BEA Systems and Siebel Systems have sealed an alliance to deliver integration services through joint development, sales and marketing initiatives.

The companies already collaborate closely on emerging integration and process standards, and now are committing additional resources as part of their alliance. These will include dedicated engineers, technical architects, product managers, an on-site interoperability testing laboratory and joint development.

As part of the deal Siebel has named BEA a Strategic Software and Universal Application Network (UAN) Partner in its alliance programme, and designated BEA WebLogic Integration as one of its strategic integration elements for UAN, a standards-based approach to multi-application integration.

BEA said it plans to offer full out-of-the-box support for UAN in upcoming versions of BEA WebLogic Integration and BEA WebLogic Platform.

Morris Beton, senior vice president of business development at BEA Systems, said: "The IT world is no longer flat. It's round and revolves around solving business problems with the convergence of application development and integration.

"BEA and Siebel Systems believe this convergence will simplify building, integrating and extending applications and business processes for our customers.

"[We] plan to align our businesses in order to offer customers a more simplified and valuable approach to business integration."

Bharath Kadaba, vice president and general manager of UAN at Siebel Systems, added: "BEA and Siebel Systems share a common mission: to reduce the cost, complexity and time it takes customers to deliver new applications and services to their partners, customers and workforces."