Enterprise Mashups Coming

Mashup tools have so far been used mostly for simple enterprise applications like adding geographical information--typically Google Maps--to corporate data. But that's changing. IBM, for example, has introduced two offerings for building mashups that pull together data from multiple data bases and applications.

One of the tools is aimed at non-technical users while the other development is a mashup environment. WebSphere sMash supports dynamic scripting languages and widget-development tools. IBM Mashup Center allows business users to drag and drop components from local, enterprise and Web sources to create new applications.

JackBe Corp. and Kapow Technologies also have added support for Excel to existing mashup tools.

JackBe uses a plug-in is connected to a spreadsheet so that whenever data is changed, the Presto server updates the data, allowing the most-current version to be consumed by other applications.

Kapow sells an on-demand enterprise mashup service that allows companies to incorporate data from various Web sites and services directly into Excel spreadsheets.