8.10 The middleware piece 135
8.10
engine in order to manage the seamless flow of e-mail into the workflow
process. Unfortunately, the functionality of the ERMS module is lacking, and
integration into other channels of communication has not been developed.
Finally, an interesting workflow vendor comes from the integration space
itself. IBM MQSeries, in addition to being a de facto standard for middleware
in the large corporate space, has, over the past several years, explored ways that
a messaging solution might be expanded to provide a higher order of func-
tionality. The vendor has created several industry-standard packs (e.g., MQ
Series Financial Services Edition) and several "horizontal" areas of specializa-
tion as well (e.g., MQ Workflow). While not specifically "CRM" in terms of
the way the product is packaged, the full integration ofworkflow functionality
with legacy data certainly has obvious CRM applications.
The middleware piece
Although much of this material was covered in Chapter 3 relative to the
analyst's view ofCRM, a bit of recap is in order relative to middleware integra-
tion. Given that we espouse a best-of-breed approach to getting the most out
of CRM initiatives, the largest problem that a company is likely to face is the
integration of myriad parts. Most CRM software supports open APls and a
limited number of preset integration points, usually to large CRM vendors
lsuch as Siebel or a major call-center vendor such as Nortel or Avaya. While
this sort of integration is standard, companies increasingly look for an addi-
tional layer of integration to make the integration effort easier~and with less
requirement for complex programming.
Middleware allows disparate legacy and CRM systems to communicate
with one another. In essence, middleware creates a common communications
layer for data between these disparate systems. Given the prominence
and importance of much of the data stored in mainframe-based and client/
server-based legacy systems, middleware is an important standard in most
brick-and-mortar companies. Two middleware applications, IBM's MQ
Series and BEA's MessageQ (which, in turn, has been upgraded to its Tuxedo
application), dominate the middleware market.
Companies such as Vitria and Active are attempting to elevate middle-
ware applications to include object-level integration in addition to data-level
integration, thus elevating middleware into a de facto backbone. While mov-
ing from data orientation to object orientation might have some intrinsic
benefits, many of the pieces that currently require integration are not of an
object nature. In other words, data-level integration still works.
I Chapter 8
136 8.10 The middleware piece
Not that there are no threats to the middleware market. In fact, the great-
est threat to middleware ironically comes not from the software market but
from the industry in general. The same factors that drive individual compa-
nies to implement middleware integration, when taken on an industry level,
represent a monstrous amount of landed costs. To counter these costs, several
industries have begun efforts to standardize interoperability. In January 2002,
for example, Intel announced at the U.S. National Retail Federation's annual
show a consortium of vendors and retailers that will attempt to standardize
hardware and software profiles across the retail industry. This standardization,
if visions are to be believed, includes not only traditional software categories
such as inventory management and supply chain but will embrace CRM as
well. In other words, there will be less need for middleware integration
because all of the parts will, presumably, fit together.
Web services standards, once they emerge and are fully ratified, will also
have an impact~generally and increasingly in specific industries.
The CRM software market is evolving at a rapid pace. The relative impor-
tance of its component parts is changing, and jockeying for position never
ceases. But whatever happens, software solutions should never be chosen
by rote.
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