Day: November 14, 2004

SiteScape announced that it has signed an agreement to purchase Imidio. The company also announced Zon, a unified instant collaboration product developed by Imidio, which unifies instant messaging, teleconferencing, web conferencing, chat and presence into a unique instant collaboration solution. Zon provides a platform for real-time collaboration for groups of employees to communicate wherever they are, instantly. It integrates presence – determining who is at their desk, on the phone, or in a meeting – with web conferencing and instant messaging. Zon enables impromptu meetings by knowing virtual participant availability and launching meetings instantly without the lengthy set-up and coordination often associated with on-line collaboration. Zon is available immediately as a stand-alone product, and will be available in early 2005 as an add-on feature of SiteScape Forum. Pricing will be disclosed upon request and announced shortly. www.sitescape.com

Informative Graphics Corporation (IGC) announced the latest release of its Brava! Enterprise content visualization server, which extends content security as part of a unified visualization component to enterprise content management (ECM), portal and project data management (PDM) solutions. Brava Enterprise is designed to augment intranet and extranet deployments where content is to be securely accessed, shared and annotated in a collaborative workflow. It is thin-client software that can view, markup and print a variety of document, image and CAD drawings using Internet Explorer, providing enterprises with a unified visualization framework that minimizes the need to have each corporate application on every desktop. The new Brava Enterprise v5.1 creates and views IGC’s Content Sealed Format (CSF), which incorporates the Visual Rights security framework. Visual Rights gives authors selective and persistent security controls over their content. Markups can be “burned-in” to CSF files, and the Block-out feature (redaction) allows users to hide specific file content from view, text search and print. CSF files are viewable by all Brava products, including a free reader that can be distributed along with CSF files. Brava Enterprise v5.1 introduces a non-Java client, so customers now have a choice to use ActiveX or Java. Also released are the Brava Enterprise v5.1 integrations to content management solutions like Documentum and Open Text and to portal solutions like Microsoft SharePoint. www.infograph.com

Vasont Systems introduced a new integration between the Vasont content management system and Microsoft InfoPath, a forms-based data collection solution. Vasont is a single-source content management system that enables organizations to store their multilingual content for multi-channel delivery. Using the Vasont Universal Integrator extension, this integration enables content from InfoPath to be stored in Vasont’s repository for reuse and repurposing. InfoPath provides organizations with an efficient way to collect information that they can then standardize, validate, and integrate with an organization’s server systems. Vasont’s integration with InfoPath enables that same information to be managed and stored in Vasont’s repository, allowing the content to be single-sourced, reused, and repurposed. This integration also enables authors to move seamlessly from an unstructured writing environment to XML-structured authoring, allowing users with no markup experience to benefit from XML. www.vasont.com

Adobe Systems Incorporated introduced Adobe Acrobat 7.0 software. Now, workgroups can use Acrobat 7.0 and Adobe PDF to manage a range of business activities such as assembling documents from multiple sources, creating intelligent forms, and more securely collaborating on projects inside and outside the firewall. Acrobat 7.0 Professional customers can now include virtually anyone in an electronic review of a PDF document by enabling access to commenting tools in free Adobe Reader 7.0 software. Adobe Reader users can provide feedback on a PDF file that consists of several content types — from scanned paper to spreadsheets, presentations, and now, 3D computer-aided design (CAD) content. The Acrobat 7.0 family now offers enhanced integration with Adobe LiveCycle software. The inclusion of Adobe LiveCycle Designer, the company’s professional form design tool, with Acrobat 7.0 Professional provides users the ability to create sophisticated XML and PDF forms that can be integrated into back-end systems. The combination enables organizations to apply and manage document policies for helping control access, auditing, expiration, and revocation rights to a PDF document. Adobe also announced Adobe Reader 7.0. Acrobat 7.0 Professional and Acrobat 7.0 Standard for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X v10.2.8 and v10.3, are expected to ship in English by the end of the current calendar year, and in French, German and Japanese in early 2005. Acrobat 7.0 Professional is expected to be available for an estimated street price of US$449. Registered users can upgrade to Acrobat 7.0 Professional for an estimated street price of US$159. Acrobat 7.0 Standard is expected to be available for an estimated street price of US$299. Registered users can upgrade to Acrobat 7.0 Standard for an estimated street price of US$99. www.adobe.com