NEON Systems, a leading provider of Enterprise Access and Integration software products, has signed an agreement for the development and worldwide distribution rights to Sterling Software’s SOLVE:Diplomat product. Terms of the agreement include a $3.5 million payment by NEON Systems. NEON Systems has the option to acquire full ownership of the intellectual property rights associated with the product for an additional payment.

Diplomat has been utilized to integrate disparate Customer Relationship Management and Call Center systems. NEON Systems intends to increase the scope of the Diplomat product, which will evolve it into a single, unified EAI product line encompassing major computing platforms and applications. This key expansion of the NEON Systems product family will provide a comprehensive EAI solution. In addition to the distribution rights, NEON has been granted a source code license and has hired the North Carolina-based software development lab dedicated to the Diplomat product.

“Diplomat was first deployed at a customer site in 1993. The technology has developed into a proven and established product that is highly complementary to our System/390 Enterprise Access and Integration products. The extensible software base, along with the key development talent, will allow NEON Systems to extend mission critical access and integration solutions to UNIX and Windows platforms to support front office CRM, ERP, Call Center, and other high-value EAI initiatives,” said Joe Backer, president and CEO, NEON Systems. “We plan to provide excellent support for existing Diplomat customers and continue, without interruption, the ongoing sale of the product. In the future, we will extend the product with intelligent adapters for a variety of applications. Our superior support of the System/390 platform will make NEON Systems EAI products the clear choice for customers who are looking for true enterprise-class business integration.”