New Software Fosters Service-oriented Integration for Supply and Demand Chains

Middleware from WDI designed to build Web services and integrate data, applications across platforms

Middleware from WDI designed to build Web services and integrate data, applications across platforms

Vernon Hills, IL — August 2, 2004 — WDI, the development division of Brunswick New Technologies, a unit of Brunswick Corp., today announced the release of Redberri 6.0, a middleware technology platform that provides an open-standards-based integration suite.

WDI said Redberri 6.0 is designed to help companies establish service-oriented integration to enable Web services and integrate data and applications across platforms with customers, partners and suppliers.

Redberri first takes incoming data from outside sources in whatever format these sources happen to use, and passes it to the organization's internal systems for processing in their native format. Then, any responses or other actions that are required are translated back into the native format the outside sources use. The result is loose coupling of information, which, according to WDI, makes it easier to move data back and forth between systems, following a service-oriented architecture model.

"Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is emerging as the natural foundation for building applications," said Raj Rao, general manager of Brunswick WDI. "Redberri's Integration Suite is designed to provide the capability for [information technology] organizations to transform their business models from delivering one-to-one services to building and managing reusable one-to-many or many-to-many services."

WDI said the software's Map Builder feature eliminates coding by providing a point-and-click graphical user interface to draw the relationship between external and internal systems. Connectors let business users map the relationship between basic purchase-order generating software and the purchase-order processing system at the receiving company.

Additionally, as the business user does the mapping, Redberri automatically generates the code to perform that task. WDI said Redberri then includes the source code as part of the software purchase.

"As much as WDI has tried to make Redberri a broad-reaching product, there's no way we can foresee every eventuality and make it all things to all people," Rao said. "If you want it to do something that it doesn't do out of the box, users can change the source code to suit their needs. That's particularly important as you start building your IT infrastructure around services. You can make any adjustments you need to in order to fit your service-oriented architecture, or other systems for that matter."

The software also segments different functionality and uses only the pieces an end-user needs. For example, Lymeware, a solutions provider serving the telecommunications industry, said it was looking specifically for an XML translator. Developers there took the Redberri Map Builder and incorporated it into the firm's ConnectGate product, rather than using all of Redberri's capabilities.

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