WebMethods
Encyclopedia
webMethods is an enterprise software company, acquired by Software AG
, focused on application integration, business process integration and B2B partner integration. Founded in 1996, the company pioneered the use of web services
to connect software applications together within a single organization and across the Internet. In 2000, the company went public on the NASDAQ
in the most successful software IPO to date, based on investor interest and first day share price appreciation. In 2002, the company was named by Deloitte as the fastest-growing software company in North America over the period 1998 to 2002. In 2007 webMethods was acquired by Software AG
for $546 million, and made a subsidiary of that company. In 2010 the webMethods division of Software AG
recorded over $668 million in revenues. Software AG retained the webMethods name, and uses it as a brand to identify a software suite encompassing process improvement, SOA
enablement, IT modernization and business and partner integration.
and Caren Merrick
. Their idea was to use the new standards of the Web such as HTTP
and (later) XML
to allow software applications to communicate with one another in real time. This type of technology would later be referred to as "web services
", for which Phillip Merrick
and early employees Charles Allen, Stuart Allen and Joe Lapp would be awarded a patent. The first product, called the "Web Automation Server" was released in August 1996; this was later superseded by the "webMethods B2B Integration Server
", which was the company's first product to see significant commercial success.
Winning early customers and investors while focusing attention on consumer usage of the Web was difficult, and the founders used their savings and credit cards to keep the company operating. However, by 1999 the company had attracted customers such as DHL
, Dell
, Dun & Bradstreet
and Hewlett-Packard
, and had completed several successful rounds of venture capital investment. In March 1999 the company entered into a major partnership with SAP AG
to create an SAP-focused integration product called the SAP Business Connector
. The company began growing rapidly, going from revenues of just over $0.5M in 1997 to $14M in 1999 and $202M in 2001, aided in part by the acquisition of Active Software in October 2000. In February 2000, webMethods went public on the NASDAQ in the most successful software IPO to date, based on investor interest and first day share price appreciation. In 2003 Deloitte recognized webMethods as the fastest growing software company in North America, placing it at No. 4 on the Deloitte Fast 500
list of fastest growing companies.
The company was an early leader in developing and promoting standards for web service
technologies, having pioneered XML-RPC
, a precursor to SOAP
, and developed WIDL
(Web Interface Definition Language), a precursor to the Microsoft
-sponsored WSDL
standard. Engineers from the company have chaired several W3C
working groups, and co-authored and co-edited web services standards such as XML Schema
and WSDL
1.2.
Software AG
acquired webMethods in 2007 for $546 million and announced that the brand webMethods will be retained, effectively making webMethods its flagship product line. 2009 saw the release of webMethods version 8.0, supplemented with other Software AG products such as Centrasite, Tamino and EntireX
. In 2010, the webMethods ("BPE") division of Software AG
recorded $668 million (499M Euros) in revenues and was a major contributor to overall company net income of $292 million (218M Euros).
Software AG
Founded in 1969, Software AG is an enterprise software company with over 10,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries. The company is the second largest software vendor in Germany, the fourth in Europe and among the top 25 globally...
, focused on application integration, business process integration and B2B partner integration. Founded in 1996, the company pioneered the use of web services
Web service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
to connect software applications together within a single organization and across the Internet. In 2000, the company went public on the NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
in the most successful software IPO to date, based on investor interest and first day share price appreciation. In 2002, the company was named by Deloitte as the fastest-growing software company in North America over the period 1998 to 2002. In 2007 webMethods was acquired by Software AG
Software AG
Founded in 1969, Software AG is an enterprise software company with over 10,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries. The company is the second largest software vendor in Germany, the fourth in Europe and among the top 25 globally...
for $546 million, and made a subsidiary of that company. In 2010 the webMethods division of Software AG
Software AG
Founded in 1969, Software AG is an enterprise software company with over 10,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries. The company is the second largest software vendor in Germany, the fourth in Europe and among the top 25 globally...
recorded over $668 million in revenues. Software AG retained the webMethods name, and uses it as a brand to identify a software suite encompassing process improvement, SOA
Service-oriented architecture
In software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...
enablement, IT modernization and business and partner integration.
History
The company was founded in 1996 by Phillip MerrickPhillip Merrick
Phillip Merrick was one of the original founders of webMethods, a high-flying company that went public during the Internet boom. Merrick attended Melbourne University in the early 1980s-References:...
and Caren Merrick
Caren Merrick
Caren DeWitt Merrick is an American entrepreneur and politician. co-founded webMethods with her husband Phillip Merrick in 1996. webMethods is the most successful software IPO to date, with the fourth most successful debut on the NASDAQ...
. Their idea was to use the new standards of the Web such as HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web....
and (later) XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
to allow software applications to communicate with one another in real time. This type of technology would later be referred to as "web services
Web service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
", for which Phillip Merrick
Phillip Merrick
Phillip Merrick was one of the original founders of webMethods, a high-flying company that went public during the Internet boom. Merrick attended Melbourne University in the early 1980s-References:...
and early employees Charles Allen, Stuart Allen and Joe Lapp would be awarded a patent. The first product, called the "Web Automation Server" was released in August 1996; this was later superseded by the "webMethods B2B Integration Server
WebMethods Integration Server
webMethods Integration Server is one of the core application servers in the webMethods platform.It is a Java-based, multiplatform enterprise integration server. It supports the integration of diverse services, such as mapping data between formats and communication between systems...
", which was the company's first product to see significant commercial success.
Winning early customers and investors while focusing attention on consumer usage of the Web was difficult, and the founders used their savings and credit cards to keep the company operating. However, by 1999 the company had attracted customers such as DHL
DHL Express
DHL Express is a division of the German logistics company Deutsche Post providing international express mail services. DHL is a world market leader in sea and air mail....
, Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
, Dun & Bradstreet
Dun & Bradstreet
Dun & Bradstreet is a Fortune 500 public company headquartered in Short Hills, New Jersey, USA that provides information on businesses and corporations for use in credit decisions, B2B marketing and supply chain management...
and Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, and had completed several successful rounds of venture capital investment. In March 1999 the company entered into a major partnership with SAP AG
SAP AG
SAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...
to create an SAP-focused integration product called the SAP Business Connector
SAP Business Connector
SAP Business Connector is a re-branded version/restricted licence version of webMethods Integration Server provided by SAP as a middleware solution for their R/3 product. It was developed jointly by webMethods and SAP in a partnership which lasted from March 1999 to March 2002...
. The company began growing rapidly, going from revenues of just over $0.5M in 1997 to $14M in 1999 and $202M in 2001, aided in part by the acquisition of Active Software in October 2000. In February 2000, webMethods went public on the NASDAQ in the most successful software IPO to date, based on investor interest and first day share price appreciation. In 2003 Deloitte recognized webMethods as the fastest growing software company in North America, placing it at No. 4 on the Deloitte Fast 500
Deloitte Fast 500
The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Awards are run and moderated by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. They recognize the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in regions around the world...
list of fastest growing companies.
The company was an early leader in developing and promoting standards for web service
Web service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
technologies, having pioneered XML-RPC
XML-RPC
XML-RPC is a remote procedure call protocol which uses XML to encode its calls and HTTP as a transport mechanism. "XML-RPC" also refers generically to the use of XML for remote procedure call, independently of the specific protocol...
, a precursor to SOAP
SOAP
SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...
, and developed WIDL
WIDL (Internet Standard)
WIDL is a 1997 standard for interactions between websites.-External links:* at the W3C website...
(Web Interface Definition Language), a precursor to the Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
-sponsored WSDL
Web Services Description Language
The Web Services Description Language is an XML-based language that is used for describing the functionality offered by a Web service. A WSDL description of a web service provides a machine-readable description of how the service can be called, what parameters it expects and what data structures...
standard. Engineers from the company have chaired several W3C
World Wide Web Consortium
The World Wide Web Consortium is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web .Founded and headed by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations which maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the...
working groups, and co-authored and co-edited web services standards such as XML Schema
XML schema
An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself...
and WSDL
Web Services Description Language
The Web Services Description Language is an XML-based language that is used for describing the functionality offered by a Web service. A WSDL description of a web service provides a machine-readable description of how the service can be called, what parameters it expects and what data structures...
1.2.
Software AG
Software AG
Founded in 1969, Software AG is an enterprise software company with over 10,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries. The company is the second largest software vendor in Germany, the fourth in Europe and among the top 25 globally...
acquired webMethods in 2007 for $546 million and announced that the brand webMethods will be retained, effectively making webMethods its flagship product line. 2009 saw the release of webMethods version 8.0, supplemented with other Software AG products such as Centrasite, Tamino and EntireX
EntireX
EntireX DCOM is a commercial implementation of Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model technology by Software AG for the Windows, AIX, HP/UX, Solaris, Linux, AS/400, z/OS, z/VM, and BS2000/OSD platforms.- EAI with EntireX :...
. In 2010, the webMethods ("BPE") division of Software AG
Software AG
Founded in 1969, Software AG is an enterprise software company with over 10,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries. The company is the second largest software vendor in Germany, the fourth in Europe and among the top 25 globally...
recorded $668 million (499M Euros) in revenues and was a major contributor to overall company net income of $292 million (218M Euros).
Acquisitions
- 2006 Acquired Infravio and products from Cerebra
- 2003 Acquires The Mind Electric - Products: webMethods ServiceNet (SOA)
- 2003 Acquires Dante Group - Products: webMethods BAM
- 2003 Acquires former DataChannel assets from Netegrity - Products: webMethods Portal
- 2001 Acquired IntelliFrame Products:webmethods Workflow
- 2000 Acquired Active Software and partnership with J. D. Edwards for OEM Product JDE XPI. Gets EAI/A2A capabilities, Products: webMethods Broker and Adapters
- Active Software acquired Alier Inc., TransLink Software Inc. and Premier Software Technologies Inc.
Products/Tools
- webMethods Business Process Management - BPMS
- webMethods BPMS
- MyWebMethods Server
- webMethods Composite Application Framework
- webMethods SOA Governance
- Centrasite - SOA GovernanceSOA GovernanceSOA governance is a concept used for activities related to exercising control over services in a service-oriented architecture . SOA governance can be seen as a subset of IT governance which itself is a subset of corporate governance. The focus is on those resources to be leveraged for SOA to...
and Enablement tool - webMethods Insight
- Centrasite - SOA Governance
- webMethods B2B
- webMethods Trading Networks
- webMethods eStandards
- webMethods ESB - Enterprise Service BusEnterprise service busAn enterprise service bus is a software architecture model used for designing and implementing the interaction and communication between mutually interacting software applications in Service Oriented Architecture...
- webMethods Broker Server - messaging backbone
- webMethods Integration ServerWebMethods Integration ServerwebMethods Integration Server is one of the core application servers in the webMethods platform.It is a Java-based, multiplatform enterprise integration server. It supports the integration of diverse services, such as mapping data between formats and communication between systems...
- core application server - AdaptersAdapter (computing)In computing, adapter is a hardware device or software component that converts transmitted data from one presentation form to another. The data presentation can be, for example, a message sent between objects in an application or a packet sent through a network.In modern personal computer, almost...
to connect to various systems like JDBC, SiebelSiebelSiebel, originally Flugzeugbau Halle, was a German aircraft manufacturer founded in 1937 in Halle an der Saale. It was revived as Siebelwerke in 1948. In 1952, it merged with ATG to form Siebelwerke-ATG Gmbh...
, SAPSAP AGSAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...
, MQMessage queueIn computer science, message queues and mailboxes are software-engineering components used for interprocess communication, or for inter-thread communication within the same process. They use a queue for messaging – the passing of control or of content...
etc. - EntireXEntireXEntireX DCOM is a commercial implementation of Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model technology by Software AG for the Windows, AIX, HP/UX, Solaris, Linux, AS/400, z/OS, z/VM, and BS2000/OSD platforms.- EAI with EntireX :...
for Application Modernization
Awards and Recognition
- 2009 A leader in the ForresterForrester ResearchForrester Research is an independent technology and market research company that provides its clients with advice about technology's impact on business and consumers. Forrester Research has five research centers in the US: Cambridge, Massachusetts; New York, New York; San Francisco, California;...
Waves for Enterprise Service BusEnterprise service busAn enterprise service bus is a software architecture model used for designing and implementing the interaction and communication between mutually interacting software applications in Service Oriented Architecture...
es, Q1, 2009 - 2008 A leader in the ForresterForrester ResearchForrester Research is an independent technology and market research company that provides its clients with advice about technology's impact on business and consumers. Forrester Research has five research centers in the US: Cambridge, Massachusetts; New York, New York; San Francisco, California;...
Wave for Integration-Centric BPMBusiness process managementBusiness process management is a holistic management approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organization with the wants and needs of clients. It promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility, and integration with technology. BPM attempts to...
Suites, Q4 2008 - 2008 Placed in the GartnerGartnerGartner, Inc. is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001....
Leaders Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for B2BBusiness-to-businessBusiness-to-business describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer...
Gateway Providers - 2008 Placed in the GartnerGartnerGartner, Inc. is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001....
Leaders Quadrant for the Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for SOA Composite Application Projects - 2008 Placed in the GartnerGartnerGartner, Inc. is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001....
Leaders Quadrant for the Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for Back-End Application Integration Projects - 2008 Placed in the GartnerGartnerGartner, Inc. is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001....
Leaders Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Business Process ManagementBusiness process managementBusiness process management is a holistic management approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organization with the wants and needs of clients. It promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility, and integration with technology. BPM attempts to...
Suites (BPM) - 2008 Placed in the GartnerGartnerGartner, Inc. is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001....
Leaders Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Integrated SOAService-oriented architectureIn software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...
Governance Technology Sets