BEA Systems Inc and Select Software Tools Inc said yesterday they will work more closely together to make it easier for users to develop component-based applications on BEA’s software. Under the agreement, Select will integrate its component-based development toolset, Select Component Factory, with BEA’s cross-platform middleware product, BEA Tuxedo and its Object Transaction Manager, BEA M3. BEA’s Tuxedo software is one of the most widely deployed transactional middleware products, used for building reliable distributed applications in mixed-system environments. Put simply, it acts as glue to connect disparate high-end systems, (mainframes, NT servers and so on) and ensure that all the hundreds of transactions are processed properly without failing or getting lost in the system. But Tuxedo is just the middleware; companies have to write the transaction applications on top, and that, according to Select chairman and CEO Stuart Frost, is where the difficulties start. He said: This type of high-end transaction-based environment is very complex. If you take an on-line order processing system for example, there are typically hundreds of operators worldwide taking orders over the phone and processing them all day long. The system needs to be able to cope with that. Frost said that BEA offered the best middleware infrastructure for transaction environments, but he added that the company’s biggest challenge was to make it easier for developers to write applications on top of the middleware. To this end Select licensed technology from BEA and plans to release, by the end of the year, a new version of its Select Enterprise modeling toolset to enable developers to write applications on BEA’s software much quicker and easier than before. In return, Frost says BEA will help Select by taking the new solution out to its customer base. Frost added that Select didn’t expect the partnership to reap any real financial rewards until next year. He added: The component-based application development market is just starting to take off and it will take a little while to grow. But we expect this agreement to be very significant for our revenues next year.
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