
number of diverse applications and legacy systems.
Today, Tibco and other pure-play integration suppliers,
including WebMethods, Vitria and SeeBeyond, are on a collision
course with application suppliers, which have realised the value in
providing integration middleware themselves.
Other suppliers, such as IBM and BEA Systems, pose a threat as
they incorporate both integration and higher-level capabilities
into the application server.
On one hand, many see Tibco as having stronger real-time
messaging and portal capabilities than its pure-play EAI
competitors. On the other hand, according to Roy Schulte, a vice
-president and analyst at Gartner, the company has no inside track
just because it opens up its software to third parties through web
services and XML.
"That's actually the point of web services," explained Schulte.
"You can't differentiate - it's like trying to differentiate with
your support of TCP/IP."
Instead, the supplier is developing vertical, market-specific
solutions that try to help enterprise IT leaders leverage the data
already running through their pipes.
Tibco has developed BPM tools, such as BusinessWorks, that allow
enterprise IT managers to define modular business logic components
and then to quickly and flexibly reuse them in different business
processes as the need arises (for example, if a product or partner
changes or in a mergers and acquisitions situation).
The supplier also recently introduced a business optimisation
dashboard product called BusinessFactor, which aims to deliver
real-time performance management technology, for example, for
greater supply-chain visibility.
Tibco's chief strategist Ram Menon described it as "closed-loop
integration: Connect it together, see what's going on, understand
it and react to it".
The big question is whether Tibco can maintain its
application-neutral status as it adds more application-like
functionality, such as performance management, to its
middleware.