Category: Marketing & e-commerce (Page 61 of 77)

Media-Bridge Technologies, Inc. introduced a full suite of solutions to help leading retailers, catalog businesses and media companies connect customers and brands across media. Media-Bridge enables businesses to manage content and promotions across virtually any media – print, the Web and e-mail. Powerful multi-channel marketing functionality combines with advanced content management and workflow to deliver the retail, catalog and publishing industries sophisticated one-to-one marketing capabilities and streamlined workflows regardless of chosen delivery media. Through partnerships with Vignette, Engage, Retek, Quebecor, Adobe Systems, Breakaway Solutions and other technology powerhouses, Media-Bridge is now able to meet a wide range of complex e-marketing and content management needs. Media-Bridge helps its customers create closed loop marketing environments with solutions that link legacy product and customer databases to Media-Bridge’s promotion planning and content management systems. Merchants, creative staffs, and publishers are able to create targeted promotional campaigns based on customer profile information to drive multiple media channels. Media-Bridge is a new company formed with the recently announced merger between Cascade Systems, Inc. and UK-based MidSystems Technology Inc. Media-Bridge offers three industry solutions that can be customized to specific customer requirements. The Media-Bridge retail industry solution is comprehensive, allowing retailers to create sophisticated media marketing plans, efficiently produce Web, e-mail and traditional print campaigns, and incorporate advanced e-commerce and e-publishing technology. The company’s catalog industry solution enables catalog businesses to develop targeted catalogs and personalized promotions for Internet and print by integrating product data and customer profile information. These tools achieve dynamic interactive marketing online – enabling businesses to realize the dream of one-to-one marketing. Key features of the Media-Bridge catalog industry solution include: Access to all relevant product data, customer and marketing data; Tools that support coordinating customer and product data with real-time collaboration between merchants and content creators; Support for whatever combination of delivery media will provide the best return while maintaining consistent branding; and an architecture ready to support future delivery media. Finally, Media-Bridge enables publishers to re-position their trusted brand in the interactive age and build strong relationships with their advertisers and customers. Media-Bridge gives publishers the ability to publish any time, for any target audience, on the Web or in print.www.media-bridge.com

Percussion Software’s XSpLit, a free utility for converting HTML into XML and XSL, is now available at www.percussion.com/xsplit. XSpLit meets the demands of organizations that need a simple and effective way of transforming thousands of Web-based HTML pages into XML for e-commerce and other applications. With XSpLit, developers can create the XML and XSL equivalents of their HTML pages without investing a lot of time learning XML or writing the pages by hand. This patent-pending technology is a key component of Percussion’s XML Data Server product, Rhythmyx, which dynamically serves structured data from relational databases into Web pages. Rhythmyx is one of the first products that makes use of XSL in a production environment and helps organizations benefit from XML today. Percussion XSpLit V1.0 is free for personal use. Companies wishing to license the product for bundled distribution with their offerings should contact Percussion Software for terms and conditions. The utility runs on Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0. www.percussion.com

Oracle Corp. announced the imminent releases of its Internet Business Intelligence tools, Oracle Discoverer 3i and Oracle Reports 6i, with support for XML. Oracle Discoverer 3i and Reports 6i will allow users to explore and publish e-business information tailored for the recipient simply by using a standard web browser. Oracle Discoverer 3i and Reports 6i are an integral part of the evolution of Oracle’s Intelligent Webhouse initiative designed to help businesses analyze and leverage e-commerce data. Using the Oracle Business Intelligence tools, companies will be able to deliver competitive products and services by identifying key trends, utilizing all database information, including data from ERP, CRM, and Procurement applications. Discoverer 3i and Reports 6i are designed specifically for Internet computing environments — users will be able to directly publish information as XML documents allowing applications within and across enterprises to share information. Using XML, Reports 6i will enable developers to deliver reports that are dynamically personalized for each user. Implemented using Java and XML, Discoverer 3i will offer the full featured, award-winning user interface using only a standard web browser. Oracle Reports 6i, and Oracle Discoverer 3i Beta releases are available on Oracle Technology Network (OTN). www.oracle.com

infoShark, inc. announced that its Commerce Accelerated Relational Data (CARD) Schema has been accepted by Microsoft’s BizTalk Framework. infoShark’s CARD schema is unique in that it enables the bi-directional exchange of relational data over the Internet. The schema provides all the necessary information to recreate relational databases and populate them with their data via the Internet. Terabytes of health and financial records, pricing information, sports scores and personnel records are stored in databases around the world. CARD schema provides a simple mechanism for specifying the price of individual data points (the data found within a given row and column). It is infoShark’s vision that this schema would further facilitate the extraction, transformation, and loading of data across various web-enabled products. CARD schema is currently available for use by developers of e-commerce software at www.biztalk.org. Today 17 different companies have referenced the schema for their own use. www.infoshark.com

Innovative software introduced new technology that bridges the gap between print catalogs and e-commerce. It allows consumers to view interactive catalogs on a CD or DVD using a built-in, familiar Web browser and shopping cart that does not require an Internet connection or server. X-Rom, eCatalogBuilders’ e-commerce product, was designed for direct mail e-commerce marketing, complimenting print catalogs and online Web sites. eCatalogs can be exported from the vendor’s existing print catalog files or created from scratch. Pages may also be generated “on the fly” from a database. X-Rom functions either as a stand-alone eCatalog, or interlinks with an online Web site. www.eCatalogBuilders.com

NxTrend Technology, Inc. announced the Version 1 release of its dXML document standards for distribution business-to-business e-commerce. NxTrend’s dXML standards are a series of 16 distribution industry-specific XML schemas, developed in conjunction with BuildNet, a leading online trading exchange. NxTrend’s dXML standards include schemas for a variety of documents, including: common business transactions, like sales orders, purchase orders, and quotes; file maintenance transactions, like product catalog updates, and customer file updates; and status transactions, like product availability and price. In the coming months, NxTrend will continue working with industry leaders and XML innovators to refine and add to the set of standards. The goal of dXML is to provide a framework for the seamless exchange of business information between distributors and all other members of the supply chain. NxTrend’s intent in publishing an industry-focused XML standard was to simplify and help facilitate electronic communication between all members of the supply chain. As an early member of the BizTalk organization, NxTrend will submit the dXML schemas for general public consumption to the BizTalk.org repository. www.nxtrend.com

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

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