WebMethods highlights business integrator fabric

22.02.2005
Von Sheila Lam

Business integration software provider WebMethods Inc. sees growth in the Chinese IT market as a long-term prospect, said President and CEO David Mitchell at an event held in the Japanese capital last week.

"Intellectual property rights in China are still very much my concern," Mitchell told Computerworld Hong Kong at Integration World -- the company"s third annual conference. Japan is the only ex-USA country where WebMethods hold users conferences, and continues to generate a large share of the company"s revenue, he said. But no public figures are available on the country"s contribution to the company"s revenue.

"China will become a strong strategic market in the next five to ten years," Mitchell added. Currently, the company has several strong clients in the Middle Kingdom, including Shanghai General Motors.

Although competitors like Oracle, IBM and BEA arguably have stronger presence in the country, Mitchell claims his company is ahead globally in providing application integration tools.

"Our competitors tend to follow our strategy," declared Mitchell. "We were the first to put EAI and BAM (business activity monitoring) together."

The conference gave Mitchell a platform to discuss Fabric: the company"s latest application platform suite. Announced in November 2004, Fabric combines the company"s enterprise application integration (EAI) platform with application development tools, business process management (BPM) tools and business activity monitoring (BAM) tools.

When asked about the company"s expansion plans, Mitchell noted that acquisitions are expected to bring significant growth for the company"s 2007 fiscal year. Since Fabric focuses on business process management and monitoring, which varies among industries, Mitchell said any acquisitions would be aimed at attaining industry-specific technologies and know-how.

"We are looking at companies like Vitria -- an EAI provider which has been quite successful in the healthcare industry," he said. Other industries on the radar include pharmaceutical, government as well as telecommunication.

As consolidation continues in the IT market, Mitchell expected more activity in the business integration industry.

"If Oracle is to make further acquisitions," he mused, "BEA might be a suitable target."