Avada Software has signed an agreement to package and deliver its messaging
management software on
IBM's WebSphere
Application Server Community Edition.
The announcement is part of Big Blue's OEM strategy to partner with ISVs to
deliver open-source solutions based on SOAs (service-oriented architectures),
said an
IBM spokesperson.
IBM
said its OEM go-to-market strategy can help ISVs generate more revenue and
better service their customers.
Under the agreement, Avada will package and deliver
IBM's
WAS CE open-source application server software with its own Infrared360 message
management software. It will also resell three levels of
IBM
support for WAS CE, said Brenda Haynes,
IBM’s
director of WebSphere Open Source Development and Strategy.
The OEM model can boost partners' revenue by giving them an instant
"value-add" for their customers by providing integration and support
for both
IBM's products and their own,
rather than simply reselling a piece of their own software, said Daren Hanson,
IBM’s
director of worldwide
ISV and OEM sales.
"We are giving ISVs the opportunity to package our stuff into their
solution, which they'll deliver as one package under one order," Hanson
said.
ISVs benefit from simplified packaging and pricing, he said. The open-source
WAS CE is free to download and use, and ISVs can implement WAS CE with their small
and midsize business customers' existing technology infrastructure to help the SMBs
reuse their existing technology and run their businesses more efficiently, said
Haynes.
For ISVs, an OEM agreement with
IBM
provides not only revenue advantages, but can simplify the sales and
integration process with their customers, he said, since two key pieces of the
solution — in this case the
IBM middleware
and Avada's software — are packaged and delivered to the customer
together.
Avada's applications complement
IBM's
middleware offerings, and packaging WAS CE together with Avada applications
"simplifies support, delivery and deployment time, since the middleware
required to run the application is already included," Haynes said.
The agreement also gives Avada greater visibility in the marketplace, said
Avada's Chief Operating Officer Peter D'Agosta, and access to a broader
geographic market.
"We are a company of 10 people, so obviously people are going to know
IBM's
name better than they know of us. The credibility and the marketing edge a
company like
IBM lends [are] very
strong," D'Agosta said. "This model gives us a much broader reach to
customers."
