iWay Software Answers the BAM Call With iWay Activity Monitor

New Offering Integrates Business Activity Monitoring and Business Intelligence to Improve Operational Decision-Making


NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - July 24, 2008) - iWay Software, a division of Information Builders and innovator of enterprise integration solutions, today announced the release of iWay Activity Monitor, a solution designed to provide visibility into automated business processes by integrating business activity monitoring (BAM) and business intelligence (BI). This BI/BAM solution captures end-to-end transaction and workflow data across multiple applications and business units, summarizing and displaying trading partner metrics to help managers make informed decisions.

According to Gartner, a business activity can either be a business process that is orchestrated by business process management (BPM) software, or a business process that is a series of activities spanning multiple systems and applications. In either case, the goal of BAM is to monitor key objectives, anticipate operational risks, and reduce latency between events and actions.

Companies and government agencies are approaching the goals of zero information latency and self-correcting processes. As they use automated systems to realize this vision, they depend on BAM solutions to fine-tune the exchange of information, monitoring everything from package deliveries to payments. BAM delivers more accurate resource allocation and more efficient trading partner relationships. Without monitoring, it is difficult to detect when something has gone wrong in a business process. BAM, can not only answer specific business questions based on measurements, but analytical techniques can be applied to detect correlations, report on impacts, detect root causes, and make some predictions. This, in turn, feeds into the broader scope of corporate performance management (CPM).

While most integration vendors have added some type of reporting system to their activity monitors, iWay has the luxury of including a complete business intelligence environment through Information Builders WebFOCUS BI platform. The inclusion of WebFOCUS enables users to query, report, analyze, deliver, and display electronic trading data in any way they choose. Because WebFOCUS is a browser-driven, thin client BI solution, organizations can extend these powerful administrative capabilities to anyone who needs them, without any additional software plug-ins or reporter viewers.

iWay Activity Monitor represents a turnkey solution that can grow its customers' business, replacing custom code with standard iWay components and an off the shelf BAM environment. This iWay environment cohesively manages communications across HTTP, HTTPS, AS2, RNIF/CITX, Web services, and SMTP. iWay Activity Monitor includes about a dozen standard reports right out of the box.

Including these dashboards, along with embedded BI capabilities, helps administrators quickly troubleshoot problems, detect anomalies, and conduct capacity planning exercises. In addition to auditing trading partner exchanges and sending alerts that trigger process adjustments, iWay Activity Monitor can alert individuals to changes and exceptions that may require action, as well as provide aggregated insight for strategic planning.

"As organizations move to lights-out operations and straight-through processing, they need sophisticated integration and mature tools for business activity monitoring, reporting, and analytics," said John Senor, president, iWay Software. "The natural synergy between BAM and BI helps improve operational decision-making and even triggers new processes, on top of the awareness that comes from BAM. An integration platform that includes BI technology is ideal not only for setting up and managing trading partner relationships, but for generating alerts, creating dashboards, and monitoring all aspects of B2B activity."

About iWay Software

iWay Software has been an innovator in the enterprise integration market for more than 10 years. The company's integration methodology is simple: it uses a single, integrated set of graphical design tools to assemble powerful pre-built components for enterprise-class B2B, A2A, or B2B2A integration scenarios -- without the use of custom code. The company delivers the fastest, most cost-effective, and simplest way to integrate and streamline critical business processes. iWay Software's vendor, platform, and protocol-neutral integration solutions fulfill the promise of SOA: true reusability.

iWay Software's rapid integration solutions help companies both large and small meet new business challenges without making their vital information investments obsolete. The company truly fulfills its motto: "iWay: Because Everything Should Work Together." With revenues topping $50 million in 2006, iWay Software is among the top 10 integration vendors worldwide and works with many Fortune 500 companies. For more information, visit: http://www.iwaysoftware.com

About Information Builders

As a leading independent business intelligence (BI) company for the past 30 years, Information Builders has provided innovative solutions to more than 12,000 customers, including most of the Fortune 100 and numerous U.S. federal government agencies. The company's flagship WebFOCUS product is the world's most widely used BI platform. Superior architecture and intuitive nature enables WebFOCUS to address the needs of everyone in the extended global enterprise -- executive, analytical, operational, and beyond. It provides the agility to adapt to changing business conditions with the security, scalability, and flexibility to support dozens to millions of users.

Unique to the company is the integration expertise it brings to the BI market. Information Builders iWay Software suite solves complex integration problems with pre-built components that require minimal custom programming. The award-winning combination of WebFOCUS and iWay give Information Builders customers the ability to embrace the company motto: "Because Everyone Makes Decisions."

Information Builders is committed to customer service excellence with a Professional Services division that specializes in building custom applications using WebFOCUS and iWay Software. Headquartered in New York City with 90 offices worldwide, the company employs 1,450 people and has more than 350 business partners. Visit http://www.informationbuilders.com.

Contact Information: Press Contacts: Kathleen Moran Information Builders (917) 339-6313 Stephanie Fallon EmergePR (617) 729-3176