TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES PARTNERS WITH COLLABNET TO AUGMENT PROCESS-CENTRIC DISTRIBUTED DEVELOPMENT, FULLY EXECUTE GLOBAL SOA STRATEGY

BRISBANE, Calif.- CollabNet, a leading provider of on-demand (SaaS) distributed software development solutions, and Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS), a leading global IT services firm, today announced a partnership whereby TCS has adopted CollabNet Enterprise Edition 4.0, the company's flagship solution designed for distributed application lifecycle management and software development. TCS will utilize the newly announced CollabNet Enterprise Edition 4.0 to enhance its delivery capabilities for globally distributed development and to support its global J2EE SOA solution strategy.

As part of TCS' J2EE SOA strategy, TCS and CollabNet will jointly market a solution named the TCS Global Development Navigator (GDN) to clients seeking an established system for enabling SOA transformation and for developing Web service-based applications. GDN is based on established TCS J2EE software development processes, best practices, and reusable assets, and relies on the CollabNet Application Lifecycle Manager. The CollabNet Application Lifecycle Manager is new in CollabNet Enterprise Edition 4.0 and enables users to model software methodologies and processes as part of an over all solution for globally distributed software development. As an Internet-enabled solution, TCS GDN addresses the complex challenges of global on-demand software development and the subsequent need to increase awareness of vital lifecycle processes.

"Organizations implementing SOA-based applications need more intensive process support to facilitate the coordination of activities across groups for effective deployments," said Melinda Ballou, program director for Application Life Cycle Management at IDC, a leading provider of global IT research and advice. "The paradigm shift to services-based development requires focused services development processes to be considered and integrated with life-cycle management tools."

The CollabNet Application Lifecycle Manager in CollabNet Enterprise Edition 4.0 enables project managers to select and customize a choice of process templates. TCS GDN comes preconfigured with TCS' Java Open Architecture framework and process, so users can employ a process methodology and leverage reusable assets in addressing their SOA and Web services implementation challenges.

"With SOA you can have business units create point applications that publish services used by others in the same manner as using functionality from a "software as a service" provider like Salesforce.com. Along with these opportunities, enhanced collaboration between distributed teams becomes paramount," said Dr. Gautam Shroff, Vice President of Technology Programs and Head of the Technology Innovation Lab at TCS. "A shared component-based development methodology is essential, and the use of common technical frameworks also highly desirable. TCS' Global Development Navigator built on the CollabNet platform incorporates best practices in SOA development processes as well as technical frameworks for business application development."

"The distributed nature of Web services perfectly aligns with the concept of collaborative software development that CollabNet supports and which TCS is now implementing. The CollabNet-TCS relationship will ease the development of Web services among TCS customers by not only providing a collaborative environment, but a process-driven lifecycle as well," said Bill Portelli, president and CEO of CollabNet. "Using the Global Development Navigator, TCS customers are given a unique competitive advantage and the ability to more quickly see ROI on Web services investments."

There is a growing recognition that managing business process change is itself a business process. Just as modern business processes are moving to the Internet, the TCS GDN represents an Internet-based codification of software development processes for J2EE SOA development. The CollabNet-based TCS GDN provides TCS with key collaborative development functionalities and proven methodologies to leverage throughout TCS' in-house design centers, worldwide offices, and partner and customer bases. The net result of these advantages provides TCS with the ability to drive cost savings for globally distributed SOA projects, increase resource utilization and re-use, mitigate project risk, and ultimately enable better management of globally distributed software development projects and software process improvement.