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November 12, 2001

In this Issue:

Lack of Distinction

Boundary between EAI And Portals Blurs

CHECKLIST

Trends To Keep Your Eyes On

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on the East Coast, Gartner Inc. has released "Business Continuity Planning and Management: Perspective," which advises organizations to reduce risks in five areas:

Business process failure
Asset loss
Regulatory liability
Customer service failure
Reputation or brand damage.

AMR Research found that Web-based customer self-service tools can dramatically reduce support costs by 500 percent or more if companies use these strategies:

Evaluate current support procedures and needs to identify options for Web self-service
Develop an initial prototype for customers to solicit feedback
Communicate with customers about the new self-service features before and after roll out
Set expectations about what customers can accomplish online
Promote new self-service capabilities in all communications
Offer training or incentive programs to encourage adoption and inspire call center agents to promote Web self-service.

The line between the corporate portal market and the enterprise application integration (EAI) market has been blurring almost since these markets appeared. But what used to be an almost imperceptible reciprocation is now an unavoidable web of commonalities and partnerships that cross the divide.

On the one hand, EAI vendors are acquiring or partnering with portal vendors - or simply launching their own proprietary portal platforms. On the other hand, portal vendors are creating portal platforms that can simultaneously serve as EAI platforms.

Middleware vendors have been the most successful application server vendors - a subset of the EAI market - and now have added portal platforms. IBM sells MQ Series middleware, WebSphere Application Server, and WebSphere Portal Server. Tibco Software Inc., along with its flagship middleware products, also offers Tibco ActivePortal. BEA Systems Inc. markets Tuxedo, BEA WebLogic, and WebLogic Personalization Server.

Another major EAI camp consists of ERP vendors, such as SAP AG, Baan, Oracle Applications, J.D. Edwards & Co., and so on. The Oracle Application Server includes a portal platform. J.D. Edwards has the OneWorld Portal. Other EAI portal players include Citrix Systems Inc., which acquired Sequoia Software and its XML Portal Server earlier in the year. Bowstreet, focused on B2B integration, also released a portal platform.

Pure-play portal vendors are encroaching on EAI territory. Epicentric Inc. and Plumtree Software Inc. have moved aggressively in the direction of Web services for enterprise and "extraprise" integration. SAP Portals, formerly TopTier Software, also offers data integration.

New entrants to the portal market are also pursuing the EAI goal. Octopus Inc. lets users build custom portlets out of back-end and Web sources. OnePage Inc. also lets users create integrated portal applications on the fly.

Randy Heffner, Giga Information Group analyst, sees a "battle to be the center of gravity" in the portal and EAI markets. And EAI vendors are gathering mass the fastest. Heffner said the Java 2 Enterprise Edition application server market alone is worth $2 billion. In contrast, the portal market is worth about $600 million. Pure-play portal vendors never intended to offer only simple visual integration of disparate applications on the desktop.

— Jeanette Burriesci

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