Microsoft has partnered with ICL to market ICL`s iWay integration offering in combination with Microsoft`s BizTalk integration platform.
Based on XML and SOAP, BizTalk Server 2002 unites enterprise application integration (EAI), business-to-business integration, and business process automation technology to allow companies to easily orchestrate XML Web services and rapidly build dynamic business processes that span applications, platforms and businesses.
Derek Kudsee, Microsoft Enterprise Integration Solution Specialist, said this forms part of a worldwide agreement between Microsoft and iWay Software, with Microsoft partnering locally with ICL, the sole distributor of iWay in southern Africa.
"iWay adapters enhance the BizTalk Server library, helping to create one of the most impressive adapter libraries in the industry," said ICL Integration Marketing Manager Tony Cross. "Our adapters allow customers to reach more systems with less custom code than any other vendor on the market, so integration projects take less time, cost less money, and are more flexible than they would be with hand-coded adapters."
"EAI is one of the fastest growing areas within the IT industry, and Microsoft has identified iWay as the product of choice in providing integration adapters to enhance Microsoft`s BizTalk Server platform," explained Kudsee.
"In terms of our local partnership, ICL has the credibility and expertise in the mainframe environment that will assist Microsoft in addressing mission-critical legacy systems," he said.
Added Cross: "There are over 200 adapters available from iWay to complement the BizTalk platform and our adapters harness Microsoft`s Web services initiative to provide complete, code-free access to applications and data on over 35 platforms.
"iWay`s experience in the mainframe market, and their breadth of offerings and depth of technical capability allow BizTalk Server customers to reduce the time spent on integration implementations by simplifying the connection to legacy data and services," noted Kudsee.
Cross said the Microsoft relationship will add further momentum to iWay`s worldwide and local successes, and that the relationship is certainly strategic to ICL.
"Locally, ICL`s integration team has successful installations at organisations in all industry markets, and while our strength is in financial services, government and manufacturing we have recently seen success in education and retail markets."
Kudsee said BizTalk Server is the world`s fastest growing integration platform and clearly will be the integration platform of choice in the future. "Our relationship with iWay is such that additional adapters will be built should the need within Microsoft arise," he noted.
EAI is the precursor to B2B and eCommerce and should be a top priority for all CIOs. It is impossible to deliver an affective B2B or e-business application without a proper application integration strategy in place.
"In terms of total cost of ownership, we believe that the BizTalk/iWay Solution provides the lowest available total cost of ownership (TCO) for enterprise integration. This solution starts at $25 000 as against other integration solutions in the market that begin at around $150 000," added Kudsee.
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iWay Software, an Information Builders company, is a market leader in middleware that accelerates business integration. With facilities to integrate systems in real time, near-real-time, or on a scheduled basis, iWay provides a complete reusable infrastructure for EAI, B2B, e-commerce, mobile business and e-government.
iWay`s experience with complex information systems led to the development of pre-packaged Intelligent Adapters to connect to more than 200 packaged applications, transaction systems, legacy data, relational databases, and e-business formats without writing custom code.
iWay Software integration solutions significantly reduce the time, cost, effort, and risk of integration projects throughout the enterprise.
More information on this joint offering can be found at: www.iwaysoftware.com/products/microsoft/biztalk.html.
ICL
ICL South Africa, a subsidiary of Fujitsu Services Plc (Formerly ICL Plc), is one of the leading IT services companies in Europe, Middle East and Africa. It has an annual turnover of lb2.4 billion (EUR3.9 billion), employs 15 500 people and operates in over 30 countries. It designs, builds and operates IT systems and services for customers in the financial services, telecoms, retail, utilities and government markets. Its core strength is the delivery of IT infrastructure management and outsourcing across desktop, networking and data centre environments, together with a full range of related services, from infrastructure consulting through integration and deployment.
Headquartered in London, Fujitsu Services is the European-centred IT services arm of the Fujitsu Group. The Fujitsu Group is a $38 billion (about EUR43 billion) leader in customer-focused IT systems and services for the global marketplace.
Prior to April 2002 Fujitsu Services operated as ICL.
Web site: services.fujitsu.com
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