Epicor Software unveiled Epicor Internet Component Environment (ICE) 2.0. Epicor ICE 2.0 is the Company’s next-generation service-oriented architecture (SOA) for building business applications, and will exploit the capabilities of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008.

Based on Web services technologies such as the Microsoft .NET Framework, Epicor ICE 2.0 (currently scheduled for release in Q2 2008) delivers an adaptable SOA that will help businesses reduce costs, increase hardware utilization, optimize infrastructure and server availability, and drive user productivity. The backbone of Epicor’s next-generation resource planning (ERP) solutions, Epicor ICE 2.0 fuses Web 2.0 and Enterprise SOA concepts to deliver an adaptable framework for creating dynamic applications delivered via rich user experiences. Epicor ICE 2.0 provides a truly collaborative and dynamic enterprise application experience, offering new levels of flexibility, usability and agility in support of application-to-application and business-to-business integration.

According to a recent report, Forrester Research defines this type of next-generation enterprise application as “dynamic business applications — software systems that embody business processes; are built for change; and deliver rich, context-aware information to individual users. Dynamic business apps and Web 2.0 applications share many of the same characteristics and requirements.” (Developing Enterprise Web 2.0 Applications, Forrester Research, Inc., July 2007).

Building on its experience in developing and delivering SOA and Web services-based enterprise applications, Epicor continues to evolve its technology platform to stay at the forefront of the next wave of enabling technologies. In addition to significant enhancements in the areas of business process management (BPM) and workflow orchestration, consistent with the need for greater governance risk and compliance (GRC) management and continuous performance initiatives, Epicor ICE 2.0 also includes on-premise, single-tenant hosted or multi-tenant software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployment options. Epicor’s unique technology allows users to personalize and modify application capabilities in a single environment and then deploy simultaneously in a Windows smart client and/or Ajax-enabled browser to meet increasing demands for composite application development. Other Web 2.0 innovations include virtualization (Microsoft Hyper-V Server), presence (Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007), enterprise search and content management (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server), a real-time business intelligence framework (Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server), as well as support for RSS, enhanced use of Windows Workflow Foundation, and a move to RESTful-based Web services.