PeopleSoft to Sell webMethods Integration as OEM

Officials at PeopleSoft announced Tuesday it would begin bundling webMethods Web services integration tool into Enterprise One products for interested customers.

The deal is a continuation of J.D. Edwards existing contract with webMethods (called webMethods XPI) to provide the healthy integration platform found in its product suite, J.D. Edwards 5. Enterprise One is the new name at PeopleSoft for the J.D. Edwards software suite, which PeopleSoft inherited when acquiring the company. The company would like nothing better than to show that PeopleSoft’s newly-acquired customer base will support of all its software on the Enterprise One platform.

Officials at PeopleSoft have spent the past couple of days announcing a variety of improvements to its product line as it looks to deflect interest away from Oracle’s buy-out attempts and on its software at its PeopleSoft Connect conference.

The webMethods Integration Platform will be sold as an OEM tool to incorporate into PeopleSoft’s AppConnect business integration platform. AppConnect is made up of three tools: Integration Broker, Enterprise Portal and Enterprise Warehouse.

According to Yale Tankus, webMethods vice president of business development, the continuation of its deal on the J.D. Edwards platform is a win for PeopleSoft — with its basic AppConnect suite — and for webMethods.

“The webMethods is a large application that can handle a larger amount of applications,” he said. “You can use AppConnect to do the more basic methods.

“This (deal) is significant for us,” Tankus added. “Peoplesoft has 11,000 customers, is a leader in 25 industries and is the number two software company in the world. That gives us access to a lot of companies.”

Tankus said it will continue to offer licensing and software support for its product in the Enterprise One suite.

Officials said the webMethods software is the only one that can effectively integrate the J2EE and .NET Web services architectures with legacy and new systems, letting companies and their customers integrate with their own customers and suppliers.

“AppConnect with webMethods’ integration capabilities can serve as the backbone for our Enterprise One customers,” said Ram Gupta, PeopleSoft executive vice president of products and technology. “With the addition of the webMethods Integration Platform, customers can leverage AppConnect to integrate enterprise applications and business processes across organizations at a fraction of the cost of traditional integration methods.”