BEA woos nontechies with new software

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already have similar offerings, which are usually referred to as business process management software.

Work flow-oriented tools from companies such as Ultimus let businesspeople modify a business process in software, noted John Rymer, an analyst at Forrester Research. Other companies, such as PegaSystems, sell so-called rules engines that let businesspeople modify company policies, such as changing the limit on a customer's credit card.

Larger BEA competitors are also actively in pursuit of nontechnical businesspeople.

IBM purchased a company called Holosofx in 2002 to gain process modeling tools, although they still require deep technical skills, Rymer said. Microsoft, meanwhile, has built some work flow-oriented tools into its Office desktop suite with InfoPath, which allows end users to build forms that can be sent through a multistep work flow.

Another BEA competitor, Oracle, has chosen not to sell a separate product line aimed at businesspeople.

Instead, the company is enhancing its existing programming tools to allow people of differing skills to work in a manner that's most comfortable, said Ted Farrell, chief architect at Oracle's tools division. People can work in many ways--working directly with Java code, using visual work-flow design tools or tweaking the text of XML configuration files--depending on the task at hand and skill level, he said.

"The assumption that there are two or four types of developers is flawed. There are thousands of types of developers," Farrell said. "We're not trying to create a box that confines the user."

BEA's pursuit of a bigger customer base may be a good idea, but it will be very difficult for the company to sell outside its well-known customers in corporate technology departments.

"This is a different audience that BEA is not used to working with. They're a developer company," Rymer said. "They are trying to play catch-up to the leading edge."

[smabres]

Nonsense

I really don't understand BEA, it is nonsense, have you ever seen a spreadsheet made by business annalist?

[JonyR]

New Brand

I can suggest a name for the new brand: Silver Bullet