Flexible “Middleware” Takes Systems Integration to New Heights
Improved real-time knowledge of business operations and increased competitiveness are among the benefits cited by users of novel systems-integration software developed by Vitria Technology, Inc., which projects substantial economic savings as well. The software, based on new concepts and technologies developed and demonstrated with co-funding from NIST’s Advanced Technology Program (ATP), solves a long-standing barrier to integrating disparate applications that manage different tasks in a factory or business. In contrast to traditional solutions involving customized or packaged integration tools that are narrow, expensive, and inflexible, the small California company pursued a “model-driven” approach in which the models are flexible sets of business rules tailored to the user. Models developed during the two-year ATP project, which ended in 1997, drive the functions of generic software “engines” designed to execute and analyze tasks. The rules can be written by users, eliminating the need for programmers or customized computer code. Since the technology was commercialized in 1997 with non-ATP funding, the software has been adopted by businesses in distribution services, telecommunications, financial services, and other sectors. Federal Express is using it to track, for the first time, the types and volumes of approximately 2 million packages passing nightly through its Memphis hub, and the company plans to extend its use to all seven hubs worldwide. KPMG LLP, the management consulting firm, credits the software with providing a “significant competitive advantage in a constantly changing marketplace.” Vitria says its software not only will reduce the costs of systems integration and maintenance by at least 50 percent but also provide many indirect benefits, such as reduced product cycle times. According to market research cited by Vitria, companies spent $40 billion on outside help with systems integration in 1997 and were allocating up to 40 percent of information technology budgets to achieve it. The company projects that users could save a total of $2 billion or more nationwide if the software attains 10 percent market share in the manufacturing, telecommunications, insurance, transportation, retail, and construction sectors. ATP funding: $2,000,000 August 1999
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