Day: July 6, 1999

Document Sciences announced the general availability of Document Library Services (DLS), version 5.0, a new version of its present document automation application. DLS provides users with an end-to-end solution for compliance document management and document production. DLS provides users with a Windows interface to manage and control the business logic and textual content of regulated documents such as Insurance Policies and Contracts. These documents can then be published through CompuSet, Document Sciences industrial strength composition engine. DLS, version 5.0, extends this capability with two new exciting offerings, DLS Express and DLS Batch for MVS. DLS Express is a new offering from Document Sciences that carries some of the same document automation features of DLS while allowing publishing of output to Microsoft Word. This new offering, with its lower cost, is ideal for smaller companies, for departmental applications, or for distributed production environments. DLS Batch for MVS, the newest member of the DLS family of products, extends high-volume batch production capabilities in the MVS mainframe environment. DLS Batch for MVS increases the throughput capabilities of DLS and facilitates multi-threaded processing. www.docscience.com

Merrill Corporation announced the launch of Merrill EDGAR Advantage, a service to help clients migrate to the Securities Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) new HTML and PDF formats for electronic filing. Merrill EDGAR Advantage also continues to offer clients a direct line to the SEC at the highest speed the SEC allows, ensuring that clients are always able to get a connection at peak filing times. To better serve clients, Merrill EDGAR Advantage has launched a new EDGAR resource Web site that includes news and information relative to EDGAR filings. www.edgaradvantage.com

OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, announced it has received financial commitment from industry for XML.org, the global XML industry portal. IBM, Oracle, SAP and Sun Microsystems have all agreed to support XML.org as Founding Partners, and Commerce One, DataChannel, Documentum, the Graphic Communications Association (GCA) and SoftQuad have demonstrated their support as XML.org Founding Affiliates. XML.org Partners (companies with revenues in excess of $250M US) are expected to contribute 100,000 USD and Affiliates (companies with revenues under $250M US) to provide 25,000 USD annually to fund the industry portal. Initially, the XML.org Steering Committee will be led by these founding organizations, although other companies are welcome to participate in the future by becoming Partners or Affiliates. XML.org ( http://xml.org) is the OASIS XML industry portal that provides accurate, timely information about the application of XML in industrial and commercial settings. XML.org serves as a reference repository for specific XML standards such as vocabularies, DTDs, schemas, and namespaces. www.oasis-open.org

Lutris Technologies released Enhydra 2.1. Enhydra 2.1 is a Java/XML application server with new developer tools leveraging XML. Enhydra XML Compiler (XMLC) is a new XML technology that eliminates the shortcomings of embedding code in HTML found in Sun’s JavaServer Pages (JSP) and Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP). Merging W3C consortium standards XML and the Document Object Model (DOM), Enhydra now supports a new, more efficient approach for interface designers and programmers to co-develop Web applications using Java to generate dynamic HTML. Lutris developed a technology similar to JSP and ASP over two years ago. Since then, the limitations of this approach have become obvious during the course of many consulting engagements. These limitations include: HTML editor incompatibility, wasteful designer/engineer interdependence, needless manual source file editing, and difficult application maintenance. Enhydra XMLC overcomes these limitations. XMLC converts HTML documents into Java classes represented as DOM objects. The W3C standard DOM defines a way to represent XML documents as a Java object tree. This process lets developers easily isolate data application logic from interface design, improving collaboration between the developer and the interface designer. The inclusion of simple id tags in an HTML document means that HTML templates can be created with any HTML editor, and then be modified and re-used with no impact on the underlying application. Available now, Enhydra 2.1 runtime and source code is free and may be downloaded from www.enhydra.org. On-line demonstrations, documentation, and FAQs are provided for quick evaluation. www.lutris.com

Vignette Corporation announced that on June 30, 1999, it completed the acquisition of Diffusion Inc. Vignette announced the acquisition of Diffusion earlier this year, and completed the initial technology integration in less than three months. Today, Vignette is also announcing the Vignette Multi-Channel Server, a solution based on the integrated technology, enabling organizations to extend their online customer relationship building. Vignette Multi-Channel Server is targeted towards organizations that look to develop tighter, more individual customer relationships with their online customer base. The new software provides a central point of management and control for automated interaction with a defined customer community. Vignette Multi-Channel Server will enable Vignette customers to manage the distribution of personalized information across any delivery channel, including the Web, e-mail, fax, pager and telephone, regardless of the channel the communication originates from or is routed through. www.vignette.com

Universal Systems Inc. (USI) officially announced its e.POWER Workflow Activator for PC DOCS/Fulcrum’s DOCS Open. The initial version is designed to meet the needs of existing and new PC DOCS/Fulcrum customers. Workflow Activator is accessible from the DOCS Open user interface making the automation of enterprise processes available to organizations in an already familiar environment. Enterprise processes such as procurement and contract management procedures in governmental agencies or the management of change in manufacturing and utilities are repetitive and occur frequently. USI already deploys PC DOCS/Fulcrum as part of the e.POWER Records Management Edition, the workflow-enabled records management application certified by the Department of Defense (5015.2 Standard). Using both Web browsers and Windows clients, e.POWER Records Management Edition supports a wide range of applications from correspondence and action management to electronic procurement and customer service. With e.POWER Workflow Activator, customers use their existing DOCS Open client with e.POWER WorkManager for workflow and process automation. www.USI-Web.com

GlobeID, announced it has performed the world’s first secure Internet purchases using the Electronic Commerce Modeling Language (ECML) standard. The transaction, which took place on Tuesday, July 6, 1999, was run at GlobeID’s Paris office. The implementation demonstrates the compliance of GlobeID’s @dvanced Payment Solution Suite with ECML. ECML enabled @PayWallet and @PayButton will be commercially available this quarter. The ECML format was announced in early June by a consortium of major technology companies, including AOL, IBM, Microsoft, Compaq, CyberCash and others, along with Visa, Mastercard and American Express. Until now no real-time transaction application has been conducted. ECML, the new proposed standard, is a set of XML tags that merchants will be asked to use on their merchant servers to make form completion easier. www.globeid.com