Business integration suite vendor WebMethods Inc. is on the acquisition trail again, this time looking to pick up expertise in SOA (service-oriented architecture) governance through the planned purchase of Infravio Inc.

WebMethods announced Monday that it has reached a definitive agreement to buy Infravio for about US$38 million in cash and expects the deal to close later this month. Infravio is the vendor's second SOA-focused acquisition in recent weeks. Last month, BOSTON (09/11/2006) - WebMethods purchased most of the assets of semantic metadata management technology company Cerebra for an undisclosed sum.

As the SOA market continues to consolidate, larger players are busily picking off smaller firms, especially those with particular areas of focus, be they around technologies or specific industries.

Infravio's registry, repository and governance products help companies enforce policies and practices to better control the design, development and deployment of their SOA projects.

WebMethods plans to integrate Infravio's offerings into future versions of its Fabric SOA suite by the fourth quarter of this year. The Fabric suite brings together tools to help users improve the management of their business processes within an SOA framework and gain a better understanding of how their existing IT assets, including Web services, function and interoperate.

WebMethods plans to continue to sell and support stand-alone versions of Infravio's products both before and after the completion of the acquisition. Infravio customers include Lockheed Martin Corp., Providence Health System and Sprint Nextel Corp.

Infravio's software will help improve and add to WebMethods' capabilities in a number of areas including automatic content validation, service-level agreement management, security enforcement and versioning and impact analysis.

Established in 1999, privately-held Infravio employs around 65 staff, 50 of whom are developers in its offshore unit in Chennai, India.

IT departments are under tremendous pressure to do more with less. While budgets are being squeezed, end-user demand for software continues to grow. IT departments are forced to find ways to reduce not only software licensing and management costs, but also IT administration and operational expenses – all while ensuring end users can still access the reliable applications they need, when they need them.

Strategies IT uses to achieve these IT management goals are referred to as Software Value Management (SVM). Macrovision is the world leader in SVM – our integrated FLEXnet solutions enable software publishers and their enterprise customers to maximize the value of their software.

Packaging & Preparing Software

Deploying applications, updates, and patches is one of the most common functions of every enterprise IT department. But if you don’t properly prepare these software packages for deployment, you risk bad packages crashing critical applications, driving up IT support costs, and angering end users.

Macrovision’s FLEXnet AdminStudio solutions provide enterprise IT with the automated tools needed to package and prepare reliable software for error-free deployment. They are part of the FLEXnet family of Software Value Management solutions, an integrated suite of applications that help software publishers and their enterprise customers maximize the value of their software

FLEXnet AdminStudio

FLEXnet AdminStudio provides IT with the most advanced solution for quickly preparing reliable software packages for enterprise use. It combines automated software packaging technology with centralized process management tools to ensure the packages you deploy install successfully and behave reliably.

Deploying applications, updates, and patches is one of the most common functions of every enterprise IT department. But if you don’t properly prepare these software packages for deployment, you risk bad packages crashing critical applications, driving up IT support costs, and angering end users.

FLEXnet AdminStudio provides enterprise IT departments with the most advanced solution for quickly preparing reliable MSI packages and patches for problem-free deployment.

Only FLEXnet AdminStudio combines powerful software packaging technology with centralized process management tools to speed you through the packaging process.

Product Benefits

• Reduce your organization’s application management costs
• Improve the reliability and availability of your applications
• Increase IT productivity and collaboration across your organization
• Help eliminate expensive and embarrassing deployment disasters
• Make predeployment patch testing far more efficient and manageable

Feature Highlights

• ENHANCED! Speed packages through a proven, standardized MSI packaging process with intelligent, automated tools
• ENHANCED! Centrally manage your environment and the packaging process with Web-based, enterprise-class tools
• ENHANCED! Convert any application, even InstallScript MSIs, to reliable MSI packages
• ENHANCED! Customize MSI packages to meet the needs of any user group
• ENHANCED! Identify and eliminate software conflicts before deploying applications and patches
• Run predeployment QA tests to ensure the reliability of new applications
• Hand off deploy-ready packages to any deployment system, including SMS, ZENworks®, LANDesk®, Tivoli®, and ManageSoft®
• Inject software packages with license tracking technology to monitor their usage.
  .
• FLEXnet AdminStudio Workflow Manager

FLEXnet AdminStudio Workflow Manager is an end-to-end Web-based application management system that gives enterprises total control over the software packaging process. It connects IT Management, software packagers, and application owners together to standardize and streamline packaging across the organization.

Enterprise IT departments are constantly preparing applications, updates, and patches for deployment. But the deployment preparation process – known as software packaging – is complex and difficult to coordinate. If managed poorly, expensive problems occur, including overloaded packagers, stalled repackaging projects, and unreliable package deployments that crash desktops.

FLEXnet AdminStudio Workflow Manager is an end-to-end Web-based application management system that gives IT Management total control over the software packaging process.

Workflow Manager connects IT Management, software packagers, and application owners together to standardize and streamline the packaging process, which includes predeployment MSI repackaging, customization, and testing.

Product Benefits

• Significantly reduce your software packaging and desktop management costs
• Improve application reliability and availability throughout the enterprise
• Maximize IT productivity and reduce the time needed to deploy packages
• Standardize your software packaging process across your organization
• Improve enterprise-wide satisfaction with IT

Feature Highlights

• Centrally track and manage the entire software packaging process
• ENHANCED! Track and manage SLAs to ensure compliance
• Give application owners an easy way to submit complete application requests to IT
• Enable IT Management to assign requests to packagers and monitor their progress
• Provide packagers with a linear, easy-to-follow workflow process
• Automatically route packages on to the next process step after tasks are completed
• Generate detailed reports from extensive application data captured by Workflow Manager

Deploying Software

Software deployment solutions like Microsoft’s SMS and Novell’s ZENworks can reduce an enterprise’s TCO while increasing IT’s productivity – but only if the software being deployed is properly configured.

To simplify the rollout of third-party and internally built applications, many enterprises rely on software deployment solutions like SMS, ZENworks®, LANDesk®, and Tivoli®. But if the software applications being deployed aren't properly configured for distribution, they can install incorrectly, disrupt other important applications, and cost enterprises dearly in lost productivity and help desk expenses.

Macrovision's FLEXnet AdminStudio and SolutionArchitect provide IT teams and enterprise application developers with the automated tools needed to package and configure third-party and internally built software applications for problem-free deployment. They are part of the FLEXnet family of Software Value Management solutions, an integrated suite of applications that help software publishers and their enterprise customers maximize the value of their software.

Optimizing Software License Utilization

Centrally managing your organization's license usage enables you to reduce software spending, optimize license renewals, simplify license administration, and ensure end users have access to the licenses they need.

According to a recent study by IDC, 67% of companies do not track software usage. Without accurate software usage data, organizations routinely overspend and buy licenses they don’t use, or underspend and deny end users access to the software they need. They also waste money renewing licenses that never get used.

Macrovision’s FLEXnet Manager enables organizations to centrally track and manage their licenses, so they can provide end users with the licenses they need without wasting money on unnecessary software. FLEXnet Manager is part of the FLEXnet family of Software Value Management solutions, an integrated suite of applications that help software publishers and their enterprise customers maximize the value of their software.

Maintaining Software

Many enterprises rely on internally built applications to conduct business. But these homegrown programs often require frequent updates and patches, making them difficult for IT to update – unless you have the right update delivery solution.

To stay productive, many enterprises rely on applications built by their own software developers. However, these homegrown programs are often the most difficult for IT to manage, especially those that require frequent updating and patching.

Macrovision's FLEXnet Connect and FLEXnet AdminStudio make it easy for IT to maintain the reliability and performance of their homegrown applications. With Macrovision's update and patch management solutions, IT has an easy way to receive, test, and electronically distribute the updates and patches created by their application developers.

FLEXnet Connect and FLEXnet AdminStudio are part of the FLEXnet family of Software Value Management solutions, an integrated suite of applications that help software publishers and their enterprise customers maximize the value of their software

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a framework of best practices approaches intended to facilitate the delivery of high quality information technology (IT) services. ITIL outlines an extensive set of management procedures that are intended to support businesses in achieving both quality and value for money in IT operations. These procedures are supplier independent and have been developed to provide guidance across the breadth of IT infrastructure, development, and operations.

Although developed during the 1980's, ITIL was not widely adopted until the mid 1990's. This wider adoption and awareness has led to a number of standards, including ISO/IEC 20000 which is an international standard covering the IT Service Management elements of ITIL. ITIL is often considered alongside other best practice frameworks such as the Information Services Procurement Library (ISPL), the Application Services Library (ASL), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), the Capability Maturity Model (CMM/CMMI), and is often linked with IT governance through Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT).

IT Service Management as a concept is related but not equivalent to ITIL. ITIL contains a subsection specifically entitled "IT Service Management" (the combination of the Service Support and Service Delivery volumes which are a specific example of an ITSM framework), however it is important to note that other such frameworks exist. ITIL Service Management is currently embodied in the ISO 20000 standard (previously BS 15000).

ITIL is built around a process-model based view of controlling and managing operations often credited to W Edwards Deming. The ITIL recommendations were developed in the 1980's by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) of the UK Government in response to the growing dependence on information technology and a recognition that without standard practices, government agencies and private sector contracts were independently creating their own IT management practices and duplicating effort within their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects resulting in common mistakes and increased costs.^{[citation needed]}

ITIL is published in a series of books, each of which covers a core area within IT Management. The names ITIL and IT Infrastructure Library are Registered Trade Marks of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which is an Office of the United Kingdom's Treasury. The content of the books is protected by Crown Copyright.

In April, 2001 the CCTA was merged into the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and disappeared as a distinct organization. ^[1]

In December 2005, the OGC issued notice of an ITIL refresh ^[2], commonly known as ITIL v3, which is planned to be available in late 2006. ITIL Version three publication is expected to initially include five core texts namely: IT Service Design, IT Service Introduction, IT Service Operations, IT Service Improvement and IT Service Strategies consolidating much of the current v2 practice around the Service Lifecycle.

One of the primary benefits claimed by proponents of ITIL within the IT community is its provision of common vocabulary, consisting of a glossary of tightly defined and widely agreed terms. A new and enhanced glossary has been developed as a key deliverable of the the ITIL Refresh Project.

In organizations, the best way to increase employee productivity is to have well designed IT infrastructure (information technology) that supports your employees when they are performing their daily tasks. Some of the IT infrastructure systems available to companies are client-server networks, internet, n-tier infrastructures, backup/recovery strategies, and a disaster recovery plan. Some of the ways that employees can access company information is through the intranet, extranet, portals and digital dashboards. The infrastructure and access to the information make up the IT systems. There are seven key ways that the IT systems can increase your employee’s productivity. These seven factors are availability, accessibility, reliability, scalability, flexibility, performance, and capacity planning.

1. Availability of your IT systems is usually determined when your employees need to use the system. Therefore, the manager needs to take into consideration the employees who work late, on weekends, and those in different time zones.
2. Accessibility of your IT systems is deciding who has the right to use company information and how they are able to use it. Managers need to take into consideration the type of information that can be accessed while your employee is using the IT system. This kind of information could be payroll, bonus or health related. Managers who implement the systems also need to be aware if the information on the system can be “created, read, updated or deleted, which is referred to as CRUD in the technology world" (Cummings et al. 168).
3. Scalability of your IT systems “is a characteristic of a system that indicates how much it can grow, or scale, as the organization and information needs grow" (Cummings et al. 168). IT systems should be able to support your growing business, and should not run into such problems as running out of memory, and transaction performance speed slowing down.
4. Flexibility of your IT systems refers to the amount of tools you have included on your system upon installation, or the ability of the system has to be updated. Managers need to take into consideration the expansion of the company. If it is going to expand into foreign markets you must take into consideration such things as if the IT system supports the language of the new market.
5. Performance of your IT system is “how quickly it can perform a certain process. A benchmark is a set of conditions used to measure how well a product or system functions" (Cummings et al. 169). Managers must be aware of potential growth in the IT system. They must make sure that increased growth does not slow down transaction processing.
6. Capacity Planning of your IT “system determines the future IT infrastructure requirements for new equipment and additional network capacity" (Cummings et al. 169). When implementing your IT system, make sure that your system is upgradeable to allow for future growth within the company.