Tuesday, 3 April 2007

UFIDA Embraces Open Standards, Partners With IBM to Reach New Markets

UFIDA, China's largest software company has decided to build upon its partnership with IBM to expand its presence into new, global markets. The company is working with IBM's R&D experts to deploy its business applications on open technologies and is tapping...

UFIDA, China's largest software company has decided to build upon its partnership with IBM to expand its presence into new, global markets. The company is working with IBM's R&D experts to deploy its business applications on open technologies and is tapping into IBM's global network of sales and marketing to explore new business opportunities in numerous geographies, including Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

One of the key challenges facing companies that are looking to expand their presence globally is the need to build their business solutions on open standard technologies. Proprietary software hinders the ability to sell in global markets due to IT, government and language restrictions. By embracing open standards and enabling applications to run on a wider range of platforms, software companies can sell to a broader set of worldwide clients, the companies said.

Prior to working with IBM, UFIDA's business solutions were based solely on Microsoft's .NET/SQL technology. To continue growing its business, UFIDA identified the need for an open platform as a key factor in achieving global success. The company, making a conscious decision to build on open standards and deploy their applications on J2EE, partnered with IBM to develop its new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions based on IBM's open middleware offerings.

Working side-by-side with IBM's High Performance On Demand Solutions (HiPODS) team and the technical and solution experts at IBM's China Development Lab and Innovation Centres, UFIDA was able to migrate their applications to WebSphere Application Server and IBM's DB2 database V9, enabling them to reach a broader customer base by delivering an open, scalable solution that provides flexibility and choice to companies of all sizes.

"Beyond the joint development of these solutions, we're now tapping into IBM's sales and marketing expertise and initiatives to close deals in new markets," said Wu Qiang, vice president, UFIDA.