A new study by IDC Israel says that Israeli business transaction management (BTM) solutions start-ups are candidates for acquisition by large companies.
Israel has a number of BTM start-ups, including B-Hive Ltd/, Correlix Ltd., and Correlsense Ltd.. These three are quite new, nevertheless quite promising, companies. Identify Software, acquired by BMC Corporation (NYSE:BMC) in 2006, was also a BTM company.
IDC analyst Dan Yachin says, “Business transaction management (BTM) is an emerging IT management concept that can potentially address both IT complexity and business alignment requirements. At its essence, BTM is aimed at detecting and resolving problems at the granular level of interactions between IT elements that form a business transaction (e. g. online stock trade, travel booking).
Yachin notes, “Today, businesses are heavily reliant on the automatic processing of transactions, the volume of which is constantly increasing due to the shift towards customer-facing online services. Controlling and gaining visibility into the multiple hops that a single business transaction may take across the different elements in complex IT environments is a significant challenge that BTM can play a key role in addressing. Demand for BTM solutions should heighten in the coming years, and will be addressed by the significant R& D and business development efforts of established vendors and start- up companies.”
“Globes”: How do BTM products solve enterprise IT problems?
Yachin: “BTM solutions precisely manage transactions, services, and applications, which currently can be a collation of components from decentralized sites, whose actions are difficult to monitor. BTM solutions are therefore super-strategic.”
Yachin adds that the global buzz about BTM is already audible. A few months ago, Hewlett Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ) acquired BTM solutions developer Bristol Technology. This may be the only non-Israeli BTM solutions start-up, but it does have an Israeli connection; Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) invested in it. “All the large players in the sector, including Computer Associates and IBM, are looking at BTM,” he says.
What is Israel doing to lead the pack?
“The accumulated experience by the Israeli market, especially by veteran companies like HP-Mercury Interactive and Precise Software Systems, have the know-how and expertise. We also see many new companies targeting the sector, but which aren’t finding investors. Israeli venture capital funds are keeping their distance from enterprise software because they think it’s lost its shine. We think that the sector is as interesting and as riveting as ever. There’s definitely demand. BTM companies have no problem raising capital, but other enterprise software companies are struggling.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on September 6, 2007
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