(Portals, Process and MiddleWare) An umbrella term for a variety of software that deals with business processes and application integration. Coined by Gartner in 2007, PPMW embraces a wide range of software categories, including portal development, business process management (BPM), business rules engines (BREs), application integration and messaging middleware. It also covers application servers, transaction processing monitors (TPMs), enterprise service buses (ESBs) and e-commerce servers. To obtain Gartner Dataquest reports covering this market, visit www.gartner.com. See application integration, middleware, messaging middleware, BPM, BRE, ESB and application server.