Partnering Portal Solution Providers
BEA Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAS), the San Jose, Calif.-based e-business infrastructure software firm, today announced its new BEA Portlet Gallery and named the 66 companies that have qualified as BEA Portal Star Solution partners.
The BEA Portal Star Solution initiative is created for partners who will meet one of the following criteria: they build application portlets for BEA WebLogic Portal 4.0; they integrate their applications to BEA WebLogic Portal 4.0, or they develop consulting practices around BEA’s portal product. With BEA Portal Star Solution partners. A portlet is a module within a portal that provides access to information or applications, such as news, weather, email and discussion groups.
The portal solution is designed to allow customers to create specific portals for their own partners, suppliers, customers and employees using solutions for content management, search, syndicated content, security, collaboration, Web Services, and business intelligence and analytics.
BEA says that many of the partners that have qualified for the Portal Star Solution initiative, such as system integrators and independent software vendors (ISVs), are already building and integrating portlets, portal applications and services on the BEA WebLogic Portal. Some of these partners include CSC, PeopleSoft, ScreamingMedia and WebEx Communications.
Says Joe Eazor, CEO of systems integrator Springbow: “Many of our clients, such as Nokia and Johnson Controls, have faced multiple business-to-employee initiatives, all of which need to achieve maximum value while providing immediate impact and tangible ROI.”
He explains that the firm’s Web services are centered on enterprise portal design and implementation, which is why they are built on BEA’s enterprise technology.
Similarly, ISV Bowstreet supports BEA’s efforts to form a partner coalition around a standard portal framework. Rose O’Donnell, vice president of engineering at Bowstreet says that through providing integration to BEA WebLogic Portal, the firm enables customers to achieve economies of scale when rolling out families of portal applications to address multiple e-business initiatives.
“When standardized, the components found in the BEA Portlet Gallery can be assembled by Bowstreet into customizable portal applications that reduce maintenance costs over the life of the application,” she says.
The BEA Portlet Gallery, which will be available through BEA’s Web site at the end of November, 2001, will allow customers to browse and select the portlets that best fit their needs. BEA says that through the gallery, BEA’s software partners will have a greater opportunity to work with its system integrator partners.
“Our clients expect us to deliver platform technologies that can be tailored and quickly integrated into their enterprise,” says David Reinke, vice president for systems integrator, Braun Consulting. “With the introduction of BEA WebLogic Portal 4.0 and the BEA Portlet Gallery, we can access, assemble and integrate technologies from vendors like Documentum, Business Objects and Autonomy into the BEA WebLogic E-Business Platform,” he explains.
The initial partners committed to the BEA Portal Star Solution are as follows:
Independent Software Vendors:
Alerts, Alphablox, AltaVista, Answerfriend, Autonomy Inc., Artesia, Bowstreet, BoxCar, Business Objects, Caput, Cardonet, ClearCommerce, ClickAction, Compoze Software, CrystalDecisions, CyberSource, divine Inc., Documentum, Entegrity, E.piphany, FatWire, FileNET, Gauss, Hyperion, Ikimbo, InduraSoft, Informatica, InfoStep, Inktomi, Interwoven, InterX, Intraspect, Kana, Neocore, Netegrity, NetGenesis, NewsEdge, Norcom, Oblix, OnePage, Participate.com, PeopleSoft, QuadStone, Reef, ScreamingMedia, RSA/Securant, Selectica, Stellent, Venetica, Verity, Vignette, WebEx Communications, Yantra, YOUcentric
Systems Integrators:
Braun Consulting, Bull, CSC, Digital ESP, eTouch, FCW Consulting, Groundswell, Net Effect, NOVO, Silverpeas, Springbow, TechSpan
The Portal Star Solution initiative is one of several BEA Star Solutions, developed to extend the BEA WebLogic E-Business Platform. With a network of 2,100 partners, BEA expects to reach its goal of 1,000 content, Web Services and application portlets posted to the BEA Portlet Gallery by the end of April 2002.