Category: Marketing & e-commerce (Page 47 of 73)

Autonomy Corporation plc announced its new Commerce Application Builder. Autonomy Commerce Application Builder provides a flexible, scalable and fully automated infrastructure for managing and personalizing e-commerce content to enable more and higher quality transactions. Built to be integrated with leading E-Commerce transaction systems, Autonomy’s Commerce Application Builder automatically aggregates, organizes, links and personalizes commercial content regardless of its format (XML, HTML), language or storage (RDBMS, Content management systems). Commerce Application Builder analyzes human-friendly information, identifies its main ideas and then automates critical operations on it. Commerce Application Builder enables sites to manage, rapidly update and maintain highly personalized content rich exchanges, e-marketplaces, and Web stores, all at lower costs. Easily integrated with many transaction systems including Cybercash, and Intershop, Commerce Application Builder also supports extended functionality to enable mobile commerce through WAP and i-Mode wireless standards as well as speech, digital TV and auctions in future releases. Commerce Application Builder includes advanced personalization features. It provides automatic user profiling, which can be utilized for automatic targeted advertising and promotions and for user defined personal shopping assistants. Autonomy Commerce Application Builder technology is available for immediate integration with Intershop’s enfinity site transaction systems. Autonomy can plug-in CyberSource as the transaction back-end for Commerce Application Builder for environments that have not standardized on another transaction system. CyberSource has experience and functionality for providing real-time payment processing, fraud protection and digital product delivery. CyberSource provides secure credit card authorization, delivery address verification and Internet fraud screen enhanced by VISA. Commerce Application Builder is available for Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, LINUX, Sun Solaris and most versions of UNIX. www.autonomy.com

VeriSign, Inc. announced a range of XML-based specifications and services designed to enable enterprise developers, B2B exchanges, independent software vendors (ISVs) and service providers to link their applications to Web identity, online authentication, authorization, digital signature, encryption and payment services. These specifications are being introduced in conjunction with today’s release of the XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) by VeriSign, Microsoft and webMethods. Currently, developers choosing to enable applications to handle digital keys for authentication and digital signatures are often required to purchase and integrate specialized toolkits from a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) software vendor which only interoperate with that vendor’s PKI offerings. With the new XKMS specification, those functions are no longer built into the application but instead reside in servers that can be accessed via easily programmed XML transactions. XKMS is also compatible with the emerging standards for Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). More information on XKMS can be found at: www.verisign.com/developer/xml. The new XML specifications are designed to work with VeriSign’s existing Web identity, authentication, payment and validation services and greatly simplify interoperability of e-commerce transactions. In addition to XKMS, VeriSign has developed a suite of XML specifications. Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) supports an XML-based management utility for vendors of online identity services. EPP will enable VeriSign’s accredited registrar partners to sell domain names, telephone numbers and future identification assets through a new extensible protocol. VeriSign is working with multiple industry partners, including Netegrity, to develop S2ML, a common language for sharing authentication and authorization services through XML documents. VeriSign’s XML Pay is an XML specification for payment requests and responses in a distributed, web-based payment transaction environment. The typical user of XML Pay is an Internet merchant or merchant aggregator who wants to dispatch consumer credit card, debit card, corporate purchase card, automated clearinghouse (ACH), or other payment requests to a financial processing network. www.verisign.com

Netegrity, Inc. announced that it is working with a group of companies to define a standard for enabling secure e-commerce transactions using XML called Security Services Markup Language (S2ML), that will create a common language for sharing security information about transactions and end users between companies engaged in online B2B and B2B2C transactions. Authors of the S2ML specification are Bowstreet, Commerce One, Jamcracker, Netegrity, Sun Microsystems, VeriSign, and webMethods. Reviewers of the specification include Art Technology Group, Oracle, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and TIBCO. Traditionally, security has been implemented within a single enterprise. However, companies are now conducting inter-company business using the Web, which has expanded the scope and range of their e-commerce transactions. For example, in the B2B industry companies now use a number of different e-marketplaces to purchase a broad range of supplies and products. Each of these marketplaces may have different proprietary authentication and authorization solutions, which makes interoperability across marketplaces difficult if not impossible. In B2B2C commerce, users often are involved in business transactions that span several different company Web sites that have joined forces to create an affiliate network of services. In this case, users are forced to log on multiple times and re-start their transactions. The business transactions in both of these markets must span multiple companies, multiple Web sites, and multiple marketplaces that have their own unique and heterogeneous set of platforms and e-commerce infrastructure components. S2ML is intended to solve these problems by helping to unify access control methods through an open, standards-based framework for the next generation of secure e-commerce transactions. The S2ML specification addresses three main areas of security services: authentication, authorization, and entitlement/privilege. S2ML defines standard XML schemas, as well as an XML request/response protocol, for describing authentication and authorization services through XML documents. S2ML also will provide specific bindings for various protocols such as HTTP and SOAP and B2B messaging frameworks such as ebXML. The S2ML effort is an open industry initiative in which any organization can participate and implement the specifications. The vendors behind the S2ML initiative plan to submit the S2ML 0.8 specification to the W3C and OASIS for consideration within the next 30 days. www.S2ML.org, www.netegrity.com

Mediasurface Limited announced Mediasurface 3.5, the next generation of its content management application software. The product includes new functionality to enable open integration of the Mediasurface content management platform into enterprise e-business architectures. Today, more organizations than ever before are basing their e-business offerings around an open application server platform. The challenge for these organizations is rapidly integrating best of breed e-business applications such as content management, personalization and e-commerce without complex, proprietary interfaces. New features in Mediasurface 3.5 directly address this issue. New functionality includes: Java API to enable seamless integration with application server providers such as ATG; Enterprise directory integration, allowing centralized management of users, groups and access rights; Support for Microsoft Windows NT Server and Hewlett Packard HP-UX operating systems; And support for Oracle 8i. Mediasurface 3.5 will be available to customers beginning in November 2000. www.mediasurface.com

Arbortext, Inc. announced the availability of Epic Intermarket, a solution that enables suppliers and net marketplaces to deploy catalog applications that offer more extensive, more personalized and more usable content. Epic Intermarket is built upon Arbortext’s Epic E-Content Engine (E3), a Web-based system for aggregating, storing, assembling and distributing enriched content. Epic Intermarket leverages the power of E3 to gather content from multiple sources including Word, FrameMaker and Interleaf, and convert that content into reusable XML components. E3 also works with Arbortext’s Epic Editor and Epic Editor LE, both of which enable direct creation of XML content. Epic Intermarket integrates with repositories from Oracle, Documentum and others to enable seamless creation and management of reusable and intelligent XML information components. Through E3, Epic Intermarket extracts content from the repository, assembles it according to individual requirements, and automatically transforms it for any purpose – not only for publishing to the Web, but also for traditional catalog formats such as print and CD-ROM as well as newer devices such as PDAs, e-Books and cellular phones. In addition, Intermarket can syndicate catalog content to multiple marketplaces. Epic Intermarket supports the e-commerce schema standards from Open Applications Group, Inc., so Intermarket can exchange catalog content with business-to-business online marketplace providers such as Ariba, CommerceOne and Oracle. Epic Intermarket will ship in January 2001. Epic Editor and the Epic E-Content Engine are included in a minimum Intermarket installation. Epic Intermarket runs on the Microsoft IIS Web server running on NT Server 4.0/SP5 or later or Netscape’s iPlanet Web server running on Sun Solaris 7. Epic Intermarket works with Oracle 8iFS and Java Runtime Engine 1.1.8 or later. www.arbortext.com

Vitria Technology announced the availability of a new integration solution for EDI. Companies can now use Vitria’s leading ebusiness platform, BusinessWare, to transparently access information and transactions managed by EDI-enabled business systems. BusinessWare’s EDI solution enables customers to automate core business processes — such as order management or inventory replenishment — that integrate EDI systems with other internal enterprise applications, and with external EDI and XML-enabled trading partner systems, with equal ease. BusinessWare converts EDI transactions to and from standard EDI formats, enabling those transactions to be shared with any other system inside or outside the firewall. As companies place greater emphasis on supply and demand chain automation, there is a need to manage key business processes across trading partners regardless of enabling technology. With comprehensive support for EDI and XML-based ebusiness, EDI Solution provides a graceful migration path for companies augmenting or replacing EDI with newer, XML-based B2B integration technologies over time, such as ebXML, BizTalk, and cXML. Vitria’s new EDI solution is available immediately. www.vitria.com

SilverStream Software, Inc. released its updated eBusiness Platform. The Java and XML-based SilverStream eBusiness Platform includes: SilverStream ePortal 2.0 – An integrated offering comprised of an application framework, business components, and underlying eBusiness services for delivering Internet applications; Enhanced business manager tool suite; Personalization; A new workflow engine; Enhanced content management capabilities; SilverStream xCommerce 2.0 – Am XML-enabling service that allows Internet applications to access mainframes and external business systems; Enhanced support of J2EE standards; Enterprise Enablers for IBM 3270, 5250 and CICS; and SilverStream Application Server 3.7. Customers can combine elements of the SilverStream eBusiness Platform for a comprehensive integrated solution, or deploy separate products that integrate flexibly into any enterprise architectures. Web services created in xCommerce are deployed to open, standards-based J2EE application servers running on Windows NT and Unix. In addition to supporting the SilverStream Application Server, xCommerce 2.0 now supports IBM’s WebSphere. Additionally, SilverStream supports RosettaNet, OAG, ebXML, cXML, xCBL, ACORD, tpaML and SOAP. www.silverstream.com

SoftLock.com, Inc. announced Version 3.0 of its digital rights management (DRM) service. Version 3.0 offers digital content providers a highly scalable solution for the distribution of secure digital content. The widespread use of XML as a core technology in Version 3.0 allows content providers to easily integrate their business and e-commerce services with SoftLock’s content hosting, security, and marketing services. SoftLock’s Dynamic Content Locking, a key feature of Version 3.0, enables digital content to be packaged, secured and distributed in real-time. Dynamic Content Locking is an innovative approach to DRM, which allows consumers to order digital documents that are customized to their interests, packaged on the fly and delivered within seconds. This technology allows content providers to focus on maintaining their content database rather than on the production and distribution of the final packaged product. Version 3.0 enables digital content marketing through integration points that deliver content offers to consumers through affiliate retailers, search engines, registration and contextual mapping. DCM provides the tools to market, distribute and sell premium digital content securely, through a comprehensive network of innovative technology, services and partners. Another feature of Version 3.0 is an enhanced rendition of SoftLock’s Passalong viral marketing technology. Passalong, an integral part of SoftLock’s digital content marketing offering encourages sharing amount colleagues and friends, while the content’s copyright security wrapper remains intact. Content publishers encourage the use of Passalong because it results in additional sales while reducing customer acquisition costs. www.softlock.com