Staffware Plc announced an agreement with BEA, designed to give companies tighter control over their business operations across the enterprise through an off-the-shelf solution, while minimizing the amount of customization required for multiple applications to work together. BEA eLink and its options and adapters bring a range of high-performance connectivity methodologies, helping ensure secure transactions and transparent access to mission-critical applications and information throughout the enterprise and across the Web. Staffware’s portfolio of tools enables the rapid development of robust, highly scalable workflow applications for both client/server and thin client/Web-based architectures, providing a flexible, dependable infrastructure for distributing work among people and departments. The agreement provides for these technologies to be integrated to increase customer’s application integration capabilities, while expanding the scope of the two companies EAI efforts to include additional workflow features. www.staffware.com. www.beasys.com
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Ariba, Inc. jointly announced a strategic partnership to provide end-to-end business-to-business e-commerce application services. Under the agreement, USi will provide Ariba solutions to mid-sized and large-sized companies through the ASP model. The comprehensive partnership includes product development, application implementation and management services, and cooperative sales and marketing. Under terms of the agreement, USi is a preferred ASP for Ariba solutions, and will introduce a new service offering based on the hosted Ariba ORMX application. USi will integrate the Ariba ORMX solution with its Internet Managed Application Provider (iMAP) portfolio as part of a complete eCommerce offering to its existing and future customer base. USi will actively market, sell, deliver and support this new service. Clients will pay a flat monthly fee to receive the Ariba ORMX application as an iMAP service while gaining access to the comprehensive functionality of the Ariba Network eCommerce platform. Suppliers to Ariba ORMX-equipped buyers can use USi’s sell-side e-commerce services to transact with buyers through the Ariba Network platform using the cXML (Commerce Extensible Markup Language) standard. www.ariba.com
Digital Creations announced increased interoperability between its Open Source Zope application server and Microsoft platforms using open standards. An early 2000 Zope release will include support for two protocols heavily supported by Microsoft, the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol. Digital Creations is the creator of Zope. Zope is an Open Source application server for building high-performance, dynamic web sites. Zope runs on nearly all UNIX platforms as well as Windows NT, and can be used with popular web servers or its own built-in web server. Zope is free at www.zope.org, www.digicool.com
XMLSolutions announced that users of EDI systems can submit any standard X12 or EDIFACT document for XML translation by visiting www.xmls.com. XMLSolutions, after receiving the EDI document, will apply the XEDI approach to EDI-XML translation (www.xedi.org) and return to the user by e-mail, the XML representation of the EDI file. www.xmls.com
Acxiom Corporation the Acxiom Data Network now supports XML as its basis for providing InfoBase data products over the Internet to qualified, registered businesses. The addition of XML, a flexible document format for the Web, now allows developers to integrate the Acxiom Data Network with multiple languages and platforms. Developers now have the option of integrating Acxiom Data Network technology with ActiveX/COM objects on Windows platforms or writing their own interface with any platform and language that supports XML. In addition to support of the XML format, a new Acxiom Data Network software development kit, SDK 1.3, was recently made available. This new kit enables developers to integrate the functionality of Acxiom’s InfoBase data products including InfoBase TeleSource, InfoBase Profiler and InfoBase Enhancement into their own applications. Applications can access Acxiom data products in a real-time, on-demand environment simply by utilizing the same software programs companies use everyday for decision support, marketing automation, contact management and sales force automation. www.acxiomdatanetwork
The e-content company announced the addition of Microsoft PowerPoint as an integrated authoring tool within BladeRunner for the creation of XML content for e-business applications. Users of BladeRunner will be able to generate XML content from PowerPoint to gain greater access and leverage valuable information stored in this presentation software. PowerPoint is the latest addition of software tools to extend the authoring capability of BladeRunner further into Microsoft’s Office suite. PowerPoint joins Microsoft Word and Interleaf QuickSilver as integrated XML authoring solutions within BladeRunner. QuickSilver is an application suite for creating and assembling long, complex documents by individuals or workgroups, offering customers full access to the advanced features of Interleaf technology while allowing the creation of reusable content based on the open XML standard. The addition of Microsoft PowerPoint as an integrated authoring tool within BladeRunner will be available in the first quarter of calendar year 2000. www.xmlecontent.com
Tumbleweed Communications Corp. announced the appointment of Philippe Delberghe as Sales Director and Country Manager, Tumbleweed Communications SA; and Joerg-Werner Stimming as Sales Director and Country Manager for Tumbleweed Communications GmbH. In addition, the company announced new sales offices in Paris, France and Munich, Germany. Delberghe’s more than 15 year career in the software industry has included the roles of President at Ardent Europe and Country Manager for France at Prism Solutions. He has developed significant relationships within French industry. With twenty years of experience in information technology, Stimming has served as Enterprise Account Manager for TSI Software and for Munich Candle GmbH, among others. Before taking the position with Tumbleweed, he worked as a sales manager for the Schwabisch software Schmiede’s “top team” data-processing consultation. Both Delberghe and Stimming report to Don Taylor, Vice President, International. Taylor is responsible for Tumbleweed’s international operations, including the company’s sales teams in Europe and Japan. www.tumbeleweed.com
UserLand Software announced the release of Manila, an Internet server application that allows groups of writers, designers and graphics people to manage full-featured, high performance Web sites thru an easy-to-use browser interface. Manila is included with UserLand Frontier 6.1. Key Manila features include: 100-percent browser-based editing; quick easy setup, in most cases, five minutes from download to a working Web site; simple publishing model, managing editor, contributing editors, members, integrated site membership database, with customizable preferences, easy navigation thru back-issues of the home page thru an intuitive calendar; customization thru templates; navigation, CSS, JavaScript, full control over HTML, user interface and navigation features are specified thru XML; content is separated from form, designers edit templates, while writers independently create stories; full content management system; templates, macros, shortcuts, stories, pictures; integrates thru Microsoft COM, ODBC, Apple Events, HTTP, XML-RPC; and ISP-ready, Manila sites are safe, and can be extended thru macros and templates, allowing service providers to differentiate their offerings. Frontier is licensed for $899, with free updates for one year. Manila is included with Frontier 6.1 for Windows and Macintosh, and is available today. www.userland.com
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