(at http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/columns/0,4351,363658,00.html )
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ERP interface developers on the edge
By John Taschek
Crossworlds Software, the company that put enterprise application
integration on the map, is in a bind.
[ /cco : stuff about how SAP & Baan are making them unnecessary deleted up
to this: ]
Which brings me to CrossWorlds. Each of the other companies I mentioned has
a technology--a product, if you will. CrossWorlds, on the other hand, is
better known for how CEO Katrina Garnett dresses than for any product. It's
heading for trouble.
The reason: The company has a mere 15 to 20 clients and is burning through
venture capital funding faster than the failure
rate of ERP systems around the world. There are no big boys in this market,
but CrossWorlds is plainly a sissy that's not going to be able to keep
up--that is, if it tries to remain a product company.
CrossWorlds clearly did more to create and perpetuate the enterprise
application integration market than any other company. It understands the
market, and it has engineers who can do the work. All signs point to
CrossWorlds becoming a consulting company. What we'll have then is a
consulting company that lured in the venture capitalists as a product
company. What the venture capitalists will get in return is EDS-lite.
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/cco
Synchronicity? never happens...