Tibco to connect companies to online exchanges

E-business software maker Tibco today unveiled several products aimed at helping companies to do business over the Web by connecting their existing systems with online marketplaces and exchanges.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company introduced the newest version of its software integration suite, Tibco ActiveEnterprise 3.0, which connects a company's "back-end" systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, and "front-end" systems, including groupware and customer resource management (CRM) applications, to existing e-commerce systems.

The new suite includes software to help with business process management, data integration and messaging, legacy system connections, third-party applications, and enterprise application monitoring and management.

Tomorrow, Tibco will release the first version of its ActiveExchange software suite, a set of products that connects business-to-business marketplaces with a company's suppliers, distributors and partners, the software maker said.

Unlike software to build online marketplaces developed by Ariba, Commerce One and i2 Technologies, Tibco's software can be used to tie a company's internal business systems to existing online marketplaces and exchanges.

Tibco has technology partnerships with a host of e-commerce companies, including Ariba, Yahoo, AltaVista, MySAP.com, CBS SportsLine and Chemdex.

In November, Ariba and Tibco announced that they would team to offer customers software for linking, buying and selling software to existing back-end systems.