Tibco Software has announced upgrades to some of its
core messaging and integration products, along with a longer-term
plan to develop software that will help enterprises react more
quickly to unplanned events affecting their
businesses.
Tibco makes integration software that links different types of
computer systems and applications together with the goal of
streamlining business processes and reducing costs.
At its user conference in Phoenix, Arizona, Tibco announced an
upgrade to its core product, BusinessWorks. The main enhancement is
the addition of visual modelling capabilities that allow a business
manager - as opposed to an IT person - to map out the flow of an
applications infrastructure that can then be implemented by IT
staff.
"We've built in a business user interface so that, using the
same Gant charts and Visio diagrams they're familiar with, a
business person can lay out a process in terms of what order things
have to happen in, what resources they're using, which applications
are involved," said Larry Neumann, Tibco's director of market
strategies.
Tibco also upgraded BusinessFactor, a "digital dashboard" that
helps companies identify patterns and anomalies in their business
processes by observing transactions and other events. Version 4.2
completes the product's integration with BusinessWorks, allowing
them to share information more smoothly.
Tibco is also preparing a new family of products for release
later this year that will build a bridge between the event
information generated by its own products and system management
platforms from the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Computer Associates
and Mercury Interactive.
Products from those suppliers can benefit from precise
information about the impact of a system failure or network
blockage on an application or a business process, Neumann said.
The first product in Tibco's Enterprise Management Insight
Family, as it will be called, is a gateway server due in the fourth
quarter.
The first version will work with HP OpenView, with support for CA
and Mercury's management platforms expected early next year.
"It means that you won't have to go to five different tools to
isolate a problem," Willet said, meaning that information can be
shared both to and from the management tools.
Tibco is also working on what it calls "event enterprise
management" software to help companies be more predictive. The
products will correlate and analyse information gathered by Tibco's
messaging and integration products to help companies spot patterns,
anomalies and trends that might signal threats or
opportunities.
For example, a package delivery company might use the software
to identify a change in the volume of business from one of its
large customers, and be able to deduce from that that the customer
is doing business with a competitor to test their services. The
company could then take steps to retain its customer, Neumann
said.
The products will differ from typical business intelligence
software because they will use real-time data from Tibco's
integration software, allowing businesses to identify and react to
trends instantly, he said.
James Niccolaiwrites for IDG News
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