Not to be left out of the rush to introduce open-standards
products, Commerce One (Nasdaq: CMRC) 
said that it will release a
Web services
integration platform late in 2002. The new platform will precede the
company's release of version 6.0 of its supplier relationship management
(SRM) suite, which is scheduled for first quarter 2003.
Commerce One's Web services offering will feature a standards-based business process management engine, the company said. According to CEO Mark Hoffman, the integration tools will facilitate linking of legacy applications, third-party business partners and extended-enterprise applications.
The SRM suite version that is currently in development
will support 
modification of source-to-pay processes -- either company-wide or
within specific business units. Moreover, the suite, which is based on the Web
services tools, will allow companies to expand source-to-pay functionality
by integrating internal applications with business partners, Commerce One said.
All in the Process
Denis Pombriant, vice president with Aberdeen Group, told CRM Buyer Magazine that process definition has been the sticking point of Web services, up to this point. While such standards as XML (extensible markup language) can be used to define data for interchange between applications, workflows are more difficult to document.
"At first, it looked like XML was going to take care of all this," Pombriant said. "But, the industry has discovered that it's a bigger issue -- the need to separate out rules, processes, and data."
Out in the Field
Pombriant pointed to Siebel's introduction of its Universal Application Network (UAN) as another example of a predefined set of business processes that can be used to integrate disparate applications.
Within a particular product family, like Siebel's, inter-application process integration is likely to be accomplished fairly smoothly, Pombriant said. However, integration among application families -- like the type that Commerce One is attempting to standardize -- may present bigger challenges.
"This is all part of a long, continuing effort to separate data and process from hard coding within applications," he said.
Picking Partners
AMR Research analyst Louis Columbus
told CRM Buyer that integration is the
number one priority for application and platform vendors alike. The
point is not lost on Commerce One, which cited a
Forrester Research
prediction that companies will spend an average of US$6.4 million each on
integration efforts in 2003.
Columbus pointed out that the very promise of Web services -- ease of integration and customization -- foretells a trend in the enterprise software industry toward new relationships.
"Packaged application makers will have to merge or define partnerships for integration," the analyst said. "They'll have to buy their way into effective integration to find buyers for their technology."
Such industry consolidation and alignment appears to be the driving
force behind announcements like those from Commerce One and Siebel.
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