Microsoft Corp. announced branding and RC1 availability for its forthcoming enterprise portal solution, Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server. Previously code-named “Tahoe,” SharePoint Portal Server is the flexible portal solution from Microsoft that allows companies to easily find, share and publish information. The new server provides seamless knowledge portal integration with the Microsoft Office and Windows operating system productivity desktop environment, allowing enterprise customers to integrate document management, search, subscriptions and online discussions into their document collaboration process. SharePoint Portal Server has broad support for enterprise content sources and data types so users can find pertinent information quickly and easily. With one of the most comprehensive, timely and relevant search engines in the industry, SharePoint Portal Server can index multiple content sources, including Web servers, file servers, Exchange public folders, Lotus Notes databases, etc., and present search results based on a probabilistic ranking algorithm. In addition, SharePoint Portal Server supports adaptive crawling, allowing the server to “learn” where information changes the most frequently on relevant sites. In addition to its content aggregation technology, SharePoint Portal Server includes document management features that allow companies to incorporate business processes into their portal solution through check-in/check-out, version tracking and approval routing functionality. Built on Internet and industry standards such as XML, the digital dashboard-based UI can be easily customized and extended by adding Web Parts: reusable components that can contain any kind of Web-based information. SharePoint Portal Server also allows customers to search and index information stored in Web sites based on SharePoint Team Services, a new server-based team Web site solution from Microsoft that allows small teams and ad hoc groups to easily manage activities and work together. RC1 is now available for download from the Microsoft Web site at www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/ and will be the only release candidate before the final version, due later this year. www.microsoft.com
Month: January 2001 (Page 6 of 6)
iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions, a Sun-Netscape Alliance, announced the availability of iPlanet ECXpert 3.5, a server-side B2B software solution that routes and converts documents between designated senders and receivers. iPlanet ECXpert works across multiple protocols, partner types, and technology types. iPlanet ECXpert 3.5 software enhances the queuing of documents, minimizes information bottlenecks and efficiently processes rapidly-submitted data. With priority processing, iPlanet ECXpert now has the ability to handle translations based on specific rules and priorities. While some vendors force organizations to process documents on a first-in, first-out basis, iPlanet ECXpert provides organizational flexibility to process by priority type. High priority documents will be handled immediately and processed before lower priority documents. This minimizes companies’ time to market based on expedient implementation of document processing. In conjunction with billing codes, this allows a service provider to offer different pricing for different levels of service. iPlanet ECXpert 3.5 now offers full XML parsing support, full XML translation support, priority processing, billing code support, HTTP/SSL support, and support for the automotive standard -HTTP for AIAG. iPlanet ECXpert’s XML capabilities allow XML to be sent and received from any business partner, irrespective of document type, thereby substantially increasing the information exchange capabilities within the trading network. This enables organizations to expand the reach of their trading networks by an order of magnitude, and iPlanet ECXpert provides the bridge between disparate systems, processes and technologies used by each partner in the network. iPlanet ECXpert is immediately available beginning at a list price of $100,00 per two CPU’s. Pricing is subject to change. www.iplanet.com
Dow Jones & Company announced it is providing its Market Data Markup Language to a financial industry consortium as a starting point toward development of an XML-based global standard for market data delivery. The Market Data Markup Language (MDML), developed by Dow Jones is now posted at www.fisd.net, the web site of the Financial Information Services Division (FISD) of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). The FISD — a forum for business and technical issues related to the distribution of financial information — recently formed a working group to coordinate XML efforts in the market data industry. Dow Jones contributed its MDML to speed development of a common framework to publish market data. The Dow Jones MDML has been in production for about two years at The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com. The language is used for posting text and statistical data on the web site, and as a system interchange format within Dow Jones and with entities such as Factiva, a joint venture of Dow Jones and Reuters. The FISD market data work will be done in coordination with other XML initiatives, including XBRL, or Extensible Business Reporting Language. The XBRL consortium (www.xbrl.org) is developing XML vocabularies for corporate earnings and regulatory filings. Dow Jones, Reuters Group, and Reuters’ Lipper subsidiary are all participants in XBRL. The FISD effort also dovetails with two XML standards developed by the International Press Telecommunications Council, of which Dow Jones, Associated Press, and Reuters are all members: NewsML is an XML model for packaging and managing news objects of any media type; the News Industry Text Format is an XML application for markup of news text. www.fisd.net
