BroadVision and H&Q Asia Pacific announced the formation of a new company, a Business Services Provider (BSP) to deliver B2B mobile commerce (m-commerce) services to the worldwide wireless market. The joint venture is the first initiative to integrate the explosive wireless market with the global enterprise B2B market. The new company will develop and rapidly deliver a new generation of “small but smart” e-business applications and services that will integrate an enterprise with its mobile workforce and its mobile business end-users. The new company is a joint venture between BroadVision, H&Q Asia Pacific, ACCESS Co. Ltd., a supplier of browser technology for non-PC devices, including NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode phones, and ITOCHU TECHNO-SCIENCE Corporation (CTC), a system integrator and services company, and ITOCHU Corporation, the global company that promotes positive business development in the B2B and wireless fields. The venture will base its offerings on BroadVision One-To-One e-business applications and the company’s next-generation XML content management and XSL device-independent rendering technologies. The new company, tentatively named B-Mobile Corporation is slated to be established October 1, 2000 to provide a service for Internet-based business transactions via wireless networks such as mobile phones and PDAs. The company will also begin development of new applications for mobile B2B e-commerce by combining BroadVision’s technology and ACCESS’s mobile-enabled browser system for the use of client companies inside and outside Japan. The new company will be based in Chiyoda-ward, Tokyo. www.broadvision.com, www.access-us-inc.com, www.ctc-g.co.jp
Year: 2000 (Page 19 of 63)
Artesia Technologies, Inc., announced the release of its TEAMS 4.0 software solution. The latest version of Artesia’s digital asset management solution features increased support for streaming media applications, improved metadata management capabilities, and inclusion of new web-accessible functionality. With the addition of these features to TEAMS’ existing enterprise-class architecture and support for all types of rich media, TEAMS 4.0 provides a platform for the management and use of digital assets within the Global 2000, media, entertainment, publishing, and dot-com markets. Artesia Technologies’ TEAMS 4.0 provides a media-independent framework for the ingestion, management and re-expression of all types of digital content, including text, images, graphics, audio, video, Quark and 3-D raster images. Early releases of TEAMS 4.0 have already been in use, with general availability slated for this October. One of the principal new features of TEAMS 4.0 is its increased optimization for the management and delivery of streaming media content. Seamless integration with Virage Video Logger enables TEAMS 4.0 to automatically capture thumbnail proxies and key frames on import from Real, QuickTime, and Microsoft digital formats and easily export to these formats as well. Users will also benefit from being able to utilize multiple resolutions of a video asset while continuing to track and manage them as a single asset. In addition, the new Clip Identifier (CI) lets the user select a segment from a video storyboard and express it as a new asset. The Clip-Time Adjuster (CTA) makes it possible to manipulate video in and out points on a frame-by-frame basis. Finally, the Play Decision List (PDL) will use the XML-based SMIL recommendation to allow for selection and synchronization of parts of videos from many different sources. TEAMS 4.0 will also offer several other key enhancements, including fortification of its Web client framework through the use of standards-based J2EE JSP technology. www.artesiatech.com
Interwoven, Inc. and TIBCO Software Inc. announced a strategic alliance to provide comprehensive solutions for business-to-business marketplaces and portals. The recently announced Interwoven Content Interchange Framework will include the TIBCO ActiveEnterprise e-business product suite as a key enterprise integration component, enabling Interwoven customers to manage content from their enterprise applications in real-time. The TIBCO ActiveEnterprise suite will enable joint customers to become real-time e-businesses by seamlessly integrating back-end systems such as ERP, product databases and customer databases, with their Web initiatives. Interwoven and TIBCO also announced that Interwoven’s XML-based TeamSite Templating software will be integrated with the TIBCO ActivePortal product suite, delivering integrated content management and presentation for TIBCO’s portal customers. TeamSite Templating allows easy content entry and tagging including tagging for use across multiple TIBCO ActivePortal-based sites. The TIBCO ActivePortal suite also works seamlessly with TIBCO ActiveEnterprise, enabling enterprises to leverage their integrated application network and B2B commerce infrastructure to provide an integrated, unique set of real-time content and interactive services to their portal audience. www.tibco.com, www.interwoven.com
IKON Office Solutions announced that it has formed a strategic relationship with IntraNet Solutions, Inc. IntraNet Solutions agreed to license its Web-based content management products, including its Intra.doc! software products, to IKON as the core architecture for IKON’s Digital Express 2000, a document repository system with hosted document and customized order management capabilities. Digital Express 2000 features print-on-demand and distributed printing options, allowing business users to send print jobs from their desktops via the Web for printing and distribution. In addition, IKON was awarded the exclusive right to sell IntraNet Solutions’ Intra.doc! products to the graphic arts/commercial printing industry, as well as non-exclusive rights to market Xpedio, IntraNet Solutions’ popular Web content management system designed for business-to- business customers, in the United States and Canada. Digital Express 2000 is scheduled for release in January 2001 as an ASP model for the graphic arts market. www.intranetsol.com, www.ikon.com
Microsoft Corp. announced the next version of its Office suite and confirmed that the new product’s first technical beta has been sent to a select group of customers. The next version of Microsoft Office will be a major product release and will be the first Office suite to begin delivering on the Office.NET vision by integrating Internet-based services, enabling users to be more productive using Office with the Web. New features include: Smart Tags that appear on the screen while individuals work, providing useful information for completing tasks or accessing data; New Task Panes offer views that expose a wide range of new and popular features; Speech recognition; Hotmail and MSN Instant Messenger integration; Word Count toolbar; Application and document recovery; Document routing for review; Team workspaces; Excel and Access now support XML as a native file format and can easily import and export XML data; Extensible Smart Tag architecture; New tools for workflow and collaboration (“Tahoe”); and improved Web Components that enable Excel users to easily publish interactive Web pages that have data contained in spreadsheets, pivot tables and pivot charts. www.microsoft.com
Liaison announced the availability of Liaison Content Exchange 2.0. Liaison Content Exchange automatically extracts, aggregates and rationalizes data, providing B2B exchanges with the descriptive content necessary to drive purchasing decisions. Liaison Content Exchange software is used by eMarketplaces and large manufacturers. eMarketplaces (trading exchanges) use Content Exchange to automate the process of building and maintaining substantial electronic catalogs consisting of thousands of suppliers and millions of products. Large manufacturers use Content Exchange software to automatically structure product content for e-procurement applications used by their customers, as well as private and third-party eMarketplaces and commerce portals. Liaison Content Exchange automates the gathering of data and is based on Adaptive Content Recognition technology that extracts content from Web pages and other sources, then transforms the content into structured data, greatly reducing the time and expense associated with gathering this type of information. Liaison Content Exchange 2.0 will be available in September directly from Liaison and solution partners. The software is licensed on an annual licensing basis, starting at $140,000. The software requires a Pentium II 450 MHz processor, 256 MB of RAM, 6 MB of free disk space/250 MB for data capture and audit logs, ISDN 128 K, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later, and Windows NT 4.0 SP 4 or later for operation. www.liaison.com
Interwoven Inc. announced the launch of Interwoven Content Interchange, a new framework that addresses the needs of the exploding B2B marketplace. The Interwoven Content Interchange Framework consists of three core elements: eBusiness Network Collaboration, Enterprise Integration, and Integration to Exchange-based Services. eBusiness network collaboration offers content management services across the extended enterprise. eBusiness network collaboration enables disparate entities to share information and coordinate development in a secure, distributed environment. The framework includes an XML repository, distributed authoring and versioning, distributed XML-based workflow for inter-enterprise, advanced content replication and re-use, advanced XML syndication, index and search of XML-based objects, and directory service-based rights management. Enterprise integration includes the comprehensive set of eBusiness data adapters and catalog management services needed to access diverse information sources, drive content development and tagging, and format and deliver content to varying audiences. Leveraging the open, standards-based architecture of Interwoven and partner solutions, the Interwoven Content Interchange framework addresses connections back to supply-chain and legacy information. Exchange-based services include the set of value-added applications used to drive complex, document-driven transactions and supply-chain integrations over the Web using the collaboration services of an eBusiness network. Examples of content being exchanged in an e-business network include bid/offer, SKU’s and product specifications, identity management, insurance and financial services, and logistics. www.interwoven.com
IntraNet Solutions announced the release of Xpedio 4.0, a new version of the Xpedio Content Management system with enhanced security and business personalization features for B2B and business-to-employee (B2E) customers. Xpedio 4.0 is designed to meet businesses’ growing demand for the ability to contribute, manage, publish and personalize content for business Web sites more efficiently. Xpedio 4.0 includes Xpedio’s two primary components – Xpedio Content Publisher and Xpedio Content Server. This upgrade enhances those components’ ability to simplify and automate the contribution and conversion of any type of content, ranging from desktop applications to forms and reports, to any Web format, such as PDF, HTML, XML or WML, with new security, business personalization and Web site development features. Xpedio 4.0’s business personalization features are based on centralized user authentication and security mapping combined with business rules. Xpedio 4.0 enables security integration with popular existing systems, such as LDAP, NT, Netegrity and NDS, and allows extensible user information for greater business personalization. Additionally, Xpedio 4.0 provides HTML form-based contribution and HTML page preview for converted content. Xpedio 4.0 also includes query-driven publishing, which allows the system to automatically select and publish content based on metadata. Xpedio 4.0 will also include product modules available in Xpedio: Xpedio WAM, a system for managing Web assets, and Xpedio Reporter Parser, which parses reports from enterprise applications and converts them to XML, HTML, PDF or text formats for secure publishing to the Web. Xpedio 4.0 is shipping now and is priced from $40,000-$180,000 USD. www.intranetsolutions.com
