With application integration firms increasingly interested in its business and user base, PeopleSoft International Inc yesterday launched its own set of tools, application programming interfaces and partnerships to help users connect its software up to internet applications, e-commerce systems and legacy systems. The Open Integration Framework, said the company, will provide internet-enabled APIs and fully embrace the XML Extensible Markup Language.
PeopleSoft first began talking about its plans to hook up to e- commerce systems early in March, when it pledged support for Microsoft Corp’s e-commerce and application integration framework called BizTalk (CI No 3,612), which also emphasizes support for XML. PeopleSoft now says its own framework and integration technology will be available in controlled release from the fourth quarter of 1999 and will become generally available with PeopleSoft 8 in the first half of 2000.
As part of the announcement PeopleSoft announced partnerships with enterprise application integration middleware vendors such as Active Software Inc, BEA Systems Inc, CrossWorlds Software Inc, New Era of Networks Inc, ObTech Inc, OnDisplay Inc, Software Technologies Corporation and TSI International Software. Rival enterprise software house SAP AG is still attempting to keep its distance from the new breed of EAI companies, which pose a threat to the continued sale of large and expensive suites of proprietary software from single vendors.
Although PeopleSoft already has a set of existing integration tools and APIs, the new internet-enabled set is expected to include APIs for application messaging, business components and business interlink. Application messaging will enable both Peoplesoft applications and third party systems to publish data based on business events via XML and HTTP, so that subscribing applications can receive transactions over the internet with full security. The business APIs are intended to enable application developers to plug into PeopleSoft business processes without having to know the details of the underlying data structures or embedded business logic.
PeopleSoft plans to distribute STC’s DataGate software, which links its applications up to SAP’s R/3 and other products, and will jointly distribute Neon’s EAI products, including MQSeries Integrator and Impact, through an expansion of the existing VAR agreement with Neon. They will sell the products to new markets such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare.
