Web 2.0 Expo preview: Mashups upgraded for the enterprise

Computerworld - A strong argument could be made that any new type of software can't make it to the enterprise without a link to Excel, the lifeblood of many businesses.

Makers of mashup tools are making their move this week to expand their potential customer base by unveiling such links and other features at the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo set to get under way in San Francisco Tuesday.

Several enterprise mashup vendors are set to detail new technologies aimed at helping users go beyond the most common use of their tools today -- adding geographical information to corporate data by pulling Google Maps into a common process. Now, mashup vendors said, the updated tools can be used as a quick and easy way to integrate data from disparate systems for a wide variety of processes such as monitoring competitor pricing and automating manual processes that include Web services or content.

For instance, Kapow Technologies Inc. on Tuesday plans to unveil an on-demand enterprise mashup service to allow companies to incorporate data from various Web sites and services directly into Excel spreadsheets.

The new Kapow OnDemand hosted service is based on the Kapow Mashup Server, which is deployed at more than 300 companies, including Audi, Morgan Stanley and Simply Hired. The new product adds an Excel Connector that can be used to point to a wide variety of data sources on the Web for automatic insertion into an Excel spreadsheet. For example, a company could use the application to monitor competitors' product pricing schedules or to add user reviews of their own products to adjust sales efforts, noted Joe Keller, Kapow's chief marketing officer.

The service could help eliminate the manual efforts most companies now use to scour the Web for such information, Keller said. Once the data has been populated into spreadsheets, it can be analyzed with installed products like business intelligence tools and visualization technology, he added.

"By connecting [Web mashups] to Excel, users can have real-time data inside their spreadsheets along with their corporate data to get that 360-degree view of the data they are analyzing," Keller said.

Kapow OnDemand also includes a robot designer to construct custom Web harvesting feeds and services in a role-based execution runtime, along with tools for monitoring and managing services and feeds to provide site administrators with control and insight into their environment, the company said.

"If users can build spreadsheets, if they can do the programming of those spreadsheets, the plug-in makes [mashups] a native element inside of Excel," Keller added. "Mashups provide that layer we need to really let the business do a lot of the work themselves. It still governs the services and creates the services, but it allows the business start doing business themselves."