Enigma, Inc. introduced CommerceSight 2.0, the second release of its B2B software platform for aftermarket sales and support of capital equipment. By providing rich product content as context for aftermarket purchasing and maintenance decisions, CommerceSight 2.0 allows manufacturers to increase follow-on sales of spare parts and services, while equipment operators benefit from higher equipment uptime and greater purchasing and maintenance productivity. Enigma’s solution addresses the problem of rich-content collaboration that manufacturers with complex products sold and supported through complex channels currently face. The CommerceSight engine provides the core content delivery services for channel management and technical support applications and can be integrated with transaction and EAI applications for complete e-commerce solutions. CommerceSight 2.0 automatically packages multiple text, graphic and relational data sources into portable XML-based applications that can be dynamically delivered to Web sites, intranets, third-party applications and offline media. CommerceSight 2.0 is a unified, open standards-based B2B transactive content platform. It is comprised of several key components: Enigma’s InSight and DynaWeb solutions, enabling content delivery for complex maintenance manuals and other text-intensive, high-volume product content; eIPC, an intelligent product catalog that links technical illustrations, parts lists and related text information and provides shopping cart functionality; Enigma’s Xtend, a buy-side solution that allows equipment operators to seamlessly integrate best practices and policies information into manufacturer-originated product content behind their corporate firewalls; Connectors to ERP, order management and e-procurement systems that shorten the aftermarket sales cycle by providing context for purchasing decisions; and Connectors to document management and product data management systems that enable full automation of content assembly and delivery and full integration across disparate repositories and data formats. CommerceSight 2.0 is available now. Pricing begins at $150,000. www.enigma.com
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The Customer Profile Exchange Network (CPExchange) launched the newly authored Customer Profile Exchange standard, which creates a standard for privacy-enabled customer data interchange. The CPExchange Network, a volunteer consortium made up of over 70 e-business organizations, is offering a vendor-neutral, open standard for exchanging privacy-enabled customer information across different businesses and computer systems. Organizations with many different and separate data sources who are seeking an integrated view of customers — such as suppliers and employees — will utilize CPExchange. CPExchange facilitates the management and promotion of customer relationships, while profiling customer information — appealing to all industry sectors. Few of today’s supply and demand chains share a unified profile of the customer, leaving customer support, order management, lead sharing and other primary business functions working independently to grasp a customer’s identity, behaviors and needs. Customer service capability is severely reduced by this lack of shared information, creating significant short and long-term IT integration costs. Customers gain a unified profile of their situation among their suppliers, enjoy better customer service, and reduce the time and complexity of interacting with companies. Significantly, it will allow customers to more easily achieve the levels of privacy they require when handling sensitive and proprietary profile information. The CPExchange Network is hosted by the International Digital Enterprise Alliance (IDEAlliance), a non-profit, vendor-neutral organization dedicated to the development and implementation of open interoperability standards. Membership in the CPExchange Network is open to any and all contributors on an annual fee basis. www.cpexchange.org
The international open standards industry group, adXML.org, announced the release of adXML online DTD version 1.0. The new version is the result of a collaborated effort of the 350 companies and 500 individuals that are a part of adXML.org. The new version of the adXML standard includes a number of changes including: self-contained transport packaging, an extension for secure digital signatures, object-oriented modularity, and a streamlined creative construct to support creative data, image maps and 3rd party ad serving. The new DTD and a 100% Java implementation of an adXML development kit can be downloaded for free at www.adXML.org
Gauss Interprise announced the first phase integration of its VIP’ Web content/portal management suite with its SpyVision document and line-of-business content management package. The integration of the two product suites positions Gauss Interprise as a vendor able to provide an end-to-end solution that captures all corporate content, including legacy system data, thereby enabling enterprises to seamlessly leverage their IT investments to work with next-generation Internet technology. With the integration of VIP’ SpyVision components, the complementary product set acquired via a recent merger with Magellan Software, Gauss possesses the ability to not only manage multiple Web and portal authoring initiatives, but to access and serve-up corporate content maintained in SpyVision’s centrally-managed digital repository. This includes back-office content often excluded from Internet-oriented solutions, such as electronic reports and scanned images, as well as audio and Windows application files. The Gauss VIP’ solution is designed using the latest Java technology, thus providing platform independence, interoperability, and scalability. The end result is a measured and rational approach to achieve e-business agility, without the turmoil that can plague these critical initiatives, whether oriented toward building an intranet, extranet, or a full-featured Web presence. www.gaussinterprise.com
Kurion launched RightView Hypersyndication for BroadVision and RightView Hypersyndication for Vignette. Immediately available, these RightView applications extend existing BroadVision and Vignette infrastructures to easily execute comprehensive hypersyndication tasks of application and content integration and syndication. With Kurion, BroadVision and Vignette users can integrate or syndicate applications and content faster, easier and with added functionality. And Kurion’s technology is designed to be delivery, format and protocol independent, so integrating with non-BroadVision or non-Vignette sites, or sites using different delivery standards, is no longer a problem. Kurion’s RightView Hypersyndication for BroadVision (RVHB) enables One-to-One Publishing customers to easily and automatically select the exact applications or content they want from source sites and then automatically modify the look, feel and presentation style of that information so it is displayed as an integrated component of the destination site. In addition, RVHB extends the capabilities of BroadVision’s MarketMaker to allow members to dynamically and easily add selected applications and content — in new formats and styles if desired — to a MarketMaker-powered Internet exchange. Kurion’s RightView Hypersyndication for Vignette (RVHV) works with Vignette’s Content Management Server and enhances Vignette’s Syndication Server. For customers that do not have Syndication Server, RVHV provides capabilities lacking in Syndication Server, such as application syndication, offer transformation, or the ability to grant affiliates significant flexibility. For those customers that have Syndication Server, RVHV provides the same application, transformation, and affiliate control benefits, but also automates the affiliate’s process of receiving Syndication Server packages. RightView Hypersyndication for BroadVision and RightView Hypersyndication for Vignette are available immediately at an introductory price of $50,000 for the remainder of 2000. www.kurion.com
SoftLock.com, Inc. introduced its Dynamic Content Locking (DCL) technology that enables digital content to be packaged, secured, and distributed in real-time. Digital Content Locking is an innovative approach to digital rights management (DRM), which will allow consumers to order digital documents that are customized to their interests, packaged on the fly, and delivered within seconds. Content providers can focus on maintaining their content database rather than on the production and distribution of the final packaged product. Using SoftLock’s DCL technology, content providers can generate a wide range of secure digital documents, which contain up-to-the minute information. Here’s how it works: A consumer, after viewing samples of available documents and content options clicks on the buy button to begin the DCL process. After the consumer’s credit has cleared, the online commerce system sends a request to the content database describing the required XML document components and the document format. SoftLock’s DCL process automatically retrieves the required XML components from the database, creates the Adobe PDF document, locks and encrypts the document using SoftLock’s DRM services. The report is then instantly delivered to the consumer along with the keys to “unlock” their rights to the document, which enables full viewing- all within 30 seconds. Document types which are particularly appropriate for this “late binding” process include investment analysis, company reports, and technology updates. As with SoftLock’s other Digital Content Marketing services, consumers can email the secure document to friends or colleagues using SoftLock’s Passalong service. Passalong is a viral marketing technique that enables content providers to encourage the follow-on sales of content while maintaining its security wrapper. Friends and colleagues can view samples of the secure document and then click to purchase. An unlock key will be emailed to them within a matter of seconds. www.softlock.com
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has issued XML Schema as a W3C Candidate Recommendation. Advancement of the document to Candidate Recommendation is an invitation to the Web development community at large to make implementations of XML Schema and provide technical feedback. Simply defined, XML Schemas define shared markup vocabularies and allow machines to carry out rules made by people. They provide a means for defining the structure, content and semantics of XML documents. The XML Schema specification consists of three parts. One part defines a set of simple datatypes, which can be associated with XML element types and attributes; this allows XML software to do a better job of managing dates, numbers, and other special forms of information. The second part of the specification proposes methods for describing the structure and constraining the contents of XML documents, and defines the rules governing schema-validation of documents. The third part is a primer, which explains what schemas are, how they differ from DTDs, and how someone builds a schema. By bringing datatypes to XML, XML Schema increases XML’s power and utility to the developers of electronic commerce systems, database authors and anyone interested in using and manipulating large volumes of data on the Web. By providing better integration with XML Namespaces, it makes it easier than it has ever been to define the elements and attributes in a namespace, and to validate documents which use multiple namespaces defined by different schemas. XML Schema introduces new levels of flexibility that may accelerate the adoption of XML for significant industrial use. For example, a schema author can build a schema that borrows from a previous schema, but overrides it where new unique features are needed. XML Schema also provides a way for users of e-commerce systems to choose which XML Schema they use to validate elements in a given namespace, thus providing better assurance in e-commerce transactions and greater security against unauthorized changes to validation rules. The working group members include: Academia Sinica; ArborText, Inc; Bootstrap Alliance and LSU; Calico Commerce; Commerce One; Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA); DevelopMentor; Distributed Systems Technology Centre (DSTC Pty Ltd); Graphic Communications Association; Health Level Seven; Hewlett Packard Company; IBM; Informix; Intel; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Lexica LLC; Lotus Development Corporation; Microsoft Corporation; Microstar; MITRE; NCR; Oracle Corp.; Progress Software; SAP AG; Software AG; Sun Microsystems; TIBCO Software; University of Edinburgh; webMethods, Inc; Xerox; and XMLSolutions. www.w3.org
worldweb.net Inc. announced the launch of the beta version of its next-generation content management software, Expressroom I/O v2.0. Expressroom I/O is a 100%, Java-based, content management software system. It provides users with the control, flexibility, and power needed to produce, manage, and administer the most sophisticated enterprise Web sites with minimal technical experience. Managers of information are easily able to contribute, approve, and post content to their Web sites without the need of a webmaster or programmer. The newest version of the software, Expressroom I/O v2.0, promotes collaboration by providing advanced workflow tools that enable users to coordinate on the review and approval process of all Web site assets. Users can easily manage their content — whether it is created in Expressroom I/O, or imported from external sources, such as Word or Quark, syndication services, live news feeds, or legacy databases — and deliver it to multiple sources including Web pages and wireless devices. Expressroom I/O v2.0 is extensible and J2EE-compliant, giving developers the flexibility needed to integrate a complete content management solution in an e-Business platform. Among other enhancements for content management, worldweb.net has integrated state-based workflow into Expressroom I/O v2.0. Business professionals easily control how content is routed, edited, approved and published, eliminating the need for programmers to control workflow processes. Now, users can work in a graphical interface to develop workflow patterns, rather than using complicated scripting. The template-based content management solution supports versioning and roll-back technology. In addition, a reporting feature allows for e-mail notification of progress or status reports, which can be sent to a user’s cell phone or pager. Expressroom I/O v2.0 will be available at the end of the fourth quarter of 2000. The client applications run on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0 SP5 or higher, Red Hat, Linux, and Solaris. Supported servers include Windows NT 4.0 SP5, Windows 2000, Red Hat Linux 6.2, Debian Linux, and Solaris 8. Expressroom I/O v2.0 works with various Web and Application server environments, including IBM Websphere; IIS with Resin on NT; Resin on NT, Solaris, or Linux; ATG Dynamo; BEA Web Logic; Resin with Apache on Linux; Apache with Jserv. www.worldweb.net
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