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Archive for the ‘WebMethods’ Category

Software AG seems to be defying predictions and surprising the market at every turn.

Once seen as a sleepy European software house based largely around legacy system technologies, it has taken major strides to transform itself into a major global software industry player. Its acquisition of webMethods a few years ago surprised the market, with many analysts unconvinced that it could make a go of the move into integration / SOA middleware, but it has done a fair job of building some momentum by tying the webMethods portfolio up with its own CentraSite governance technology, providing service-oriented architecture (SOA) with integrated governance.

Then it once again shocked the market by snatching IDS Scheer, the well-known supplier of modelling tools, from under SAP’s nose. Given that the IDS Scheer technology is used by most of the major SOA suppliers across the world for modelling, and in particular is a key part of the SAP portfolio, this would appear to give Software AG lots of cross-sell opportunities across the two customer bases and throughout the SAP world.

Now it has announced its 2Q09 results, and they make pretty good reading ont he surface. A 9% increase in product revenues is particularly noteworthy give that so many companies are struggling to show any year-on-year growth in product sales. However, before getting too carried away it is worth delving a little deeper into the numbers. The product revenue numbers include maintenance as well as license sales. Licensesales actually fell, as with most other companies. Maintenance revenues jumped by 20% – does this mean that the company has built a much larger maintenance base, or is it actually a reflection of a more aggressive pricing policy? Then there is the split between the legacy business (ETS) and the SOA/BPM business(webMethods). License revenues in this segment were down 15% – not very encouraging since this is the strategic business unit. Also, it is noticeable that maintenance revenue in each segment increased by about 20%, suggesting that this rise does indeed reflect a price hike.

However, taking all this into consideration, Software AG is still looking to have moved forward substantially from a few years ago, and assuming the IDS Scheer acquisition goes through OK there should be lots of opportunities for the company. Of course, a cynic might point out that by adding IDS Scheer to the webMethods portfolio, the company has made itself a highly attractive acquisition target to someone – perhaps SAP?!

Steve

Previously I have blogged on the SoftwareAG acquisition of webMethods, and what it might mean.

Lustratus also produced a paper on the subject, here. I thought it was time for an update. now things are becoming clearer.

I congratulate SoftwareAG on listening to my comments! Well, at least partially….the company has brought together pieces from both the webMethods and SoftwareAG sides in the area of SOA, and has come up with its suite, offering an ESB (well, actually more than one), adapters, BPM, BAM and legacy and user interface integration support into an SOA suite, called – wait for it – webMethods SOA Suite!

The company has wisely decided to leverage the strength of the webMethods brand name, both in the integration/SOA space and also geographically in the US. My only criticism is that in fact I have been slightly misleading. In fact, I believe the full name is ‘Software AG webMethods SOA Suite’. I just hope leaving the Software AG name so prominently does not backfire.

It seems that the suite will be made up of webMethods BAM and BPM, together with a combination of SoftwareAG and webMethods integration infrastructure products. For example, Software AG’s CentraSite deals with registry/repository needs, and use is also made of Software AG’s connectivity power. So, for example, webMethods EntireX deals with turning legacy code into SOA services. The ESBs are a bit confusing – there appear to be 3. One is a regular ESB, one is an ESB+ (basically the webMethods integration backbone) and one is a lightweight integration tool aimed at partner network needs.

So how is the merger going down? Well, it seems that at least some webmethods customers are glad to see the combination. Apparently this is because webMethods was actually a mature start-up – that is, innovative but not necessarily strong in internal development/delivery/maintenance processes, whereas Software AG has a reputation for being a solid, experienced and mature software brand. So presumably webMethods customers hope Software AG will bring some additional discipline to product delivery and support.

Anyway, the proof of the pudding will be seeing whether the combination gains traction. I think it has a chance, although if only they had dropped the SoftwareAG brand from the suite altogether….

Steve