Day: January 4, 2000

Bitlocker announced the launch of its official public beta, opening its site to everyone interested in organizing, sharing and publishing data online. Bitlocker makes it easy for consumers and businesses to organize, share and publish information anytime, anywhere by using the company’s free online database service, which is available today. Bitlocker allows Internet users to quickly get their data online and share it with others at no cost. Using Bitlocker, individuals and businesses can create secure, scalable databases with complete functionality using only a Web browser. Bitlocker.com offers a place for people to easily access or “grab,” sort, share and publish information on a Web site or store it in a Bitlocker. During public beta, members of Bitlocker can utilize pre-built templates, take a tour of the site and create their own Bitlockers to store a variety of topical information. www.bitlocker.com

Rogue Wave Software announced that it was selected by Vignette Corporation, as the interface to the multiple databases behind their e-business applications. Vignette StoryServer5 software delivers a combination of personalization, content management, decision support, and enterprise integration services to efficiently create superior experiences that attract, engage, and retain customers. These services require a tool that allows access to any number of relational databases on the back-end of the system. With the release of DBTools.h++ 4.0, developers have native access to the latest versions from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, Informix and IBM. DBTools.h++ allows C++ developers to build software that runs on Windows, UNIX, Linux as well as IBM AS/400 and OS/390 platforms. www.vignette.com, www.roguewave.com

CommerceQuest has acquired Advanced Networking Solutions (ANS), a South African-based enterprise application integration (EAI) company. The acquisition adds data integration and business process flow management tools to CommerceQuest’s XML B2B and EAI solutions. www.CommerceQuest.com

Pervasive Software Inc. announced at the MACWORLD Expo the availability of the Tango 2000 Web development environment for the Mac OS operating environment. This new release of Tango 2000 enables Macintosh developers to build and deploy e-business applications and dynamic Web sites in the latest Mac operating environment, while leveraging Tango 2000’s advanced, visually-oriented development capabilities to bring applications to market in Internet time. Customer shipments of Tango 2000 for the Mac OS environment commenced in late December 1999, and Pervasive plans to ship a version of Tango 2000 for Mac OS X when Apple releases that forthcoming operating environment. The Tango 2000 for Mac OS development environment includes full XML integration and Tango Class Files (TCFs). By providing developers with full XML integration, XML can be treated as data types inside the Tango application for easier manipulation of structured data. TCFs also give developers the freedom to write code only and then reuse the code as an object in future projects. Tango 2000 for Mac OS is available now. U.S. pricing for the Tango 2000 Development Studio is $495. Application servers are priced separately, starting at $995 for Macintosh, scaling from the small business edition to enterprise-class solutions per individual business requirements. www.pervasive.com

Intraspect Software, Inc., announced that R&D Solutions, a major supplier of web integration services in France, has signed a strategic agreement to resell Intraspect products. These include Intraspect Knowledge Server (IKS) 3.0, a platform for developing, deploying, and managing collaborative business solutions. Intraspect and R&D Solutions are targeting major French multinational organizations. R&D has been delivering the full suite of Intraspect c-business services including IKS 3.0, implementation, customization, training, and local support. www.intraspect.com More small U.S. companies should look at France and other European countries. We wouldn’t recommend expansion before you are ready to devote the necessary energy. On the other hand, as Europe continues to accelerate their catching-up with North America in the use of internet technology there will be more and more opportunities lost. European software companies should look at more aggressive growth for the same reason.

OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, welcomed Scott McGrath to its staff in a newly-created position, Member Services Manager. In his new role, McGrath will have responsibility for activity coordination and communication for the more than 130 members of the non-profit international consortium dedicated to XML interoperability. McGrath brings to OASIS more than 10 years experience developing customer service systems and staff, most recently with the world’s second largest member organization, the American Automobile Association. As senior liaison between members, all AAA business units and suppliers/contractors, McGrath served as ombudsman, mediator and conflict resolution expert, supervised mediation and quality measurement staff, executive service call center, and correspondence staff and developed quality tracking, measurement, reporting/organizational learning systems. McGrath also brings a wealth of experience in developing database-driven business systems and service quality assessment/manage

Inso Corporation announced that it has sold its PDM Division for approximately $12 million in cash and net assumption of liabilities. The transaction is in the form of a stock purchase by Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC) of outstand-ing stock of Inso’s subsidiaries, Sherpa Systems Corporation and Inso France Development. The sale was completed on January 5, 2000 and should result in a transaction loss to Inso estimated at approximately $3 million in the fourth fiscal quarter. In addition, a compensation charge of approximately $1.7 million will be recorded in the fourth fiscal quarter for the cost of option vesting or cancellation for certain PDM Division employees. www.inso.com