Product Watch - First Impressions

New software products appear on the scene almost daily. From the plethora of available products, we take a closer look at some of them, which we feel could make it to appear on the product shortlist in a product evaluation and selection project in the area of business process integration.

In the inter-enterprise business process integration space, our main, though not exclusive focus is on ebXML-related software products. Many ebXML specifications are now at version 2, with several product implementations already existing.

The ebXML initiative aims at out-of-the-box interoperability in the B2Bi and BPM spaces. If this materializes, and it clearly looks like it, it will also bring down the cost of business-to-business collaboration significantly. Therefore, companies should watch products that implement ebXML specifications wholly or at least in part.

A product overview is based on a hands-on evaluation of the product and/or product documentation. Open questions are discussed with vendor specialists. Before publication, a product overview is sent to the vendor for comment.

Currently, the following product overviews are available for download as PDF files:

An article that deals with the current state of affairs in the ebXML domain is available here (PDF).