Magic Software Donated to Penn State for CRM, Other Research

Magic Software Enterprises, a vendor of enterprise application products, has announced a grant of its iBOLT and eDeveloper software to Penn State University, to be used on more than 120 servers for courses beginning with the fall semester 2007.

Penn State students will have access to the Magic iBOLT business integration product in courses "designed to show how disparate computer software can work together, integrating business processes," according to Magic officials.

IBOLT is intended to help Penn State University students learn to solve common business systems problems, such as duplicate data entry, lack of information, and cumbersome interfaces, school officials say.

The iBOLT integration suite from Magic Software falls into a category of software known as business process management and is commonly used for enterprise application integration.

Dr. Alan Peslak, a computer scientist at Penn State who has conducted research into the economic and societal impact of information technology, says the software from Magic Software will be used as an integration platform: "Students will develop and deploy business process integration solutions using the iBOLT Business Integration Suite. IBOLT is planned to enhance our IST Integration and Application Option."

The major types of business applications to be studied include Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, and Supply Chain Management software.

Last year Magic Software sold its CRM activity in Israel and abroad to eContact Software Ltd.

The CRM system developed and marketed by Israeli vendor Magic in recent years for managing customer relations and call centers is installed at “hundreds of clients in Israel and throughout the world,” according to Magic officials.

EContact planned to make extensive modifications in the acquired product lines, including conversion to an Internet system incorporating Voice over IP.

The transaction also included incorporating Magic Software Enterprises' eService system, which specializes in providing service via the Internet. The eService system is designed for integration as the primary support component in eContact's future CRM system and, in particular, for pre/post-paid billing systems for Wi-Fi and Wi-Max systems.

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David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.