BEA, Accenture build portal package

BEA Systems and Accenture are joining forces to help enterprises streamline a jumble of Web sites into fewer, and better structured, Web portals.

The two companies on Tuesday announced the eCommerce and Portal Rationalization package, which draws on BEA's WebLogic software and Accenture's experience in Java-based Web operations. The goal is to give businesses better insight into their real-time business performance and to improve customer service, the companies said.

The portal package is based on a services-oriented architecture, a framework for constructing and interlinking a company's back-end systems intended to deliver lower costs and to add flexibility. BEA has been a main proponent of SOAs as a way to get software programmers and system architects to streamline corporate technology infrastructures.

"The (information technology) complexities within a large organization can be enormous and can often lead to high maintenance costs," Robert Duffner, a BEA Systems senior director, said in a statement.

Working with BEA and Accenture, the Belgian government created a portal that gives its citizens unified access to government information and services in four languages, and Singapore Airlines similarly put together a consolidated customer portal for its customers, the companies said.