Liaison Technology released Dexter DE, a software solution that enables companies to succeed in B2B online commerce by enriching the information exchanged between buyer and seller. All enterprises participating in online commerce can benefit from Dexter DE. Companies building an online marketplace use Dexter DE to collect content from supplier Web sites. Sellers of products or services use Dexter DE to obtain descriptive content from their intranet and partner Web sites. Buyers in an online market use Dexter DE to aggregate online product and price information to create custom procurement catalogs. Dexter DE is based on Liaison’s Adaptive Content Recognition technology. Dexter DE harvests content from Web pages that change frequently. The software can be trained to gather any content from unlimited sites and pages. In addition, Dexter DE requires no programming to establish or maintain the data feeds. Users train Dexter DE by surfing to a’ URL and selecting the content to be collected. Once the software is trained to recognize the target content, Dexter DE will automatically gather similar content from other product pages in that site. Even if the target Web page changes, Dexter DE continues to locate the specified content. Dexter DE can automatically harvest content as often as necessary to keep information current. In addition, Dexter DE provides a sophisticated data normalization or rationalization function via the inverse Thesaurus engine. This feature helps ensure that only accurate and consistent data is being loaded into the marketplace’s database. When Dexter DE executes, it downloads the selected pages from the targeted Web sites, parses the required content, rationalizes the data for consistency, and loads the data into any ‘database. XML, flat file and API data interfaces are supported. Dexter DE is available immediately direct from Liaison Technology. The software is licensed on an annual lease basis. The costs vary depending on number of servers and clients required. Dexter DE is compatible with all databases and e-commerce platforms. The minimum server requirements for Dexter DE are: Pentium II 450 MHz processor; 128 MB RAM, 20MB disk space for Dexter DE and 250MB for data capture and audit logs; Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 SP4; Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0; and minimum 128KB per second Internet connection. www.liaison.com
Category: Marketing & e-commerce (Page 58 of 77)
netLibrary announced a new initiative to market digital libraries, consisting of eBooks and other electronic information resources, to corporations. netLibrary is capable of providing corporations with an extensive library of digital content by employing an eBook development and distribution platform it has built during the past 20 months in the academic library market and by drawing from a collection of more than 18,000 titles from 200 publishers. Initial targets for netLibrary’s corporate library offering include corporations with existing physical and digital libraries, corporations with advanced training programs and corporate universities, and organizations with a strong knowledge-management orientation. netLibrary is offering its corporate library solution to public and private companies, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. netLibrary’s corporate library content includes thousands of business and technology titles. Subject area headings in the business collection include finance and banking, human resources, international business, management, sales, and eCommerce. Technology titles include computer engineering and hardware, databases, enterprise management, networking, operating systems, programming, and Web development. Corporate library customers can work with netLibrary and publishers to build customized digital libraries covering specialized areas of knowledge such as science and engineering, risk management, and finance. At the customer’s discretion, intranet/extranet access to digital library resources can be made available to employees, clients, and suppliers. In the future, netLibrary plans to enhance its corporate library solution to include components such as executive information services, PDA versions of newspapers and magazines through netLibrary’s peanutpress.com handheld division, and periodicals and journals offered through netLibrary’s alliance with EBSCO Publishing. Information resources generated in-house can be combined with the digital library for seamless searching and retrieval. www.netLibrary.com
ActionPoint, Inc., formerly Input Software, Inc., unveiled its ActionPoint Interaction Management System for Global 1000 organizations and net marketplaces. A high performance e-commerce software suite, the ActionPoint System simplifies the wide range of complex Web interactions — interactions between people and e-commerce systems — needed to conduct business on-line. It then delivers validated and formatted content to enterprise or B2B process automation systems, triggering real-time fulfillment processes. The ActionPoint System enables e-businesses to build dynamic and intelligent Web interfaces for action points. Action points include generating requests for quotes, bid responses, or purchase orders; configuring complex products; or applying for credit cards, mortgage loans or life insurance on line. The ActionPoint Interaction Management System consists of three complementary software products: ActionPoint Dialog Server – an XML-based product that allows organizations to rapidly deploy and easily maintain dynamic, personalized Web interactions at all action points needed to consummate end-to-end business on the Internet. (The Dialog Server was previously announced under the project name DynamicInput.); ActionPoint Enterprise Server – a customizable and scalable system for post-session processing and integration with enterprise systems; and InputAccel – ActionPoint’s capture system. The ActionPoint Interaction Management System will run under Windows NT and UNIX. The ActionPoint Interaction Management System will be available as separate components or as an entire solution suite in 3Q 2000. Full system pricing begins at $150,000. www.actionpoint.com
Inprise/Borland announced the immediate availability of Borland MIDAS 3, middleware technology and components for rapidly building Delphi and C++ Builder Internet applications. Now supporting XML and Dynamic HTML, MIDAS 3 substantially increases the scalability and flexibility of large-scale Internet applications. Inprise/Borland also announced modified MIDAS licensing that will now allow small- to medium-sized businesses to gain the same advantages as large corporations as they extend their businesses to the Internet. MIDAS 3 simplifies and speeds up the development, integration, and deployment of thin-client, distributed Internet applications. It speeds data access across all application tiers from the client to the database server through fast remote-data access and intelligent data synchronization, which together optimize network bandwidth. Solutions built with MIDAS can take advantage of its support for e-commerce standards including CORBA, COM/MTS, XML and dynamic HTML. This ensures application interoperability and extensibility. MIDAS will support Linux when Inprise/Borland’s Project Kylix ships later this year. Project Kylix is a Linux component based development environment for two-way visual development of graphical user interface, Internet, database, and server applications. Free development licenses of MIDAS are included with Inprise/Borland’s application development tools, Borland Delphi and C++Builder Enterprise. MIDAS server deployment is priced using a per-server license scheme. MIDAS 3 server deployment licenses with unlimited client access are available now directly from Inprise/Borland for $299.95. This price is in U.S. dollars and applies only in the United States. International customers should contact their local Inprise/Borland offices, distributors, or representatives. www.borland.com
Documentum announced the release of Documentum 4i eBusiness Edition, a content management platform for creating, personalizing, managing, and delivering web and enterprise content. Documentum 4i eBusiness Edition provides a common enterprise infrastructure that dynamically combines business-critical enterprise content with web content to fuel every e-business initiative: B2B, B2C and B2E. This release also introduces advanced content personalization that can target rich content to an individual, a local geography or a target device in a closed loop system that can, based on user profile and usage, “learn” from past behavior to enrich subsequent interactions and further personalize content delivery. At the heart of the 4i eBusiness Edition is the eContent server. In addition to version control, audit trail, and security capabilities, the eContent server automates and implements the business policies and workflows to manage all types of content stored in the content repository. Complementing the eContent server is WebPublisher which streamlines and expedites the entire process of content creation, contribution, and collaboration with an easy-to-use user interface. Documentum 4i includes the new Web Development Kit, offering Java application classes and components. 4i Web Development Kit takes advantage of standards such as ASP, JSP and Java. 4i eBusiness Edition also comes with a set of eCommerce integrators to integrate with application servers and commerce servers such as BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, ATG Dynamo, and BroadVision one-to-one Enterprise.
HAHT Software, Inc. and Commerce One, Inc. announced the execution of a preliminary, non-binding memorandum of understanding to facilitate the creation of “open” dynamic B2B trading communities. The two companies intend to work together to make it possible for sellers to gain immediate access to a broad range of buying organizations. HAHT is integrating its entire e-commerce suite with the Commerce One MarketSite Global Trading Portal for exchanging goods and services among businesses worldwide. The suite includes all of the HAHT Commerce e-Scenarios, plus HAHT Sellside Links and HAHT Sellside Exchange. The joint effort will enable HAHT’s enterprise e-sellers to connect once to Commerce One MarketSite, reaching a vast number of buyers on MarketSite as well as other business-to-business Internet portals on the Commerce One Global Trading Web. This will allow for more efficient intra-company workflow, enhanced information-sharing capabilities, and more closely integrated buyer-seller relationships. HAHT and Commerce One will define open XML-based solutions spanning product configuration, quotation, requisition, order management, fulfillment and payment processes. In addition, HAHT and Commerce One intend to collaborate on XML schemas and business document definitions and interfaces, enabling accurate document exchange between heterogeneous systems and multiple trading partners. HAHT’s solutions will support Commerce One’s XML-standard, xCBL (Common Business Library), and utilize Commerce One’s XCC (XML Commerce Connector) toolkit to implement the joint business libraries. XML-based solutions provide a basis for rapid development and deployment of transactions and business processes across dissimilar applications, systems and software. www.commerceone.com, www.haht.com
The World Wide Web Consortium announced the release of the first Public Working Draft of the XForms Data Model. The XForms Data Model Working Draft, along with the XForms Requirements document, provide the first cross-industry efforts in seven years to produce the next generation of Web-based forms. When HTML Forms were introduced to the Web in 1993, they provided a means to gather information and perform transactions. The structure of forms served the needs of many users at that time, as well as the devices used to access the Web. Seven years later, the Web is a space where hundreds of millions of users expect to use many different devices to perform increasingly complex transactions, many of which exceed the limitations of the original forms technology. The XForms Subgroup has produced a forms architecture that separates data modeling, logic, and presentation. XForms aims to ease the transition of the Web from HTML to XML. As XHTML 1.0 allows HTML content authors to make a smooth entry into the XML world, XForms allow Web application authors to combine the modularity of XML with the simplicity of HTML to gain key advantages in the areas of device independence, accessibility, business-to-business and consumer e-commerce, and embedded devices. The XForms Data Model deliberately separates the purpose of a form from its presentation. This allows the application author to rigorously define the form data, independent of how end-users interact with the application. The separation facilitates the development of Web applications with user interaction components, and provides advantages to Web application developers. In the XForms suite of specifications, the rules for describing, validating, and submitting application data are expressed in XML, as well as the submitted data. By providing the rules and data in XML, XForms lays the foundation for combinations with other XML applications, supporting the extensible Web. Separating purpose and presentation also makes device independence easier to achieve by allowing Web application authors to write the data model once for all devices. Because the data model is not tied to presentation, developers may customize the presentation in a way that best suits each device’s user interface. Support for device independence paves the way for a Web that is accessible to all users. www.w3c.org
Softshare announced the immediate availability of Softshare Delta 2.0. The new Softshare Delta release includes many user-friendly enhancements to further assist in the integration between e-commerce and traditional data formats. The latest version of Softshare Delta is built upon a core mapping product that translates EDI and XML documents into flat file or database formats — and vice versa. Delta also supports mapping to text formats, such as HTML, to aid in Web integration. Softshare Delta 2.0 incorporates several new prominent features, including support of the Microsoft BizTalk Framework. Softshare Delta’s support of this XML framework allows Delta users to integrate BizTalk documents into their business environment. Delta users can generate and automatically address BizTalk documents using the framework’s approved set of XML tags as well as author BizTalk-compatible XML schemas for use throughout the trading partner community. Other features added in this release are Microsoft Visual SourceSafe integration for map version tracking, flat file optimizations for faster map execution, and improved trouble-shooting features. Available for $3,600-$5,800, Softshare Delta works with Softshare Vista 2.0 or Softshare’s Electronic Commerce Server (ECS) application for data communications, tracking and map execution management. Current Delta users will receive the Delta 2.0 upgrade at no additional cost. www.softshare.com
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