Intellicorp and Oberon Software Team to Offer Prospero Application Integration Solution for SAP R/3 Market

Business Wire, Oct 20, 1997

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 1997--(SAP Technical Education Conference) IntelliCorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:INAI), a leading provider of business modeling software, and Oberon Software Inc., a leading provider of application integration solutions, today announced both a strategic partnership and distribution agreement. The strategic partnership will provide a business process-driven, application integration solution for the SAP market that ensures faster implementation while lowering risk and cost of R/3 application integration.

As a result of the distribution agreement, IntelliCorp will sell Oberon Software products to its installed base of LiveModel customers, implementation partners, and customers of SAP.

SAP R/3 system implementations often require integration with those information systems, both packaged and custom, that are already running in the organization. The result will be a better fit for each SAP customer since each connection can be tailored for the transaction and the event triggering the interaction.

The most effective method for streamlining application integration is to begin by modeling the company's business processes. This makes it possible to more readily identify the integration points between each existing information system and the R/3 system, which enables better-informed design decisions by the implementation team as to which applications and what data need to be integrated into the R/3 system.

The joint solution provided by this new strategic partnership uses IntelliCorp's LiveModel SAP R/3 Edition software to extend the design of the R/ 3 system, while relying on Oberon Software's Prospero Application Integrator and Building Blocks for connecting the applications together. Oberon Software's products provide a visual construction environment for building application integration connections containing data access, data management, security and application logic. IntelliCorp's LiveAnalyst(tm) business process analysis tool further enables implementation teams to optimize the performance of the resulting integrated system.

Alf Grunwald, Global Managing Director for Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group/ ICS, states, "Our consultants are using LiveModel to reduce the time required in the design phase of an R/3 system implementation. With this new solution, we will be able to better identify the integration points for existing applications, and connect existing applications more rapidly with the Oberon Prospero application integration environment."

The vast majority of SAP R/3 implementations are performed by SAP's Global Implementation Partners, and six of the eight largest Global Implementation Partners have already adopted LiveModel as their preferred business process modeling tool. The newly announced distribution agreement allows IntelliCorp to include the Oberon Prospero tools in its ModelWorks toolkit for implementation partners who have standardized on LiveModel, as well as to sell directly to SAP customers.

(Note to editors: SAP has licensed IntelliCorp's software components as the basis for the R/3 4.0 Business Engineer and IntelliCorp is integrating LiveModel into this key R/3 system component. See press release dated August 18, 1997.)

"This is a clear win for Oberon Software and for SAP customers and partners," said Joseph Chappell, president, Oberon Software Inc. "The combination of modeling and integration will streamline the implementation process and result in ongoing cost and time savings. IntelliCorp has relationships with most of the leading SAP implementers. Together we will work to establish Prospero as the preferred solution for SAP integration."

Complementary Software Partner Initiative

IntelliCorp and Oberon Software will team to provide an easy path for SAP's complementary software partners (CSP) to integrate with the R/3 system. IntelliCorp has already begun working with CSPs to build business process models of their applications and connect them to the R/3 Reference Model to show the additional functionality and connection points. Oberon Software has also begun working with CSPs to construct Building Blocks for their applications.

Together, both companies will offer CSPs a tailored integration, business process-driven solution to enable their customers to connect with SAP's R/3 system. The result will be a better fit for each SAP customer since each connection can be tuned for the transaction and the event triggering the data exchange.

"SAP's complementary software partners are using LiveModel to build process models of their applications to help users understand how their products fit into an R/3 system," stated Ken Haas, IntelliCorp's president. "We are excited by the potential of this partnership to simplify integration of best-of-breed applications with SAP's R/3. Providing a complete visual solution from process modeling through integration will improve the quality and reduce the implementation time for all packaged applications customers."

Company Profiles

IntelliCorp is the leading provider of live business modeling products and services for implementing, configuring and integrating packaged applications, and for continuously engineering the enterprise. Using the ModelWorks product family--LiveModel and LiveAnalyst, expert LiveDesign consulting services, and the GoLive support program--IntelliCorp delivers solutions for enterprise framework management. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, IntelliCorp has offices across the United States and Europe, and distributors in Asia, Australia, and Europe. IntelliCorp's Web site is http://www.intellicorp.com .