Informatica-WebMethods offering positioned as integrator money-saver

A new solution developed by WebMethods Inc., Fairfax, Va., and Informatica Corp., Redwood City, Calif., is designed to help integrators save time and money on e-government and other modernization work.

The Business Activity Platform software combines system integration tools from WebMethods with the analytics software from Informatica, said Sanjay Poonen, vice president of worldwide marketing at Informatica. The new product was announced April 14. Basically, Informatica's tools analyze the data that WebMethods delivers from a wide range of back-end systems, Poonen said.

The companies see an emerging market in the convergence of these types of tools. Both come up frequently in government request for proposals, said Poonen. Part of the integrators' job in large government modernization efforts is to write the code that links them.

Informatica and WebMethods' offering eliminates that customization work, Poonen said. He estimated that the solution, which typically costs about $500,000, will be able to save about $1.5 million to $2 million in labor costs.

Although the integrator may lose out in charging for installation services, it can use the savings to bid more competitively on contracts, Poonen said. Time will also be saved.

"We capture a little more in licensing fees, and a little of the services fees are lost, but a systems integrator can tell an agency chief information officer that it has a solution that can work faster, cheaper and with less risk," Poonen said.

Poonen said that Accenture Ltd., Hamilton, Bermuda, and Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif., have both been signed on as partners. Other partners will be sought, Poonen said. The sales forces of both Informatica and WebMethods will sell the solution.