I’ve been looking for some new news out of Microsoft TechEd about BizTalk but have yet to see anything. Pending something that might happen in the event’s second week (apparently an excuse to play golf over the weekend), I’ll comment on the plans Steve Martin announced in May on his blog involving B2B in Biztalk:
“…there’s more great news about our (Microsoft’s) B2B technology. Today, we’re announcing another important update for our customers—we’ve come to an agreement with our partner Covast to acquire advanced B2B capabilities.”
This partnership is another sign that Microsoft is serious about true business process management (BPM) and is not just looking at managing processes inside the firewall or treating BizTalk as another way to do integration.
Covast specializes in B2B integration solutions for supply chain management (SCM) through an appliance it calls the Covast BBot. As I have researched over the last few months (for example, see here) BPM can be both the “new ERP” and provide the functionality that SCM promised 10 years ago but could not really deliver unless users stuck to one vendor. BBot enables integration between the complex B2B systems of large supply chain hubs and their smaller customers and suppliers. And that’s what it takes to make SCM really work because all the players use different brands of software.
Covast is both a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and an IBM Business Partner, which is also a vote for open choice.
(I’ll update more on BizTalk if I hear more from TechEd Week Two. By the way, I'm on Cape Cod not in Orlando. It's hot in Florida this time of year, maybe even over 80 degrees F.)
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