LanguageWare.net Ltd. completed its acquisition of Star+Globe Technologies Pte. Ltd., a privately held Singapore company that provides proprietary Asian character processing technology for the Web. As a result of the acquisition, the wholly-owned subsidiary, WholeTree.com, was formed to bring the technology of Star+Globe, and LanguageWare.net together to create a comprehensive global e-business approach with an expertise in the Asian market. After the acquisition, Lernout & Hauspie Investment Company N.V. will remain LanguageWare.net’s single largest shareholder. www.languageware.net
Day: January 17, 2000 (Page 1 of 2)
Optika Inc. announced Optika eMedia 2.0, which offers a B2B Web solution for uniting existing internal processes with external e-business activities. With the Optika eMedia B2B Web product, businesses are able to cross the organizational boundaries that make current inter-company communications and transaction processes inefficient and error-prone. With the addition of OLEDB standards, SQL 92 compliance, asynchronous queries and active data objects, Optika eMedia 2.0 is easier to integrate into complex user environments. Optika eMedia’s SDK simplifies the ability to embed and host other Web applications providing custom solutions. Combined with a 3-tier Web-based architecture, Optika eMedia 2.0 enables users to access transaction information regardless of type (i.e. EDI, XML, e-mail) or source (i.e. mainframe, line-of-business, traditional paper-based application). Optika eMedia 2.0 will be generally available in the second quarter of 2000. www.optika.com
POET Software announced POET Content Management Suite (CMS) version 2.1, the latest release of its repository-based solution for creating, managing, and maintaining complex XML publications. POET has enhanced CMS 2.1 with the POET object repository, integration with Arbortext’s Adept Editor, and custom metadata functionality, providing corporate and commercial publishers with faster performance for workgroups, tighter best-of-breed tool integration, and better component management. POET CMS 2.1 features many performance enhancements, such as checkouts, checkins, and imports that are up to twice as fast as the POET CMS 2.0 release. POET CMS 2.1 integrates POET Object Server Suite (OSS) 6.0, the latest release of POET’s object data management software, featuring POET’s new FastObject technology. POET OSS, the underlying database technology behind POET CMS, provides significant performance, flexibility, and scalability benefits over relational and file-based repository architectures for complex object data such as XML and SGML. POET CMS 2.1 introduces an Author Plug-in for Adept Editor, Arbortext’s XML/SGML authoring environment. With the Author Plug-in for Adept, users can create, manage, edit, and reuse document components in the POET CMS repository, providing unified authoring and management within the familiar Adept interface. POET CMS 2.1 includes a Content SDK that lets developers and system integrators build customized POET CMS applications, such as specialized interfaces for occasional contributors, reviewers, or translators. With POET CMS 2.1, developers and system integrators can now add custom metadata functionality to applications built with the Content SDK. Custom metadata enables users to attach descriptive data-which can be viewed, modified, and queried-to components in the repository. POET CMS 2.1 is available immediately. POET CMS clients run on Windows NT/95/98. POET Content Server is available for Windows NT, Solaris and HP/UX. Introductory pricing for a package that includes five client licenses starts at around $30,000. www.poet.com
Software AG introduced XENON – the “XML ENabled Open Network” – a complete architecture for XML applications that was designed specifically for the development of electronic business systems. It is based entirely on open standards, offering users and software providers a reliable, durable framework with interfaces for development, deployment and scalability of XML applications. In particular, tools from software vendors can be integrated easily with XENON. Featuring the X-Studio, X-Bridge, X-Machine and X-Node components, XENON provides a basis for the support and integration of new business processes on the Internet – even if these transactions are run on various platforms. The new X-Studio module is a system for building XML applications. The X-Studio offers a full range of XML tools, including XML and schema editors, style sheet processors, and an interactive development environment. The new X-Bridge is an XML middleware, providing a link between XML applications on different system platforms. The X-Machine enables storage of data in its native XML format. The X-Node allows access to existing data sources and brings data to the Web in XML format. There are a number of partners whose tools and solutions support the XENON architecture. These include The Reference, SoftQuad, and Extensibility. www.softwareag.com
DocuTouch announced the availability of SIDEX v2.0, the Secure Internet Document Exchange. This secure, end-to-end solution for managing and exchanging confidential, legal or sensitive documents over the Internet is platform-independent and requires no special software. Using a patented process, DocuTouch incorporates digital certificates into legally binding documents, storing the digitally signed original permanently. SIDEX, the Secure Internet Document Exchange, is an online service used to share confidential documents internally and among clients or business partners. Initial applications include legally binding contracts, purchase order agreements, human resource documents, proxy voting, leases, mortgages and insurance claims. The service offers the highest level of bonded, certified secure signatures, storing the online original forever. The service is priced to allow users to feel free to access their documents as often as desired, starting at $1.00 per megabyte stored, $1.00 per signing, and $0.50 per view. www.docutouch.com
IntraNet Solutions, Inc. announced it has signed an exclusive OEM licensing agreement to port its Xpedio technology to the IBM AS/400 platform for e-Business Intelligence vendor ShowCase Corporation as part of its new Enterprise Information Portal offering. Under the terms of the agreement ShowCase will have exclusive rights to sell the Xpedio product line on the IBM AS/400 platform as well as non-exclusive rights to sell it on UNIX and NT platforms. Showcase also announced today its Enterprise Intelligence Initiative – a Web-based solution that extends the ShowCase data warehousing and business intelligence product line and tightly integrates IntraNet Solutions’ Xpedio Content Management System. ShowCase STRATEGY combined with Xpedio will provide organizations with the ability to seamlessly capture, manage and deliver any type of content through a personalized Web-based gateway on the IBM AS/400 platform. The ShowCase-Xpedio solution will be available by March 31, 2000, with pricing starting at $75,000 USD. www.showcasecorp.com, www.intranetsolutions.com
Mercator Software announced its new product family for e-business transformation. The new Mercator E-Business Broker products provide a single architecture for seamless B2B integration across all commerce touch points, event-driven application-to-application (A2A) integration within the enterprise, and the extension of existing systems with Web-enabled interfaces for C2B applications. The new Mercator E-Business Broker suite comprises three products – Mercator Commerce Broker, Mercator Enterprise Broker, and Mercator Web Broker – that address specific e-business integration requirements. All Mercator E-Business Broker products are based on the same transformation architecture, allowing customers to leverage a single platform and reusable components across multiple applications. The new Mercator E-Business Broker suite breaks new ground with XML transformation, distributed business component deployment and end-to-end integration management. Mercator Commerce Broker will be available in March and will be priced starting from $200,000, depending on the number of server-side CPUs and developer seats. Mercator Commerce Broker will be available for Windows NT, Sun Solaris, Hewlett Packard HP-UX and IBM AIX. Mercator Enterprise Broker will be available in March and will be priced starting from $150,000, depending on the number of server-side CPUs and developer seats. Mercator Enterprise Broker will be available across 22 platforms. Mercator Web Broker is available immediately and is priced starting from $50,000, depending on the number of server-side CPUs and developer seats. Mercator Web Broker is available for Windows NT, Sun Solaris, Hewlett Packard HP-UX and IBM AIX. www.mercator.com
Percussion Software’s XSpLit, a free utility for converting HTML into XML and XSL, is now available at www.percussion.com/xsplit. XSpLit meets the demands of organizations that need a simple and effective way of transforming thousands of Web-based HTML pages into XML for e-commerce and other applications. With XSpLit, developers can create the XML and XSL equivalents of their HTML pages without investing a lot of time learning XML or writing the pages by hand. This patent-pending technology is a key component of Percussion’s XML Data Server product, Rhythmyx, which dynamically serves structured data from relational databases into Web pages. Rhythmyx is one of the first products that makes use of XSL in a production environment and helps organizations benefit from XML today. Percussion XSpLit V1.0 is free for personal use. Companies wishing to license the product for bundled distribution with their offerings should contact Percussion Software for terms and conditions. The utility runs on Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0. www.percussion.com
