Year: 1999 (Page 66 of 97)

Microstar Software Ltd. announced a strategic alliance with XIA Information Architects Corporation. The alliance between Microstar and XIA Information Architects provides a combination of skills and expertise for the design and implementation of the new networked business models. These new models require the inter-mediation and exchange of content and transactions between heterogeneous groups of buyers and sellers over the Internet. XIA Information Architects helps organizations to exploit the opportunities provided by XML-enabled multi-enterprise systems and to maximize the value of their IT investment. Microstar develops integrated solutions using the latest XML and SGML content management and e-commerce Internet products. Solutions for the companies’ clients leverage the built-in intelligence of XML encoded information to facilitate the integration of supply chains of all types. The result is lower operational costs and wider market reach. www.microstar.com.

Datalogics announced the latest release of the FrameLink Product Family in conjunction with DOCUMENTUM, Inc.’s launch of DOCUMENTUM 4i. FrameLink offers organizations flexibility with their document creation, document management, and publishing processes by integrating Adobe FrameMaker authoring tools and DOCUMENTUM’s DOCUMENTUM 4i. The FrameLink Product Family line consists of four products: FrameLink, FrameLink+SGML, FrameLink for AutoRender Pro, and the FrameLink DocPage Builder Extension. FrameLink allows authors of technical documents, manuals, and product information to manage complex documents directly from within FrameMaker, while maintaining document links. With FrameLink+SGML, authors of SGML documents in FrameMaker+SGML can manage the reuse of components down to the element level. FrameLink for AutoRender Pro allows users to automatically render and manage PDF files from within FrameMaker tools. This enables them to distribute documents for review and can provide an end-to-end solution for publishing complex documents. Finally, the FrameLink DocPage Builder Extension is a tool kit that can adapt FrameLink to meet specific publishing needs of customers. www.datalogics.com

SAP AG and BackWeb Technologies announced an agreement to leverage BackWeb’s Internet communication infrastructure and selected application modules as part of the SAP Customer Relationship Management offerings. The SAP Sales, SAP Service, and SAP Marketing solutions together make up a CRM solution designed to manage the entire life cycle of customer relationships. The combined solution provides customers with intelligent information gathering from the Internet and intranet that is easily delivered to the desktop for efficiency and enhanced decision-making capabilities. Specifically, the agreement with BackWeb includes bundling the BackWeb Foundation, the Automated Marketing Encyclopedia and the Market Intelligence Manager with both the SAP Sales and SAP Service solutions. The BackWeb Foundation, BackWeb’s Internet communication infrastructure, is a priority communications system based on a set of technologies that enable an organization to capture information from any data source and efficiently and reliably deliver it throughout the extended enterprise. The Market Intelligence Manager automatically gathers information about competitors, customers and the marketplace from any Internet or intranet location. The Automated Marketing Encyclopedia automatically delivers large documents to multiple users reliably and securely. BackWeb enables companies to adapt quickly to changing market conditions through direct interaction with their sales and service personnel, thereby accelerating the execution of their business processes www.backweb.com

OASIS announced the creation of XML.ORG, a global XML industry portal to be operated by a non-profit corporation devoted to open information exchange. Over 23 industry-leading corporations, organizations and individual experts have voiced support for the formation of XML.ORG. Central to XML.ORG will be an open industry XML registry and repository offering automated public access to XML schemas. The registry/repository will play a critical enabling role in the use of industry-defined XML applications for electronic commerce, business-to-business transactions, and tools and application interoperability. The debut of XML.ORG signifies a major step in OASIS’ ongoing registry and repository efforts, work that has been in progress for the last the 12 months. In keeping with its consensus-focused mission, OASIS will strive to ensure interoperability with existing and emerging XML initiatives, and will continue to actively solicit participation by any similar efforts. Companies who fund the XML.ORG web site are called XML.ORG partners. Founding partners will be given the one-time opportunity to join the XML.ORG Steering Committee, which is responsible for setting XML.ORG priorities, defining the technical direction of the portal, and determining what kinds of XML specifications are in or out of scope for the XML registry. www.oasis-open.org

Microsoft Corp. announced availability of the first draft specifications of the BizTalk Framework, a new BizTalk.Org Web site and charter members of the BizTalk steering committee. These BizTalk Framework initiatives aim to accelerate the widespread adoption of XML for electronic commerce and application integration. Draft specifications for BizTalk Framework Tags and BizTalk Framework Documents have been published on the BizTalk.Org Web site at www.biztalk.org/. The draft BizTalk Framework specifications outline XML design guidelines for developing and implementing BizTalk Framework schemas and provide organizations with an initial blueprint for building BizTalk-enabled software. The BizTalk steering committee, composed of industry-leading vendors, standards bodies and corporate customers, will independently manage the BizTalk.Org Web site and provide guidance on the future direction of the BizTalk Framework. Charter members include American Petroleum Institute, Ariba Inc., The Baan Co., The Boeing Co., Commerce One Inc., Concur Technologies Inc., Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA), J.D. Edwards, Merrill Lynch & Company Inc., Microsoft, Open Applications Group (OAG), PeopleSoft Inc., Pivotal Software Inc. and SAP AG. The BizTalk.Org Web site serves as an open repository for the submission and publication of BizTalk Framework schemas that will allow organizations to easily integrate applications and exchange documents such as product catalogs, purchase orders, and product and promotional information. This Web site will serve as the online reference for BizTalk Framework specifications, schemas, reference materials, tools, sample applications and a community newsgroup. www.microsoft.com/industry/biztalk.

Excalibur Technologies announced that it has signed an integration and OEM agreement with Progressive Technology Federal Systems, Inc. (PTFS). The agreement calls for PTFS to integrate Excalibur RetrievalWare, Excalibur’s high performance search and retrieval application, into PTFS’s AVATAR Digital Asset Management System (ADAMS). ADAMS is a Web based solution for archiving, managing, retrieving and disseminating 100% of an organization’s digital assets ranging from archived photographs, rare books, full text imaged and electronic documents, digital video/audio, and virtually any type of digital object. www.ptfs.com, www.excalib.com

webMethods, Inc., announced at the Open Buying on the Internet (OBI) Consortium’s Quarterly Members Meeting that the company has joined the OBI Consortium, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing open standards for business-to-business e-commerce. webMethods will include support for OBI in the 3.0 release of webMethods B2B, which will be released mid-summer. As an OBI Consortium member, webMethods will collaborate with Intelisys to champion future OBI support for the XML. Together, webMethods and Intelisys will deliver the combined benefits of XML and OBI to buyers and suppliers that want to implement B2B e-commerce solutions and automate business procurement over the Internet. The OBI Consortium is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing open standards for business-to-business Internet commerce. Membership in the Consortium is open to buying and selling organizations, technology companies, financial institutions, and other interested parties on an annual fee basis. The Consortium provides a forum for standards development, education, and compliance certification. www.openbuy.org