IBM Helps Businesses Create Custom Web AppsIBM Helps Businesses Create Custom Web Apps

IBM will introduce the IBM Mashup Center, which will let nontechnical business users pull together data from various sources to create custom, targeted Web applications.The Mashup Center, scheduled to be available in beta form on April 15, enables any business user to easily assemble components from personal, company, and Web sources into purpose-built applications. The software will provide "business-ready widgets," according to IBM's press release, and a catalog for finding and sharing the resulting applications. It will include the management and security features ordinarily required by IT departments.

IBM's release describes one customer that's used the Mashup Center to combine ERP and CRM data to be able to show accounts by region, sales history, and customer service activities. Sales reps can add their own travel data and account forecasts to plan their customer relationship strategies.

"The power of the Web is now in each person's hands," said Kristof Kloeckner, Vice President, Strategy & Technology, IBM Software Group. "And businesses are made up of individuals who can be innovators and problem solvers on their own, without waiting for, and straining IT support."Marketwire via CNN Money, Computerworld