Serena Software has announced the launch of Serena Mashup Composer for the point-and-click creation of Business Mashups. Just as Web 2.0 technologies have made it possible for millions to create custom Web applications using open APIs and tools from companies such as Google, Facebook, and others, Serena Mashup Composer makes it easy to visually design Business Mashups that automate common business activities. This new approach enables power users in the business and IT to quickly address their everyday needs, while freeing scarce application development resources to focus on more complex tasks.
“For the last decade businesses have struggled to realize the incredible potential of IT because of limited IT resources and the need for effective governance. Today Serena is enabling a new generation of power users to innovate in IT through the creation of Business Mashups, satisfying the everyday needs of the business—while ensuring IT standards are upheld,” said Jeremy Burton, president and CEO of Serena Software. “As the ‘Facebook generation' enters the workforce, they will bring a Web 2.0 mentality that believes in innovation without permission. Serena is providing an effective way to harness that innovation and use it to drive productivity over the next decade.”
To accelerate the creation and use of Business Mashups, Serena will also provide an online marketplace where “mashers” can find, buy, and sell pre-packaged Mashups, Web services, and professional services designed to solve myriad business problems common to businesses of any size. Serena® Mashup Exchange™ will spur a revolution in the way that partners and end-users collaborate to confront the “long tail” of IT applications – projects that individually are too small to warrant dedicated IT support yet, when taken collectively, represent tremendous business opportunity.
Serena Industry Firsts
With this announcement Serena offers several industry firsts, including:
- The first drag-and-drop environment to enable mashers to create process-based Business Mashups that take full advantage of SOA and Web services without writing any code.
- The first Business Mashup Server that provides enterprise-class governance capabilities such as versioning, staging, rollback, audit tracking, and fine-grained security.
- The first Business Mashup-as-a-Service (“ MaaS ”) for rapid on-demand deployment.
How It Works
Using the visual design capabilities of Serena Mashup Composer, mashers can:
- Automate common business processes, such as:
• New hire onboarding
• Sarbanes-Oxley compliance management
• Sales discount approvals
• IT change request tracking
- Connect applications without costly integration work, such as:
• A quoting process in Salesforce can link to a manufacturing process in SAP
• A change request item in Remedy can link to a change workflow process in Documentum
- Collect and route information across various devices, such as:
• IT service requests or marketing collateral requests can be issued via a Web browser, BlackBerry, or iPhone
- Publish new Business Mashups on-premise or on-demand in minutes.
Extending the Value of SOA
Serena's Business Mashup offering delivers on the promise of SOA by making it possible for business developers to take advantage of SOA infrastructure in an efficient, secure way.
“Unfortunately, SOA has proven to be more bark than bite,” said René Bonvanie, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, partner programs, and online services at Serena. “With Serena's new Business Mashup solution, mashers have the tools to easily create and safely deploy SOA-based applications. Finally, the market has the killer application for SOA.”
“With more than 330,000 students worldwide—many of whom take classes online--IT is critical in supporting academic competency at BYU,” said Ernie Nielsen, managing director of the Enterprise Project Management Office at Brigham Young University. “Our CIO, Kelly Flanagan, has been exposing SOA for years with the hope of making our large IT staff more responsive. Serena's innovative workflow-based approach to creating mashups takes it a step further. It opens up the possibility for different campus departments and schools to assemble SOA-based solutions with little help from our central IT staff—helping us be more responsive and more efficient.”
Anyone Can Test Drive
As of September 10, Serena is offering a free test drive of Serena Mashup Composer. Using the online test drive, users can participate in a public beta test of the solution without downloading or installing any software. The test drive is available at www.serena.com.
Pricing and Availability
Serena Mashup Composer will be generally available in late 2007 at zero cost. Serena Mashup Server will be generally available for on-premise deployment or as a SaaS beta in late 2007; pricing will be announced at that time. The Mashup Exchange will open to the public in early 2008, and will include contributions from many types of business users and channel organizations.
|
