In the wake of the merger and acquisition lever of recent years, many companies find that they have many computer systems in many locations that don't necessarily communicate well with each other. 2AB tries to bring order to technology's Babel.

"Think of two computer systems as two people, one who speaks English and another who speaks German, trying to communicate," said Carol Butt, president and CEO of Pelham-based 2AB.

"In the past, people and computers have used translators, but that was inefficient and there exists the possibility of misunderstanding because of the nuances of any given language."

Instead of a translator, 2AB uses Common Object Request Broker Architecture technology to create a common language understood by both computers. CORBA was standardized by the nonprofit Object Management Group, the world's largest software development consortium.

"What CORBA technology does is create a common language that is understood by every computer in a group," Butt said. "You may say, `Send me patient Doe's records' in one language, but it is sent in the common language and shows up on the recipient's screen in the language that is meaningful to him.

"This avoids possible life-threatening situations in the health care industry."

Harold Solbrig of 3M Health Information Systems in Salt Lake City, a 2AB client, agrees.

"2AB's services were invaluable in our effort to develop an interface standard for medical terminologies," Solbrig said. "They provided just the right mixture of analysis, CORBA and people skills, the combination of which enabled us to accomplish our task far more efficiently and in a much more cost-effective fashion than we would have been able to do on our own."

Burt, who won't discuss 2AB's financials except to say the 2-year-old company is profitable, compares computer integration to dry cleaning.

"You don't care how they do it, and you don't care if it's done at that facility or sent across town. You just want to come back at a specific time and pick up clean clothes," she said.

"It's the same with corporations and computers. The corporation just wants the computer to do what it is asked to do. They don't really care how it does it."

Kent Wreder, corporate director of object technology at Baptist Health Systems of South Florida, applauded 2AB's work.

"The guidance of Carol Burt and the rest of the staff at 2AB has been invaluable to us," Wreder said.

2AB is a graduate of the Entrepreneurial Center, formerly known as the Birmingham Business Assistance Network, which serves as an incubator for start-ups. "I can't say enough good things about the program," Burt said.

2AB

Business: Computer integration

Headquarters: Pelham

CEO: Carol Burt

Founded: 1997

Employees: Seven

Revenue: Would not disclose

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Carol Burr, president and CEO of 2AB, and partners Michael Nagy, left, and Mitchel Sanders founded the Pelham-based computer integrator in 1997.

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By Nan Smith