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As the new executive vice president in charge of products at infrastructure software maker BEA Systems, Wong said advanced research projects spawned by some of the company's departed technology executives will be used in BEA's current product line, rather than put off.
Wong told CNET News.com that two projects touted by the company at its eWorld conference in May -- a lightweight integration software product code-named Quicksilver and a mobile client software called Alchemy -- have been incorporated into existing product groups. BEA's flagship product is WebLogic Platform, a suite of Java-based infrastructure software and tools for building and running business applications.
The Quicksilver technology, designed to ease integration of systems and improve application management, is being built into the WebLogic Platform. Alchemy is being "productised" and has also found its way into BEA's product development plans, Wong said.
"I don't believe at all that the intent is to say these are being pushed out or dismissed," he said. "Absolutely not."
Changing course
Wong's product decisions are important to the company's efforts to rebuild its product group and get on better financial footing.
The company last month reorganised its top management team in response to two disappointing quarters and the flight of at least eight high-level executives, some of whom had been setting the company's technology direction.
Following the reorganisation in August, one of CEO Alfred Chuang's first moves was to bring on Wong as a new director of product development. Wong is taking the reins of an organisation that has lost some of its top technical gurus, backers of cutting-edge initiatives.
Quicksilver was shown off at eWorld by BEA's former chief technology officer, Scott Dietzen, and Alchemy was the brainchild of Adam Bosworth, the former chief architect at BEA who took an engineering position at Google. Bosworth left the company in July, Dietzen in August.
On top of the departure of Dietzen and Bosworth, a number of other product marketing executives have left BEA, including former chief marketing officer Tod Nielsen. Another influential developer behind WebLogic, Cedric Beust, followed Bosworth to Google.
After only about a week on the job, Wong said his priority is to "optimise" development and delivery of products to BEA customers and maintain the company's reputation for strong technology. He said he will work with BEA veteran Mark Carges, who was named chief technology officer as part of the company reorganisation. Both Carges and Wong report to CEO Chuang.
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