Vignette Corp. and Artesia Technologies announced that the two companies will create a combined e-business solution based on the Vignette V/5 eBusiness Application Platform that streamlines rich media content management for the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry. The combined Vignette and Artesia solution allows companies to implement streamlined processes for creating and managing rich-media that produces content once – for targeted delivery in various formats over multiple channels, including broadband, wireless, personal computers and interactive set-top boxes. Together the two companies are simplifying the inherent complexities in converting, managing and delivering rich media content over multiple channels. Vignette and Artesia are enabling companies in the M&E industry to adopt new, Internet-based business practices while continuing to support traditional distribution channels. The integrated solution enables the easy repurposing of new and existing content for publishing over multiple channels to multiple devices – allowing M&E companies to develop strategies for delivering content to various customers while maintaining high standards of quality and consistency. This combined approach to content management will also enable organizations to create virtual supply chains, with both their creative and trading partners, in which digital assets are rendered readily and securely available for further use or augmentation. Vignette and Artesia will provide their software solution using Sun Enterprise servers. The companies will also support Java and XML. General availability for the jointly developed integration package is slated for fall 2000. Pricing information may be obtained through Vignette and Artesia. www.vignette.com, www.artesiatech.com
Year: 2000 (Page 17 of 63)
SAQQARA Systems, Inc. introduced SAQQARA ProductServer 3.0 and ProductServer 3.0 Multi-language Edition, adding increased functionality and flexibility to the SAQQARA product content management solution and Step Search technology. ProductServer 3.0 offers customers both parametric and text-based search capabilities, product content personalization, menu navigation and XML support to improve product content management and to enhance the buying experience. In addition, the Multi-language Edition of ProductServer 3.0 allows the customer to maintain and present their product content in multiple languages. Through SAQQARA’s search and find technology, ProductServer 3.0 provides buyers advanced search capabilities that allows them to quickly and easily find the products they are looking for through either a text based search or though a parametric Step Search. Additionally, buyers can now benefit from custom views of the catalog using a profile-driven content filter, displaying only the products that are applicable. The buyers’ experience is further enhanced through a new menu navigation functionality that allows drill down searches through a category hierarchy to find the appropriate product grouping. In addition to ProductServer 3.0’s search capabilities, the Multi-language Edition gives customers the ability to take advantage of a complete product content solution that includes language support for major European and Asian languages and out of the box presentation support for English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. ProductServer 3.0 Multi-language Edition allows buyers to view both product content and page presentation in the language of their choice. ProductServer 3.0 and ProductServer 3.0 Multi-language Edition will be available September 29, 2000 for Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 operating systems and will be available for UNIX operating systems in the fourth quarter, 2000. Both Editions are available directly from SAQQARA Systems or through resellers. Pricing for ProductServer 3.0 starts at $95,000. Pricing for ProductServer 3.0 Multi-language Edition is an additional $35,000. www.saqqara.com.
Rosetta Inpharmatics, Inc. announced the availability of a new file format, called Gene Expression Markup Language (GEML), to facilitate the interchange of data from DNA chip and other gene expression technologies into a consistent format for more efficient and extensive data analysis. GEML was developed by Rosetta Inpharmatics in an effort to accommodate the growing market need for researchers to have a consistent gene expression data format to use in analyzing data from the growing number of available gene expression technologies. Detailed information on the benefits of GEML and how to use the GEML format is available at www.rii.com/geml. GEML is an XML-based data file format that operates independently of any specific database schema. GEML supports data from various gene expression platforms including Affymetrix, Agilent, Incyte, Molecular Dynamics, 1-color or 2-color fluorescent labeling and scanning, nylon filters, and other data formats. GEML also tracks which data format was used, and with this knowledge enables normalization, integration, and comparison of data across technologies. As part of Rosetta’s efforts to encourage this potential industry standard for gene expression data, Rosetta intends to offer users of GEML additional tools for viewing and analysis of genomic data in GEML format. This will enable genomic researchers to publish and analyze data using any tools that support the GEML format. Rosetta intends to pursue future enhancements with input from collaborators in the GEML community, and intends to work with its GEML collaborators to propose this data format as a standard to the Object Management Group (OMG) in November. www.rii.com
Mercado Software Inc. announced a technology partnership with Cardonet, Inc. The combined solution, which couples Cardonet’s online catalog content management system with Mercado Software’s search improves the performance of B2B e-Commerce sites. Together, the two solutions address common difficulties found in complex e-Catalog environments: finding and comparing items across multiple suppliers; uniting different catalog schemas into a single view; efficiently structuring and managing catalog content in a streamlined, automated fashion; and maintaining catalogs with up-to-date information as they grow and change. Cardonet’s enterprise-level software suite streamlines the process of e-Catalog content aggregation and normalization. It automatically publishes disparate data from multiple sources such as text files, relational databases, ERP and legacy systems into XML, and it automates the process of data cleansing, categorization and integration to the market maker’s master catalog. Cardonet’s solution can be used to aggregate catalog content for any industry, allowing customers to control content evolution as their e-Marketplaces evolve. Mercado’s IntuiFind search solution complements these features, providing a highly scalable solution for catalogs that aggregate products across multiple vendors’ databases. Built from the ground up to search content-rich e-Catalogs, Mercado Software’s IntuiFind produces consistently relevant e-Catalog search results. www.mercado.com, www.cardonet.com
IBM announced an agreement with Extricity Inc. wherein IBM will license and integrate the Extricity B2B software platform with the next version of IBM’s WebSphere Business-to-Business Integrator. As a result of this agreement, the enhanced product will help companies and electronic marketplaces automate the flow of information and business processes among groups of businesses on the Internet, saving time, money and improving competitiveness and responsiveness. IBM will license the Extricity B2B software platform as an integrated component of the WebSphere BtoB Integrator. The Extricity B2B software platform allows companies to automate the flow of information among groups of businesses by integrating and extending applications and business processes to work with those of their partners. The inclusion of Extricity’s technology in WebSphere BtoB Integrator will help customers to easily build B2B business process management solutions that will span functional and organizational boundaries. This integration further complements the IBM, Ariba and i2 alliance by providing an integration platform with additional B2B process management capabilities. This agreement will help traditional companies extend their supply chain for proactive process management between enterprises and help e-marketplaces facilitate buying and selling among industry consortiums. www.ibm.com/software/websphere/, www.extricity.com
Interwoven, Inc. and AlterEgo Networks, Inc. announced a strategic alliance to deliver an integrated solution that will allow their joint customers to create, adapt and publish enterprise Web content to wireless devices such as Web-enabled phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or pagers. In conjunction with the partnership, Interwoven also has announced that it will make a minority investment in AlterEgo. Under the terms of the agreement, Interwoven and AlterEgo will integrate elements of AlterEgo’s adaptation technology with Interwoven’s content management system in order to optimize delivery of “intelligent” wireless Web content. The integrated solution is expected to ship in Q1 2001. Together, Interwoven and AlterEgo are working to ensure that companies can effectively extend their Web content to customers, partners and employees, who choose to access information via Web-enabled phones or PDAs. Interwoven TeamSite software and XML-based TeamSite Templating, which allows content to easily be re-purposed for wireless devices will be integrated with AlterEgo’s device adaptation and delivery network. Together, AlterEgo and Interwoven technology will determine the required data and representation format for each type of wireless access device. Once these transformation rules are defined, they will be published to AlterEgo’s high-performance, scalable Adaptive Network, which then delivers the transformed content to mobile devices. This will allow businesses to provide consistent, timely, relevant content to employees and customers who access corporate networks through wireless devices in addition to through computers. www.aego.com, www.interwoven.com
Commerce One, Inc. announced plans to develop a global content network to deliver high-quality content to Commerce One-powered e-marketplaces, buyers and suppliers across multiple industries worldwide. Final terms are expected to be reached, and definitive documents are expected to be executed, in the fourth quarter of 2000. The network will be based on the Commerce One Content Refinery technology infrastructure and will also include: Commerce One certified content processing partners authorized to deliver content development and processing capabilities in specific regions and industries; Pre-packaged content libraries, delivered through syndication arrangements via Commerce Ones Global Trading Web; and Published content interoperability standards to enable easy content syndication. The foundation of the global content network is the Commerce One Content Refinery solution, a set of software applications, services and methodologies that enable e-marketplaces and content development operations to create, integrate, enhance and maintain catalogs. The Content Refinery solution also enables the syndication and re-use of catalogs across multiple e-marketplaces, via the Global Trading Web. By tapping into pre-built content, the solution can offer reduced time-to-market and lower content cost for e-marketplace operators. The Commerce One Content Refinery solution is currently in limited release, with general availability scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2000. www.commerceone.com
Excalibur Technologies announced an XML-based video logger, Screening Room Capture. The scaleable, standards-based video logger will be available as a stand-alone product or as part of Excalibur’s Screening Room product for end-to-end capture, encoding, indexing, management and re-purposing of video content. Screening Room Capture extracts visual and textual metadata from analog or digital video by controlling multiple subsystems for closed-captioned text extraction, voice-to-text servers, video analysis, manual annotation, device control, and timecode management. The product can control multiple video encoders no matter where they reside, enabling parallel, multiple format, simultaneous encoding. Due to its distributable nature, video logging capabilities and subsystems can now be scaled across as many computers as necessary. By encapsulating all metadata into XML, Screening Room Capture allows the easy integration of video logging into many other systems, such as an existing digital asset management or media asset management solution, or third party database. Screening Room Capture, when combined with Screening Room 2.2, provides a complete end-to-end system for video content management. Excalibur Screening Room is a fully integrated, modular system that gives any enterprise power to intelligently capture, manage, re-use and publish video content. www.excalib.com.
