Category: Marketing & e-commerce (Page 50 of 75)

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

VCIX introduced ObjectXplorer, a graphical user interface for its Cortra Site Studio software. The uniqueness of ObjectXplorer lies in its object-oriented approach to the editing and management of web-based content. Articles, photographs, multimedia presentations, and other industry formats for web publishing are managed as flexible objects using ObjectXplorer. In addition to greatly simplifying the task of editors and website designers, ObjectXplorer makes it unnecessary to develop new and separate GUI’s for each individual project. ObjectXplorer not only speeds development time but also enables VCIX to provide customers with a single user interface for all of the web-based applications that Cortra currently provides: a portal manager, a classified ad manager, a digital asset manager, an intranet, an extranet and an e-commerce application for integration with on-line shops and stores. Cortra Site Studio enables non-technical staff to control all aspects of a web site’s content management, without the need for programmers or skilled technicians. A wide range of objects including text, images, and streaming media can be easily published, archived, scheduled, and managed, thereby producing a dynamic, robust, and scalable site that is easy to maintain and to adapt to changing business requirements. The Cortra software includes built-in support for XML. www.vcix.com

worldweb.net, Inc. and IBM Global Services (IGS) announce a partnership in which IGS will bundle Expressroom I/O into its e-Commerce for Retail solution. IBM’s e-Commerce for Retail solution is a bundled software, hardware, and services solution designed to provide a full-function, production-ready, e-Commerce web site to customers who desire an efficient, scaleable, and reliable e-Commerce presence. This solution provides the essential elements of a retail e-Commerce application, enabling a customer to quickly implement a functional site using a combination of technologies. Expressroom I/O will be used with WebSphere and WebSphere Commerce, as a core component of IBM’s e-Commerce for Retail solution. Within this framework, customers will be able to easily create, manage, deploy, and deliver their content in one complete e-Commerce solution. Content is seen as an essential component of this offering, and worldweb.net’s Expressroom I/O is the chosen solution to meet the demanding content management needs of the IBM Global Services e-Commerce for Retail customers. www.worldweb.net, www.ibm.com

RioLabs Inc. announced the availability of RioTrade 2.0, a solution that enables rapid integration of suppliers into e-marketplaces. RioTrade 2.0 allows faster time-to-market for suppliers who need to rapidly integrate with e-marketplaces of their choice, and with online buyers. RioTrade’s technology uses a virtual file system that links enterprise information sources with applications through a graphical interface — without writing any code. Version 2.0 includes: Commerce One xCBL support, Ariba cXML support, SAP support, EDI support with pre-built XML-EDI maps, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server support, and 3-5 day implementation. RioLabs’ offering helps e-marketplaces deliver on the promise of B2B e-commerce by quickly enabling the supply side of the equation. RioTrade quickly enables companies who want to establish electronic trading relationships with business partners by mapping disparate enterprise systems to XML-based transactions. This technology offers customers performance, reliability and scalability for automated transactions. RioTrade 2.0 includes support for existing EDI systems, allowing suppliers to maximize existing EDI investments. It handles all EDI formats, including ANSI X12 and EDIFACT. RioLabs also supports EDI applications such as TIE Commerce, GE Global Exchange Services, Sterling Commerce, Peregrine Systems and Compaq-DEC. www.riolabs.com

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

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

Mondeca is launching its Topic Navigator software solution. The Dynamic Content Navigation program provides users with better methods to access and manage Internet-based data. This is possible as a result of Mondeca’s unique content structure as a topic network, and intuitive access to content via spatial navigation tools. No additional programming is required to use the software, and users experience no delays in accessing information. Topic Navigator features template-based content organization, content editing, powerful browsing tools, and is based on an open architecture using as XML, Topic Maps, Java, and EJB. Traditionally, companies have had few choices for intelligent web navigation. Typically, users are restricted to linear page-by-page views of information or random searches when clicking on embedded links that may lead to other web sites or dead-end searches. Neither process is intuitive or efficient. Poorly designed links, hierarchical structures, and multiple searches with no guarantee of end results are all common experiences using today’s Internet options for obtaining information. Topic Navigator is scalable, flexible, and secure. In addition, Mondeca software can be integrated with e-commerce tools to direct users towards products in internal or external e-commerce catalogs as they browse the knowledge base. Immediately available, prices for a single license begin at $20,000, with training, consulting, and maintenance extra. www.mondeca.com

The new Business Integration Server (BIS) from Seeburger is a middleware module that maintains processes and accounts for all business and process transactions based on a customizable workflow rule set. With a graphical drag-and-drop definition of business processes, any data interchange requirement on Windows NT, UNIX and IBM AS/400 can be implemented quickly. BIS fully supports Java, XML, and existing business system technologies, including B2B eCommerce requirements: shopping, auctions, marketplaces, eProcurement and works with EDIFACT and ERP management systems. The Business Integration Server also works with ebXML, cXML, XML EDI, BizTalk and Rosettanet. Additionally, it supports classical EDI transaction formats, including EDIFACT, X.12, ODETTE or VDA. BIS has connectors to all known ERP systems, including: SAP R/3, SAP R/2, Baan, Oracle, BRAIN, infor, J.D.Edwards and Baurer. In FrontOffice, BIS works with Siebel, Intershop, Openshop and Brokat. Even legacy and proprietary systems are supported. The Seeburger middleware supports unique XML DTDs and other custom interfaces. www.seeburger.com