Cardiff Software Inc. and Relizon announced a strategic alliance to deliver business process automation solutions for Relizon’s customers. The integration of Cardiff’s eForm solutions with Relizon’s end-to-end business process design and management will provide productivity gains from the enterprise-wide document management process. The Relizon-Cardiff solution development will center on Cardiff’s LiquidOffice, a Web-based eForm automation solution for creating, deploying and automatically managing the routing, tracking and approval processes for electronic forms. LiquidOffice’s automation of internal and external forms helps organizations increase efficiency and productivity, while its use of XML, HTML and PDF ensure enterprise connectivity with database, ERP, accounting and back-office applications. www.relizon.com, www.cardiff.com

Adobe Systems Incorporated shipped Adobe FrameMaker 7.1 software, the upgrade to its enterprise authoring and publishing solution. Importing and migrating technical documents into FrameMaker 7.1 is now easier and faster. With the Conditional Text feature, authors can maintain different variations of a document in a single XML source file. The variations can be controlled and previewed for print and PDF, and can be utilized in XML transformations downstream. Users can also now manage cross-references between XML files. Both features provide greater flexibility in managing and delivering content in XML. Windows users can expand on previous projects by migrating technical documents created in Adobe PageMaker (versions 6.5-7.0) and QuarkXPress (versions 3.3-4.1) directly into FrameMaker 7.1. SVG can be used as a single source for publishing vector graphics in printed materials, Adobe PDF, or on the Web. FrameMaker 7.1 for Windows and Sun Solaris is now available in the United States, Europe and Canada. FrameMaker 7.1, desktop version, for Windows is US$799 for the full version and $199 for the upgrade. On Sun Solaris, the full version is $1,329 and $279 for the upgrade. For Macintosh users, FrameMaker 7.0 is still available for both Mac OS 9 and OS X Classic. www.adobe.com

Stellent, Inc. announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of Optika Inc. an enterprise content management (ECM) provider of imaging, business process management (BPM), collaboration and records management software, for $10 million in cash, approximately 4.1 million shares of Stellent common stock and the assumption by Stellent of Optika’s outstanding options. Based on Stellent’s stock price as of Jan. 9, 2004 and including the value of the options to be assumed, the transaction currently is valued at approximately $59 million. Immediately after the transaction, the former stockholders of Optika will own approximately 16 percent of the outstanding shares of Stellent common stock, and Stellent shareholders will own approximately 84 percent of the combined entity. The combined company will have an annual revenue run rate of approximately $100 million, and a cash and marketable securities position of approximately $70 million. Combined with Stellent’s Universal Content Management architecture, Optika’s product line will enable Stellent to provide customers with a suite of solutions to manage both collaborative, consumption-oriented content as well as content generated and circulated during complex business transactions. In the short-term, Stellent plans to integrate the product lines via Web services. Longer-term plans call for the product lines to be integrated utilizing Stellent’s universal content repository. www.stellent.com, www.optika.com

Captiva Software Corp. announced the availability of InputAccel and InputAccel Express versions 5.1, which offer new features to streamline the capture and transformation of paper documents into electronic content. Version 5.1 include new export modules to transfer electronic documents into enterprise applications provided by IBM, Microsoft, Interwoven and SAP. Enhancements to InputAccel 5.1 include: Microsoft SharePoint Export, IBM Content Manager CommonStore for SAP Export, Interwoven WorkSite Export, increased functionality for existing exports such as Documentum 5.2 and eiStream 6.0, and support for the latest scanner drivers and Windows 2003 Server. New InputAccel Express 5.1 features include: integration with Microsoft’s SharePoint, support for exporting to FileNET and OpenText ECM systems via a wizard, color image processing, 2D barcode (PDF-417) support, the utilization of InputAccel’s Administrator module, and support for the latest scanner drivers and Windows 2003 Server. www.captivasoftware.com

Open Text Corporation introduced new capabilities that give customers a complete solution for managing electronic and paper-based forms. The new features enhance Livelink eForms Management, Open Text’s integrated forms solution for Livelink. Livelink eForms Management makes it easy to design and produce forms that can be used in both electronic and paper formats. Livelink can then rapidly disseminate these forms, capture and reuse the entered information, and track each step in the overall process, including electronic authorizations. The new capabilities include: An integration between Cardiff TELEform, a solution for automated online forms processing and Livelink eForms Management; New XML features, so that forms originating from outside of Livelink can be managed using Livelink eForms Management; Integration between Livelink eForms Management and Livelink eSign; Support for additional form formats within Livelink, including HTML, PDF, and MS InfoPath; Additional data collection flexibility including point and click configurable output to JDBC and ODBC compliant databases; Enhanced expression builder for point-and-click design of complex form field relationships and calculations; and support for Open Text’s latest version of Livelink–version 9.2. www.opentext.com

NetXposure launched the enhanced edition of Image Portal X, a Web-based digital asset management (DAM) solution that centralizes, processes and leverages companies’ digital assets. The latest Image Portal X version further streamlines asset usage with major functionality additions from InCaddy, the Adobe InDesign software plug-in, to enterprise-wide integration capabilities. Running on the Mac OS X platform, the solution is built on NetXposure’s Exogen Application Framework, designed to support complex Web-based content management applications. Image Portal X makes asset usage a comprehensive yet simple enough task manageable by trained designers or non-technical users. LDAP support is available to link a company’s contact database with Image Portal’s permission-based access control features. Also new to Image Portal X is the Web Services ability. www.netx.net

Ektron announced that customers can now deploy content management solutions in a private hosted environment. With hosting provider Verio, Ektron provides its customers a stable infrastructure to rapidly implement Ektron Content Management Solutions. The combined offering delivers enterprise Web content management functionality backed by the NTT/VERIO Global IP Network for a monthly fee. Ektron’s hosting service addresses the challenge of many small to mid-sized businesses that want to manage their Web content but don’t have the budget or IT resources to support the solution. The Ektron hosting service includes committed bandwidth delivered on the NTT/VERIO tier one network, 24X7 monitoring, back-up and restore services, Ektron product support, dedicated Web server hard disk space and dedicated database server space. www.ektron.com

Sparta Systems, Inc. and Open Text Corporation announced the integration of Livelink and TrackWise to give pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device customers a flexible integrated solution to manage quality issues and related documentation in the drug and device testing, development, and manufacturing processes. The TrackWise/Livelink integration ties together all documentation and other content associated with specific quality issues — CAPA, change control, audits — being managed and tracked. The integration enables customers to perform many Livelink electronic document management functions, such as check in and out, version control and content search, directly from the TrackWise interface. The integrated offering will be available at the end of January with version 6.0 of TrackWise, and version 9.1 or higher of Livelink. www.sparta-systems.com, www.opentext.com