IMA Announces Its Internet Component Architecture -iCA-, the Customer Relationship Industry's First and Only Open, Object-Oriented, Component-Based Architecture
BusinessWire, Friday, October 22, 1999 at 08:34
Shelton, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 22, 1999--
"Future-Proof " iCA Framework Speeds Development And
Implementation Of Customer-Centric CRM, eCRM, And CTI Applications
IMA (NASDAQ:IMAA) a leading global provider of synchronized,
multi-channel e-business solutions, today unveiled its innovative new
technology platform, the internet Component Architecture (iCA), which
will be used as the framework for the Company's recently announced
Demand Chain Management (DCM) offerings.
iCA is the industry's "first and only" open object-oriented (OO)
Java-centric component software architecture specifically designed to
support CRM, eCRM and CTI application development. This true OO
component architecture offers n-tiered scalability and promotes best
of breed solutions through re-useable e-business components such as a
robust open-rules engine, personalization services, interactive web
development, content development, self-service, and legacy
integration. Developed over the past two years, iCA fully supports
IMA's vision of demand chain management, by "DCM enabling" all
existing IMA EDGE desktop and CTI products, as well as most other
industry leading solutions in the CRM and eCRM market.
"The industry cannot wait the 2-3 years that industry analysts
believe it will take for a single company to deliver a complete CRM
and eCRM suite of solutions," said Al Subbloie, President and CEO of
IMA. "Overwhelming Web use by consumers is challenging businesses
everywhere. An industry consolidator is needed to overcome the
existing proprietary environment and embark on a ground-up technology
rewrite to provide a consistent DCM solution across all channels in an
n-tiered environment. iCA is this consolidator."
Unprecedented increases in Web traffic is forcing companies to
implement some demand processing on third-party web sites. Furthermore
current architectures are unable to integrate solutions from a variety
of vendors, and therefore cannot provide an "end-to-end" solution.
IMA's iCA is a unique solution that resolves most of these
industry problems. As an open architecture, iCA fully supports the
extension of any third-party technologies quickly, while exposing all
integration layers to the architecture. This allows companies to use
any third-party product they desire, or replace it with an internal
product, without affecting the rest of the architecture. Since iCA
acts as a buffer for applications and the operating system, businesses
will be able to migrate their solutions onto various standards, such
as Sun's Java and Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) and the Common Object
Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) from the Object Management Group
(OMG), and Microsoft Corporation's COM/DCOM. This allows companies to
plan for the future without the risk of obsolescence, and dramatically
speed up the delivery timeframe of new components.
"By deliberately building iCA as a Java-component architecture
based on a formal object model, IMA is providing a strong,
standards-based foundation for all of its components. The business
components built on the iCA are protected from technology obsolescence
while benefiting from a high degree of reuse and increased quality,"
said Daniel Riscalla, VP Engineering at IMA and chairman of the
Enterprise Customer Interaction Systems (ECIS) Special Interest Group
(SIG) of the OMG. "Since iCA was designed specifically for customer
interaction support, it can be used to construct full web and
telephony channel enabled CRM, and eCRM solutions by leveraging a
series of best-of-breed third party vendor and in-house solutions."
IMA was aided in their transition to enterprise component
technologies by Genesis Development(R) Corporation of West Chester, PA
(http://www.gendev.com). Working exclusively in large-scale
distributed object technology since 1987, Genesis has lent its
extensive expertise to IMA's development process to build this new
leading-edge architecture.
"IMA's commitment to iCA was evidenced through the extensive
allocation of key technical and management resources," noted Jason
Matthews, President/CEO of Genesis. "Working with Genesis' senior
architects, IMA has literally 'future-proofed' their architecture
through a strategic investment in enterprise component frameworks that
are reusable across many applications for years to come."
About IMA
IMA provides synchronized, multi-channel e-business solutions,
enabling businesses to create market demand, manage that demand, and
then respond to it in the most effective manner with world-class
customer interaction software solutions. Gartner Group ranks IMA as a
leader in customer service and support systems and as a visionary in
sales applications. Over 400 global organizations including Bose
Corp., Humana, ICT Group, Lloyds TSB, Texas Utilities, U.S. Cellular
Corp. and Xerox depend on IMA products and services to help grow their
business through the process of acquiring and retaining customers. IMA
has headquarters in Shelton, Connecticut and offices and
representatives worldwide. More information about IMA's products and
services can be found on the World Wide Web at www.imaedge.com,
requested via email at ima@imaedge.com or obtained by calling
1-203-925-6800.
NOTE: IMA and EDGE are registered trademarks of Information
Management Associates, Inc. All other trade names are trademarks of
their respective companies.
Except for the historical information contained in this
announcement, the matters discussed in this announcement are
"forward-looking statements" (as that term is used in the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) that involve risks and
uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). In particular, IMA
draws the reader's attention to the "Risk Factors" stated in the
Company's Registration Statement on Form S-1 dated July 30, 1997 and
its accompanying Prospectus, the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form
10-Q dated August 14, 1997, November 14, 1997, May 15, 1998, August
14, 1998, November 14, 1998, May 17, 1999 and August 16, 1999, the
Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K dated March 30, 1998 and March
31, 1999, as well as to the Company's periodic and current reports as
they are filed with the SEC.
CONTACT: For More Information Contact:
Glenda O'Neill
VP Worldwide Marketing
IMA
203/925-6800
glenda.oneill@imaedge.com
or
David King
G.S. Schwartz & Co.
212-725-4500
dking@schwartz.com |
