New Enterprise Information Integration SoftwareNew Enterprise Information Integration Software

The market for enterprise information integration software just got a little more crowded. Composite Software Inc. has begun shipping its Information Server, which provides users with an aggregated view of data distributed across multiple systems. Startup Composite will be competing with other enterprise information integration software vendors, including IBM, BEA Systems, and MetaMatrix.

Composite's server creates views of data in disparate databases, applications, and other systems--even if they are geographically dispersed. An executive who wants a 360-degree view of his relationship with a critical customer, for example, can see sales and service data in a Siebel Systems application, financial information from a PeopleSoft system, and product development status data from Primavera's project management application.

The Information Server uses SQL and Simple Object Access Protocol Web services to access multiple data sources and create aggregate views of needed data. Users can access the views with business-intelligence and data-analysis software, portals, and other client tools. Views can be stored in a library for future use and can even be joined with other views, such as combining views created for a CFO and sales VP to create a new view for a CEO. The software also has built-in data security capabilities.

Life Time Fitness Inc., a chain of health and fitness clubs in eight states, is developing a system using Composite's software to provide customer-service representatives with a single view of data stored in two membership data repositories and information in point-of-sale systems used by the company's spas and cafes. Among the factors behind the company's choice of Composite is its ability to begin streaming the results of its processing back before all the processing is completed, thus speeding up the query process, says Gary Lien, the company's enterprise architect.

The Composite-based system, once it's in production at the beginning of next year, would make life easier for service representatives, says Wesley Bertch, software operations director at Life Time Fitness. It will also make it easier for the company to integrate new data sources as they are added to its IT system. "In the end, it will benefit the members," he says.

The software has been under development for about nine months. Pricing for the Information Server generally starts under $100,000.