OASIS, together with NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, announced that the second edition of the popular OASIS XML Conformance Test Suite would be publicly available March 15, 2001. The new OASIS conformance test suite, updated to be in sync with XML Second Edition, includes more than 1,000 new tests. Users and vendors may download the OASIS XML Conformance Test Suite Second Edition from the Consortium’s web site, www.oasis-open.org beginning March 15. www.nist.gov, www.oasis-open.org
Day: March 4, 2001
Portal Wave, Inc. announced three new products that allow enterprises to build EAPs that connect multiple internal systems and connect partner applications. Portal Wave XML B2B Server allows information and transaction exchange across enterprises via XML. Portal Wave Visual Development Studio provides a visual development environment for building Wavelets, plug-in software modules that run within the portal. Portal Wave Application Portal Server (APS) 2.0 is an upgrade to the initial version that enables companies to integrate enterprise solutions into a common e-business platform with a single Web interface. XML B2B Server is an XML messaging server that provides guaranteed, secure delivery of business information and transactions over the Internet in the form of XML documents. Delivery is guaranteed via message queuing and XML return receipt. A simple log allows users to monitor the delivery status of documents such as purchase orders, invoices and inventory levels. XML B2B Server offers support for HTTP and HTTPS for secure document delivery and uses the same browser-based EAP interface for managing and monitoring delivery status. It supports industry standards for XML exchange between partners and is compliant with RosettaNet standards. EAPs provide functionality through Wavelets, plug-in software modules that encapsulate business logic and can provide value from displaying syndicated Internet content to coordinating complex B2B functions across multiple enterprise applications. Visual Development Studio is a Java-based product that leverages the latest JavaBean technology and Java Swing classes. Its main feature is the separation of the user interface from business logic. The new XML B2B Server leverages the enhanced EAP functions now available in APS 2.0. The 2.0 upgrade features an improved user interface that uses style sheets. From selecting content to determining how it appears, improved personalization features allow users greater flexibility to customize their own portal. XML B2B Server, Visual Development Studio and APS 2.0 are available now. www.portalwave.com
Semio Corporation announced the availability of Semio Integration Toolkit. The toolkit is a software development kit and partnership program designed to support the integration of Semio’s content categorization technology into corporate portals and customized applications – such as personalized content delivery or communities of interest. By using Semio’s toolkit, partners and customers quickly build applications that can organize and manage virtually unlimited amounts of unstructured digital information. The Semio Integration Toolkit offers application interfaces to Semio’s Tagger software, which organizes large amounts of corporate data by finding conceptual and practical relationships between any digital document stored on a server. These interfaces enable partners and customers to build solutions with automated cataloging and categorization of unstructured information, offering faster access to the right information in today’s complex business environments. With the release of the Integration Toolkit, partners and customers have multiple possible integration points with the Semio categorization solution. Some partners use the XML generated by Semio Tagger as input for publication and syndication processes. The API published with the Integration Toolkit lets portal vendors and others create tightly integrated solutions leveraging Semio’s automated categorization capabilities. The Semio Integration Toolkit documents the Semio Integration API and the Semio Bundler API, as well as the XML and database formats. It includes sample applications, source code, database, and text corpus, as well as detailed documentation. The Semio Integration Toolkit requires Semio Tagger 4.1 and is available now. www.semio.com
Sybase, Inc. announced Sybase Enterprise Portal 2.0 (EP), which extends portal functionality to mobile and wireless users, business partners and e-marketplaces. The new portal functionality uses Sybase’s wireless technology along with new business-to-business application integration, XML/EDI transformations and globalization. Key components include a J2EE-compliant application server, LDAP directory support, an integrated security framework, concept-based searching and a powerful data server with data synchronization capabilities. Sybase EP supports the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). Sybase EP includes bi-directional mobile messaging capabilities that enable users to both queue outbound messages and receive messages delivered from the network. These messaging services include store-and-forward messaging queuing; push messaging for communications from the network; and user authentication and encryption. Messages can be used to alert users or to initiate an action, such as data synchronization. XML/EDI transformation enables non-EDI-enabled business partners to be quickly integrated into the enterprise’s processes. Enterprise integration adapters allow collaborative data to be directly served into data management systems or applications. Sybase EP’s content management features allow portal users to quickly add, categorize and deploy information for end users. The customizable presentation services allow portal users to interact with applications in their preferred manner. Sybase EP also provides advanced features like automatic currency conversion and language translation. www.sybase.com/ep
Blue Martini Software, Inc. announced that it is shipping its Blue Martini 4 suite of products. The tightly integrated suite consists of four new applications: Blue Martini Marketing, Blue Martini Commerce, Blue Martini Channels and Blue Martini Service. Blue Martini Marketing, a comprehensive marketing solution that allows companies to create a unified picture of customers, analyze customer behavior for patterns and insights, and implement those insights through personalization and outbound marketing. Blue Martini Commerce, an e-commerce application for selling direct to businesses and consumers via multiple touch-points such as a website or mobile device. It offers companies out-of-the-box capabilities that provide a solid foundation for effective selling. Blue Martini Channels, a complete channel management application that helps companies to manage profitable relationships with partners, and drives sales through partner extranets, or portals, and online marketplaces. Blue Martini Service, a customer service application that enables companies to drive revenues and achieve customer satisfaction through their customer service representatives (CSRs) over the phone or on the web. The Blue Martini 4 suite provides 24-by-7 availability, legacy integration and ease of management. The Blue Martini 4 suite offers visual tools and pre-built adapters for integrating external systems through Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), XML, CORBA, Microsoft’s COM/DCOM and IBM’s MQ Series interfaces. It provides integration with SAP, Agile, Oracle, PeopleSoft and Siebel. The Blue Martini 4 suite and its four applications are currently available. Each application is available separately or all four can be purchased as an integrated suite. Pricing starts at $250,000 per application. www.bluemartini.com
Sequoia Software Corporation announced a partnership with Bantu, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based provider of instant messaging and presence management technology for enterprise applications software and services companies. Sequoia is integrating Bantu’s instant messaging application, Bantu Messenger, into its XML-pure portal software product, XPS. Once combined, Sequoia customers will have the option of providing users with a confidential mechanism for instant messaging with other portal users, as well as the millions of individuals using Bantu and other popular instant messaging platforms such as ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! In addition to enhancing the collaborative capabilities of XPS, Sequoia selected Bantu Messenger because it protects user confidentiality, encrypts all messages, integrates presence detection and instant messaging seamlessly into the XPS portal, and is interoperable with other instant messaging systems. www.bantu.com, www.sequoiasoftware.com
Open Market, Inc. announced a new product family, Content Server Enterprise Edition (CSEE), adding new e-marketing and business-to-business integration (B2Bi) capabilities to its content management and delivery system. CSEE is designed, developed, and deployed as Java components built on Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application servers now including the IBM WebSphere Application Server, as well as BEA WebLogic Server and the iPlanet Application Server. CSEE is based on two approaches. The first, called the PowerAssets information architecture, maximizes the value of an enterprise’s content by extending its use and re-use for a broad range of e-business initiatives, including catalogs, personalization, self-service applications, and e-marketplaces. The PowerAssets information architecture treats enterprise content, such as images, articles, product information, and audio files, as dynamic independent content objects that can be extended for multiple applications by non- technical users. PowerAssets enable enterprise content to be kept in a “presentation neutral” format so it can be easily reused across multiple Web sites and delivery devices as well as facilitating efficient XML document exchange to trading partners. Open Market’s second approach is based on J2EE application servers, Java components, Java Server Pages (JSP) templates, and XML-based services. Because CSEE solutions are built directly on leading J2EE application servers, customers benefit from fast development of content-driven Internet applications using mainstream Java technical tools, simple integration with legacy systems, and technologies. Open Market’s Content Server Enterprise Edition is available now. Each product is priced individually on a per CPU basis. Pricing begins at $29,000.00 per CPU. Customers add modules based on business needs and purchase additional CPUs based on scalability requirements. www.openmarket.com
