Investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston thinks that New Era of Networks Inc is going to set the pace in the fast-emerging enterprise application integration space. In that context it’s no surprise CSFB stepped up to manage Neon’s second offering of 4.4 million shares, which rasised some $150m (CI No 3,542), but its prize asset is its OEM deal with IBM Corp. Of the other contenders, CSFB thinks both TSI International Software Ltd and BEA Systems Inc are going to face some big challenges in keeping up with Neon, although it points to TSI’s strong ties to SAP R/3 which should carry it through. Vitria Technology, Active Software and private companies such as Candle Corp and others are in the running though it remains to be seen whether they’ll go it alone or establish partnerships. In the meantime, erstwhile Silicon Valley darling, CrossWorlds Software Inc is giving many industry- watchers and market-makers the impression that its business is on the ropes before it even gets going judging by the calls we’ve had and the growing list of resumes being circulated outside the company. Its recent round of lay-offs was supposedly many more than the 5% it claimed, according to insiders. Market researcher AMR reckons 40% of the $40bn spend on enterprise applications is going to integration. That’s a whopping $16bn. Interestingly, Neon recently cited Georgia company Healthdyne Information Enterprises (HIE) as an adversary likely to compete directly with it, rather than BEA, TSI and CrossWorlds. The healthcare ISV is heading to the financial markets with its Cloverleaf messaging application. As investment banks have sought to integrate their legacy systems, HIE has targeted what’s becoming a booming market to provide securities firms with middleware to enable banks to route and reformat messages between different systems and applications. HIE reportedly landed European deals with WestLB subsidiary Panmure Gordon and Poland’s bank Handlowy. It is also said to be integrating Cloverleaf with the DST portfolio accounting system.
