Software keeping partners in touch

By ADAM GIFFORD

Enterprise software vendor SAP is urging customers to make use of the business-to-business integration software bundled free with the base product.

E-commerce manager Brent Ellison said that under an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) agreement, every SAP licensee can install WebMethods, which is rebadged as SAP Business Connector.

"It allows companies to connect their engine room to the engine rooms of customers and suppliers," Mr Ellison said. "We have 95 customers in New Zealand, but fewer than 10 per cent use it today."

The biggest site using the software is Carter Holt Harvey, which, after an initial project to connect to its SAP system, bought a full WebMethods licence so it could use the technology with other systems. DB Breweries and Telecom are evaluating it, and the police and Tranz Rail have pilots running.

Mr Ellison said the technology could be installed in less than an hour, but some consulting was needed to set it up to run smoothly.

Peter Tashkoff, director of systems implementer Intelligroup, which helped put Business Connector into Carter Holt, said integration technology underpinned all e-business initiatives such as procurement or supply chain optimisation.

He said that although companies might be willing to spend large sums to integrate a few big partners into their systems, to realise the benefits of collaborative commerce they also needed to be connected to other customers and suppliers. That's where a packaged solution using industry standards came in.

WebMethods can handle 26,000 transactions a second, or 2.2 billion a day - far more than any NZ enterprise is likely to throw at it.

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