IBM and Vignette Corp. announced a global strategic alliance to meet growing e-marketplace demands in retail, financial and NetGen (dotcom) sectors. The alliance integrates Vignette’s V/5 E-business applications with IBM’s WebSphere e-business platform. Together, the two companies will supply customers with e-business solutions that grow market share, reduce deployment times and provide the infrastructure for each stage of e-business development. The integration will enhance the family of WebSphere products, including WebSphere Commerce Suite and WebSphere Application Server, which currently provide a fully integrated middleware solution. The multi-year agreement includes joint marketing, services and helping Vignette to integrate on WebSphere Application Server. IBM and Vignette’s initial focus will be in the retail, financial and “Netgen” (dot.com) industries, and both plan to expand to other industries in the coming months. The two organizations will jointly market Vignette V/5 E-business applications and the IBM WebSphere Application Server Platform, WebSphere Commerce Suite, IBM’s DB2 Universal Database and are optimized for IBM’s RS/6000 and Netfinity servers. Dedicated engineering, product marketing and quality assurance teams will manage the integration and optimization of the entire integrated e-business solution. The Vignette V/5 E-business applications will fully support the IBM Application Framework for e-business – a roadmap for integrating Internet technologies with traditional information technologies. In addition, IBM Global Services will grow its worldwide services practice focusing on Vignette V/5’s support of eCRM and e-commerce from 100 IBM services professionals to in excess of 500. Prospective customers will be able to visit IBM’s Business Innovation Centers that will feature Vignette V/5 E-business applications. IBM experts in Vignette products will help customers identify, build, integrate, and deploy solutions that meet their specific business needs. The IBM ‘ Vignette alliance is part of a developer initiative through PartnerWorld for Developers in which IBM forms strategic relationships with application developers. Under the initiative, developers gain access to new customers and revenue opportunities through IBM’s extensive marketing, sales, and solutions resources. At the same time, developers lead with IBM’s middleware, server platforms and services. www.ibm.com, www.vignette.com