Comments for BIE
BIE Gets The Job Done
I've been using BIE in production now for about three weeks. Previously I had used BizTalk to do the same jobs...basically dealing with inventory and purchasing requests between my warehouse, distributors, printers and publishers. It seems to be just as speedy as BizTalk ever was, and uses up less resources on the server. I was running BizTalk on Windows 2000. Now I'm running BIE on the same box and barely notice a load.
The map builder, though similar is much easier to use than the one from BizTalk. About the only thing I miss is that BizTalk had a better transaction viewer. But when you compare the price of BIE (free) to BizTalk ($55,000). I'm glad I found BIE. I was nearing the end of my BizTalk trial period and BIE saved me a ton of Cash, even after I purchased support for BIE (for $5000).
To anyone looking at BizTalk like I was, I whole heartedly recommend giving BIE a look.
BIE Maillist & Information
If you want to discuss BIE please use the bie-developer mailling list on SourceForge; even though it has the word "developer" in the name it is OK to subscribe and post general or usage questions about BIE. The forums provided for BIE on the WDI website are pretty much useless, not to mention really cumbersome. So use the mailling list. WDI doesn't have much to do with the BIE project anymore.
Since documentation on using BIE is a bit lacking I've constructed some bits of my own as well as some links relating to BIE at - www.whitemiceconsultin...
We use this product in production and once you get around the learning curve it really does provide a solid platform for performing "business integration".