IBM has taken the wraps off of new middleware designed to allow businesses to deposit product information into a central repository where data can be accessed, managed and shared internally and across retail supply chains. The software arrives just four months after IBM agreed to acquire Trigo, but comes as no surprise to analysts who predicted a rapid turnaround.

Trigo enables its customers to synchronize product information such as locations, trading partner, organization, pricing, and promotion from multiple information systems, including legacy. Information could then be shared with partners through a portal site or linked to point of sales systems.

Some high profile Trigo customers whose business IBM has inherited include: Royal Philips Electronics, Sony, Staples, and Unilever.

IBM calls the born-again Trigo "WebSphere Product Center Version 5," and as expected, has added its own personal touch. Big Blue has integrated Product Center with WebSphere Portal, IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM DB2 Information Integrator, as well as other IBM business solutions.

In addition, IBM has also thrown in its clustering technology and load balancing software so that a single system can span multiple servers and be responsive to its workload without being reconfigured or unplanned downtime.

A list of general improvement includes reductions in manual processes, redundancy and errors. Asset rights will also be more conducive to large organizations, with business roles being used in lieu of individualized permissions on accounts.

According to IBM, Product Center will eventually be offered jointly with WebSphere Commerce; IBM solutions for RFID and for employee and trading partner portals; and several other horizontal services associated with business operations.

If IBM sticks to its roadmap, information from IBM RFID services will be stored and federated through Product Center.

By positioning Product Center in this integrated fashion IBM is spanning the tasks of content creation, visualization, approval, customization, and delivery with the ultimate goal being to reduce time to market for new products.

The estimated starting price for WebSphere Product Center is expected to be $300,000 USD.