Industry News

IBM, Chordiant harmonize their info technology

Integration with software from

Chordiant will provide easier access for IBM customers to corporate data enterprisewide. Chordiant's e-business and customer interaction software will be integrated with MQSeries, IBM's message queuing software. In addition, the two companies will continue to work together on further product integration. "Companies that fail to fully leverage their data or take full advantage of the Internet to communicate with employees, customers and business partners miss out on a critical business opportunity," says Anders Hauglie-Hanssen, director of Worldwide ISV Software Sales and Marketing for the IBM Software Group. The alliance between IBM and Chordiant software will help companies unify their IT and better serve customers, Hauglie-Hanssen says. The Chordiant software gives a company a single view of its customers and is used in financial services, travel, telecommunications and other enterprise applications. It integrates customer interactions across multiple channels, including the Web, e-mail, phone and in branch sites. MQSeries allows users to exchange information between applications across more than 35 different platforms, from mainframes to PCs.

Naviant has secured an investment of up to $20 million from Young & Rubicam, a global marketing and communications company. Additionally, Y&R has committed revenues of $10 million over four years for Naviant's e-List and e-Targeting products and services. Under the terms of the agreement, Y&R made a cash investment of approximately $15 million with an option to subsequently purchase up to an additional $5 million of common stock. The companies have also entered a four-year business agreement in which Y&R has made the revenue commitment of $10 million for Naviant's products and services. Naviant provides precision marketing solutions to Web advertisers, Web publishers and consumer marketers.

European CRM vendor Amyyonis integrating the Calligo engine from InSystems with Amyyon Advance client relationship management system. The rules-based content assembly and personalization engine will provide Amyyon customers with one-to-one marketing, cross-selling and personalization opportunities. Calligo integrates with line-of-business applications and enables users to generate complex, multiformatted documents from their desktops. Documents can include correspondence, contracts, policies and sales proposals. "The addition of Calligo Engine to Amyyon Advance will bring us document assembly capability in our CRM solution, enhancing our customers' ability to service the needs of their customers," says Fred van der Zee, Amyyon CEO.

An alliance between Quaero and MicroStrategy is intended to help companies leverage information to create more personal relationships with their customers. Quaero--with expertise in campaign management, database development and e-commerce--will integrate MicroStrategy's Intelligent E-Business Platform with its clients' customer-centric databases to increase the ease and speed of access to information. The organization can then reach its customers through MicroStrategy technology with personalized information via Web, wireless and voice, creating one-to-one relationships with each customer. "Many companies have made enormous investments in building customer-centric data warehouses--an investment which will be completely wasted unless they also have the tools to make use of the information stored," said Quaero CEO Naras Eechambadi. "In most organizations, only a few technical people actually access information held within the data warehouse. The current model is inefficient and wasteful."

MicroPatent will provide Netherlands-based Philips International, a subsidiary of Royal Philips Electronics, with data, software, installation and updates for its intellectual property information systems. MicroPatent's Total Online Patent Solution (TOPS) gives Philips organizationwide access to a large collection of digital patents and comprehensive research systems. MicroPatent is a division of Information Holdings, a provider of information products and services to the scientific, technical, medical and intellectual property markets.

Advisor Technology Services is contracting with Mobius Management Systems to be a value-added reseller of Mobius Internet software for electronic statement presentment. Used with Advisor Technology Services's Internet product, the Mobius software will deliver a Web-based account statement solution for ATS' banking customers. ATS provides technology and business software to financial institutions, and Mobius is a Web-based e-business solutions provider. Under the terms of the agreement, ATS will resell Mobius ViewDirect for Networks, the document server of the Mobius software suite, and DocumentDirect for the Internet, which delivers e-statements to the desktop. The union allows ATS' banking customers to offer their personal and institutional customers earlier availability of monthly statement data and online delivery. Says ATS President Tom Hart, "Our strategy is to 'surround' the banks' legacy systems with new technology that gives them a competitive edge." "The ATS/Mobius partnership is valuable to both our organizations," says Mitch Gross, Mobius CEO, "because it merges complementary technologies in a way that enables the timely delivery of quality products to the market."

A collaborative e-marketplace for the engineering industry is being launched by B2bScene.com in partnership with Wilbanks Technologies. The forum enables engineers, architects, contractors and suppliers to exchange ideas, documents and drawings over the Web in a secure environment. Wilbanks has created Team Vu, an integrated suite of engineering applications, including PDM and CAD/CAM functionality, which are combined with B2bScene.com's specialized industry content and collaboration services businesswebsource.com. Team managers and engineers can use Team Vu to oversee engineering design and manufacturing projects on the Web from start to finish.

A project collaboration solution is being partnered by ABT Corp. and Instinctive Technology. The alliance and OEM agreement embeds Instinctive's eRoom application as a component of ABT's Results Management software. Eroom provides a digital workplace in which organizations can manage their business relationships with suppliers, partners and customers. Results Management is a repository and Web-enabled application for storing methods; best practices; and project planning, estimating and scheduling data. According to the companies, the work management solution provides businesses with an infrastructure to share information and coordinate activities with their customers and partners around the world. Says Melinda Ballou, a senior research analyst at Meta Group, "Increasingly, our clients require the ability to more easily collaborate on projects using the Web. The combination of ABT Corp. and Instinctive Technology follows the trend of providing more scalable project management solutions, in conjunction with the collaborative Web-based technology demanded by increased project complexity and the need for easy multiuser access."

Partnering to deliver a turnkey solution for data warehousing and analysis of corporate data are Knosys, Microsoft and Compaq. The bundle is designed to help large organizations save money when they deploy analytical applications to measure key business performance attributes. The partnership is also intended as a springboard for implementing customized and vertical analytical applications in sales, marketing, financial services, healthcare, legal, insurance, e-commerce, retail and education. The bundled solution consists of Knosys ProClarity OLAP client or ProClarity Analytical Platform, Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 with OLAP Services, and Compaq ProLiant Servers.

With the deregulated energy market in mind, Peace Software and Siebel systems have aligned to offer a Web-based customer service management system. Peace Software's Energy TIS will be integrated with Siebel eEnergy . Energy TIS offers customer management and billing functionality for deregulated needs, including integrated enrollments, trading, settlements and profitability analysis, driven by a 3-D Web browser. Siebel eEnergy provides integrated sales, marketing, service and e-commerce applications to manage customer relationships. "Fourteen states have already opened their energy markets to competition, and utility companies are looking to service their customers over the Internet to reduce corporate costs and improve customer service," says Patrick Hodges, a utilities analyst with Frost and Sullivan. "Peace's Energy CIS and Siebel eEnergy offer a powerful solution for utility companies looking to upgrade their IT systems to compete in today's market."

As part of an agreement, ServiceWare and Support.com will develop a solution that combines ServiceWare's RightAnswers.com knowledge channels with Support.com's eSupport Infrastructure. The integration will provide immediate access to ServiceWare's repository of answers to technology-related questions. Those solutions emanate from such companies as Microsoft, offering support content for Windows NT, Windows 2000, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Exchange. Additional solutions come from Apple Computer, Novell, 3Com and ServiceWare's own knowledge engineering staff. The eSupport infrastructure collects all the information required to address a support request, identifies likely root causes and shares the information with all parties involved in the support process.