Tempe, AZ June 20, 2002 Integration specialist webMethods has kept busy this week, with announcements of two customer wins and a new partnership.
Public Integration Project
The solution provider reported that the U.S. Air Force's Research Laboratory (AFRL) has completed a prototype project to streamline information exchange using the webMethods integration platform as a first step toward establishing a single view of "warfighter" technology projects. The AFRL will use the integration platform to consolidate program information from individual technology directorates and centralize data in its Programming, Planning and Budgeting System.
The AFRL is comprised of nine technology directorates and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Each is responsible for the discovery, development and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for aerospace forces. To help the U.S. Air Force meet the challenges of global engagement through the innovation of new capabilities and development in aerospace technology, the AFRL headquarters must communicate the details of the various warfighting technology projects to its major commands and higher headquarters, including Air Force Material Command and the Department of Defense (DoD).
Currently, each technology directorate maintains and manages project information in customized formats. These efforts are manually intensive processes for translation, validation and transmission of information to other directorates. The AFRL implemented the integration platform to speed the delivery of project information and to streamline the overall communication process between technology directorates. The laboratory is counting on the platform's capabilities for secure interoperability between information systems of technology directorates and headquarters to reduce the time spent on administrative tasks, freeing resources for the development and innovation of technologies that support the mission of the Air Force.
In the prototype, the integration platform enabled direct connection between the legacy systems of the Directed Energy Directorate and the Space Vehicles Directorate. The Directed Energy Directorate is the DoD's center of expertise for lasers and other directed energy technologies, and the Space Vehicles Directorate is the Air Force's center of excellence for space research and development. With the integration platform in place, AFRL headquarters will be able to securely access validated data in a variety of formats from these directorates, in real-time.
Motorola Standardizes Integration Architecture
Meanwhile, the solution provider also announced that Motorola has deployed webMethods' integration platform to gain a standard architecture for integrating its vast collection of information systems. Motorola is connecting its major business applications, portals, mainframe systems and application servers using the integration platform as part of a significant upgrade of its IT infrastructure.
Over the past two years, Motorola has implemented the integration platform as the single integration standard across the company. The electronics firm has integrated more than 100 core enterprise applications and more than 900 different integrations using the platform. In addition, Motorola used the platform to create direct connections with more than 30 production customers across global operations.
Motorola's enterprise is comprised of primary business applications such as customer relationship management, sales force automation and enterprise resource planning. The webMethods integration platform has been deployed globally to ensure that its major systems are connected on a common backbone, regardless of region. webMethods asserts that this approach gives Motorola a global view of the extended enterprise to better collaborate with its various business units across diverse regions.
Partnering on Processes
Finally, application networks company Sierra Atlantic is partnering with webMethods to provide manufacturing customers with productized business process integration solutions across major enterprise applications.
Sierra Atlantic said its Customer Relationship Management Network (CRMnet) and Supply Chain Management Network (SCMnet), built on the webMethods integration platform, provide out-of-the-box integration solutions for high technology, discrete and process manufacturing companies.
CRMnet provides sales and service business processes between major CRM software packages, Oracle E-Business Suite and SAP R/3. SCMnet integrates product lifecycle processes among Agile Software, Oracle E-Business Suite and SAP R/3.
The company Logitech currently is deploying SCMnet. "Logitech selected SCMnet to integrate Agile to Oracle E-Business Suite using webMethods integration backbone to synchronize product engineering with production, planning and procurement," said Dan Poulin, chief information officer of Logitech.
The alliance extends the existing relationship between Sierra Atlantic and webMethods to take advantage of Sierra Atlantic's CRM and SCM domain expertise and webMethods' expertise in integration infrastructure.
