News Briefs and Product Shorts

Group 1 Bringing New Address Verification Software to OS/400

Each year, more than 45 million households and businesses move, requiring a constant vigilance to keep accurate address information. Last week Group 1 Software launched its latest address verification software, called MOVEfast, which allows users to access the most up-to-date address information from the U.S. Post Office's National Change of Address program. MOVEfast incorporates Group 1's CODE-1 Plus technology, a Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS)-certified offering that provides address validation, correction, and standardization. By standardizing address information before accessing the National Change of Address database, Group 1 says, organizations can accurately identify matches against the database. MOVEfast is available for Windows and mainframe platforms, including MVS, OS/390, and Z/OS. Group 1 says the new offering will be available for OS/400 and Unix within 60 days.

Tidal Software Adds OS/400 Support to Enterprise Scheduler

Tidal Software now supports OS/400 with its graphical Enterprise Scheduler software. More than 500 companies use Tidal's scheduling software to coordinate jobs and business processes running on disparate systems, including Windows, Unix, Linux, mainframe, and the HP 3000. Now, with support for OS/400, companies can incorporate their AS/400 and iSeries workloads into the Enterprise Scheduler. Along with Enterprise Scheduler Version 5.0, the Mountain View, California, company also announced last week a new connector designed for the J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware ERP application, now called PeopleSoft World. Existing connectors support the ERP applications from SAP and Oracle. Other new features in Enterprise Scheduler 5.0 include a new Web services API, support for clustered Windows servers via the Windows agent, enhanced application job queue filtering, new job definition variables, and enhanced job group status functionality.

Terk Cites Stability in Picking iSeries for ERP

Consumer electronics manufacturer Terk Technologies reports a successful implementation of Vormittag Associates' OS/400-based ERP software. The Commack, New York, company decided to replace its dated DOS-based accounting system as part of a drive to eliminate paper-intensive business processes and to ensure timely and compliant shipments to major retailers. Terk considered implementing a Windows-based ERP systems before company officials realized how much downtime that would entail compared with an iSeries. "When you're trying to meet supply chain requirements and you get a three-hour block of time in the middle of your day when you can't access the system, it becomes very troublesome," says Mike Bitonti, vice president of finance for Terk. "One thing that wasn't debatable was the fact that an iSeries unit would provide the least amount of downtime. Even Windows NT side advocates recognized that." After installing Vormittag's System 2000 ERP system on an iSeries server, Terk sales representatives gained the capability to enter and track orders over the Internet.

Salesforce.com's New Toolkit Integrates with WebSphere, OS/400

Salesforce.com last week introduced new software that uses WebSphere tools to integrate its hosted CRM offering with its customers' computer systems, including OS/400 servers. The new software, called sforce Toolkit for IBM WebSphere, lets developers use the WebSphere Studio Application Developer tools and WebSphere Application Server to bring key customer and sales information into their outsourced salesforce.com CRM implementation. One of the OS/400 shops using the new toolkit is CompBenefits Corp., a Roswell, Georgia, vision and dental insurance provider. "Using WebSphere with sforce allows us to meet the CRM requirements unique to our business, including integration with our AS/400 system," says Ron Wood, the insurer's vice president of information systems. "We are able to combine the deployment benefits of salesforce.com and the development capabilities of WebSphere to quickly extend our key business applications." The toolkit is free for existing salesforce.com customers.

Gallatin Adds RSS Capabilities to kNEWS Publishing System

Gallatin Technologies has added RSS content capabilities to kNEWS Professional Version 3.0, the latest release of its e-publishing application for IBM Lotus Notes and Domino platforms. RSS is a form of XML used by Webloggers and news-oriented Web sites, like Wired and Slashdot, to distribute and display news and other information that can be broken down into discrete pieces. Because RSS (an acronym that has several meanings, including Really Simple Syndication and Rich Site Summary) automatically separates RSS feeds into separate parts (for example, headlines, story summaries, and story body), the receiving RSS program can apply intelligent formatting to the feed. RSS support brings a third mode of publishing to kNEWS Professional, which also allows non-technical employees to create, manage, and distribute information via Web sites and e-mail, including plain-text, HTML, and rich-text formats. The kNEWS Professional requires Lotus Notes and Domino R5 or R6, and runs on all supported Domino servers, including the iSeries. For free trial downloads, go to www.gallatin.com.

Optimum Adds iMessaging's iVoice to Time and Attendance App

Optimum Solutions is now offering interactive voice response capabilities with its OS/400-based time and attendance software. Its new iVoice offering allows remote or field-based personnel to use the telephone to perform a number of actions, including clocking in and out, making transfers to different job classes, reviewing hours worked in the current or previous week, reviewing their work schedules, or recording messages for others to hear. The Nashville, Tennessee, software company partnered with IVR experts iMessaging Systems to develop the iVoice IVR component of its time and attendance package.