Infodata Systems Inc. announced it has entered into a letter of intent with Redknife, an emerging Silicon Valley e-commerce services company, to develop and implement a comprehensive systems infrastructure for processing and exchanging business transactions over the web. The system will be powered by Infodata’s “E-hub” XML-based application framework technology. Infodata’s e-commerce initiatives, such as Redknife, complement its earlier investment in Buckaroo.com, a privately held B2B e-commerce company that is based in Mt. View, California and is creating efficient markets for products and services. Infodata is a minority seed stage investor in Buckaroo.com along with a number of individuals that are leaders in the Internet industry. www.infodata.com
Category: Content technology news (Page 544 of 641)
Curated information technology news for content technology, computing, and digital experience professionals. News items are edited to remove hype, unhelpful jargon, iffy statements, and quotes, to create a short summary — mostly limited to 200 words — of the important facts with a link back to a useful source for more information. News items are published using the date of the original source here and in our weekly email newsletter.
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Sterling Commerce, Inc. announced the availability of Edifecs’ SpecBuilder as a value-added optional component for its GENTRAN business process integration offering. Using GENTRAN and SpecBuilder, corporations can set up E-business relationships that support the integration of business information in XML, EDI, and other proprietary business formats. Companies can now define a partner relationship and export the guidelines via the Web to their entire E-business communities for rapid deployment. www.sterlingcommerce.com, www.edifecs.com.
CommerceQuest has acquired Advanced Networking Solutions (ANS), a South African-based enterprise application integration (EAI) company. The acquisition adds data integration and business process flow management tools to CommerceQuest’s XML B2B and EAI solutions. www.CommerceQuest.com
Rogue Wave Software announced that it was selected by Vignette Corporation, as the interface to the multiple databases behind their e-business applications. Vignette StoryServer5 software delivers a combination of personalization, content management, decision support, and enterprise integration services to efficiently create superior experiences that attract, engage, and retain customers. These services require a tool that allows access to any number of relational databases on the back-end of the system. With the release of DBTools.h++ 4.0, developers have native access to the latest versions from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, Informix and IBM. DBTools.h++ allows C++ developers to build software that runs on Windows, UNIX, Linux as well as IBM AS/400 and OS/390 platforms. www.vignette.com, www.roguewave.com
uBid has redesigned its bidding engine to utilize XML and Microsoft-based components such as Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ), Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) technology and COM. All business components run in a Microsoft transaction server environment, employing MSMQ services for inter-component messaging, that reduce the resource utilization of the database. By redesigning the website in XML, uBid.com now offers a protocol that allows more integrated communications between uBid.com and its vendors while simultaneously increasing ease of use and site speed for its customers. The company claims that currently, the uBid.com site processes the most transactions utilizing XML technology of any site in the world. uBid.com is the highest reaching e-commerce site that is 100% dedicated to XML based on November’s Media Metrix report. www.ubid.com
Bitlocker announced the launch of its official public beta, opening its site to everyone interested in organizing, sharing and publishing data online. Bitlocker makes it easy for consumers and businesses to organize, share and publish information anytime, anywhere by using the company’s free online database service, which is available today. Bitlocker allows Internet users to quickly get their data online and share it with others at no cost. Using Bitlocker, individuals and businesses can create secure, scalable databases with complete functionality using only a Web browser. Bitlocker.com offers a place for people to easily access or “grab,” sort, share and publish information on a Web site or store it in a Bitlocker. During public beta, members of Bitlocker can utilize pre-built templates, take a tour of the site and create their own Bitlockers to store a variety of topical information. www.bitlocker.com
Inso Corporation announced that it has sold its PDM Division for approximately $12 million in cash and net assumption of liabilities. The transaction is in the form of a stock purchase by Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC) of outstand-ing stock of Inso’s subsidiaries, Sherpa Systems Corporation and Inso France Development. The sale was completed on January 5, 2000 and should result in a transaction loss to Inso estimated at approximately $3 million in the fourth fiscal quarter. In addition, a compensation charge of approximately $1.7 million will be recorded in the fourth fiscal quarter for the cost of option vesting or cancellation for certain PDM Division employees. www.inso.com
OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, welcomed Scott McGrath to its staff in a newly-created position, Member Services Manager. In his new role, McGrath will have responsibility for activity coordination and communication for the more than 130 members of the non-profit international consortium dedicated to XML interoperability. McGrath brings to OASIS more than 10 years experience developing customer service systems and staff, most recently with the world’s second largest member organization, the American Automobile Association. As senior liaison between members, all AAA business units and suppliers/contractors, McGrath served as ombudsman, mediator and conflict resolution expert, supervised mediation and quality measurement staff, executive service call center, and correspondence staff and developed quality tracking, measurement, reporting/organizational learning systems. McGrath also brings a wealth of experience in developing database-driven business systems and service quality assessment/manage

