BEA turns to services
Published: 08 Sep 2003 14:10 BST
To help persuade customers to adopt its latest set of software products, BEA Systems on Monday will announce new services focusing on consulting, education and support.
The new offerings centre on BEA's WebLogic Platform 8.1, the company's collection of software designed to build, integrate and manage business applications. WebLogic Platform 8.1 began shipping earlier this year.
The new services include an assessment product in which BEA consultants will do things such as help a company evaluate its need to integrate data and applications. The assessment will last three to five days and cost $21,000 (£13,244), said Tom Ashburn, president of BEA's worldwide services. BEA also is introducing a curriculum centred on WebLogic Platform 8.1, with courses tailored for different employee positions, such as developers and system administrators. New support products include an online chat service for getting assistance.
John Rymer, an industry analyst with research company Forrester Research, said the new set of offerings does not represent a major change for BEA. A chief difference from the past, he said, is bundling services for specific software products into a more comprehensive package.
Rymer said BEA is likely to find customer interest in the services. Other companies that provide system integration services, such as Accenture, typically prefer to work on higher-level business applications such as enterprise resource planning software projects, he said. "What they really want to focus on is new applications," he said.
BEA's software competes against software from IBM. IBM has a massive services division with a range of offerings. Ashburn suggested BEA can appeal to customers, since it isn't trying to sell services beyond those focused on BEA's software. "I'm not trying to create a standalone services business," he said.
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