Magic Software Jumps into EAI with iBOLT Strategy

by Alex Woodie

Magic Software unveiled a change in product strategy last week, when it announced it was entering the market for enterprise application integration (EAI) software. The company calls its new software solution plan iBOLT and bases the new products on its application development environment, an expanded worldwide support organization, and new partnerships with a services company that will assist Magic customers looking for affordable integration solutions.

Getting existing, or legacy, applications to talk to newer applications continues to be a major pain point for IT organizations, from the biggest multinational corporations to the smallest mom-and-pop shops. The world's biggest corporations can afford to pay millions of dollars to systems integrators, such as IBM Global Services and KPMG, to install and maintain complicated messaging systems developed by software vendors like TIBCO and webMethods. While small and midsized companies can't justify this level of EAI solution, it doesn't lessen the need for integration of their core applications, which hundreds of thousands of companies around the world are running on an OS/400 server.

Over the past two years, several of Magic's midmarket competitors have rolled out strategies and products to fulfill the growing demand for inexpensive EAI products that promise near plug-and-play simplicity. Many of these competing products involve some sort of XML wrapper for a 5250 transaction, and pre-built connectors for some of the more popular ERP packages on the market. Others are largely based on developing Web services standards. Examples of companies that recently developed, acquired, or partnered for EAI products include Attachmate, Bostech, ClientSoft, Jacada, Karora, looksoftware, SEAGULL, WRQ, and many others.

Magic Software's iBOLT plan incorporates a three-point integration strategy that calls for new products, new partnerships with integration specialists, and enhancements to Magic's support organization.

The new iBOLT product lineup will be based on eDeveloper, Magic's powerful fourth-general language development environment for OS/400, Unix, Linux, and Windows systems. The iBolt will feature GUI development tools and a range of adapters and connectors to ERP, CRM, supply chain management (SCM), databases, and homegrown solutions, the company says. The company said the iBOLT product release will start "in the coming weeks" but gave no solid timeframe or specific product names.

In terms of partnerships, Magic says it will join forces with system integrators that focus on the midmarket. Through these new partnerships, Magic says, it will make high-level business analysts and technology architects available to help sculpt customers' new EAI solutions. Magic will also enter into reseller agreements with companies that sell technology complementary to iBOLT. To support its iBOLT customers, Magic says, it will continue to "enhance" its services organization to provide "follow the sun" technical support.

Magic is no newbie to the difficulties of integration. It has provided integration services for some pretty large customers, including Allstate, the Bank of France, Chase Manhattan Bank, and Merrill Lynch. The company plans to apply the lessons it has learned in servicing these companies for the past 15 years to deliver an affordable, easy-to-use suite of EAI tools. For more information, go to Magic's Web site, at www.magicsoftware.com.

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