Softworx appointed one of nine strategic Baan partners

Local business application solutions company Softworx has been chosen as one of nine partners worldwide to develop interfaces for Baan's iBaan OpenWorld integration solution.

According to research house, Forrester, 72% of companies have more than six applications or business systems that require integration within their organisations. In line with this need, Softworx, one of SA's leading providers of business application solutions, has been selected as a strategic business partner to develop interfaces for Baan's iBaan OpenWorld - an Enterprise Integration Application (EIA) tool which integrates various business systems and platforms within a company.

iBaan OpenWorld is an end-to-end integration solution which provides a flexible, easy-to-use technology framework that transforms disparate business systems in an organisation (eg ERP, CRM and finance) into an environment that allows these systems to communicate via a standard messaging platform. The messaging platform uses XML (eXtensible Markup Language) - a common standard recognised by every major software provider. Softworx is one of the few partners worldwide and the only one in SA to have been licensed by Baan to develop further interfaces for iBaan OpenWorld. The partnership will allow Softworx to build new, certified Baan adapters and license these new adapters to its customers, enabling them to effectively integrate disparate applications to the OpenWorld environment.

According to Jane Thomson, managing director of Softworx, it's estimated that companies invest over 40% of their IT budget into system integration. "Integration is one of the biggest issues facing companies and their IT departments today. In any given organisation, you've got applications to support specific functions, you've got legacy systems that can't be replaced. Added to that, you've got multiple vendors, platforms and languages. Integrating these various systems becomes a priority for those companies wishing to increase responsiveness while reducing costs within their enterprise."

Commenting on the business benefits of implementing iBaan OpenWorld, Thomson Says: "It's all about creating a 'lean and mean' enterprise. OpenWorld is a middleware tool that automates and streamlines processes by building integration between different applications while at the same time encouraging collaboration between suppliers and customers. Simply put, iBaan OpenWorld allows for effective and tight integration between various systems in an organisation irrespective of whether the system is based on Baan or any other third-party vendor."

iBaan OpenWorld has been developed to communicate with various systems from third-party vendors, including CRM, ERP, financial, human resources and supply chain systems. The solution will enable Softworx to provide its customers with 'out of the box' integration, while extending the functionality of existing applications within the organisation.

"The iBaan OpenWorld solution eliminates the need for point-to-point integration, essentially a highly complex and full-time job, freeing up more of a business's IT resources while allowing for greater efficiency and productivity within the business," concludes Thomson. "We're extremely proud to be appointed as one of the nine partners who will play a pivotal role in developing solutions for local customers with best practice shared on a global level."