S4i Systems Goes SOA with Doc Management

Published: March 11, 2008

by Alex Woodie

It will be easier to interface S4i Systems' i5/OS-based document management software, called S4i Express, with third-party applications now that the company has adopted service oriented architecture (SOA) standards. Meanwhile, the company also announced that it's been accepted into IBM's SOA Specialty Business Partner initiative, providing assurance that S4i Express' SOA interfaces adhere to industry standards.

S4i Express helps reduce users' reliance on pre-printed forms while transitioning them to paperless business processes. The software monitors System i print queues, processes the output using report-segmenting or -bundling rules, converts it into PostScript, PDF, HTML, RTF, CSV, or plain text format, and then distributes it electronically (via e-mail, fax, FTP, or the Web), or print or archive it for safe keeping.

Now that it sports SOA interfaces, leveraging S4i Express' capabilities will be easier, says Spencer Elliott, CEO of the Oceanside, California, company. "This represents a big opportunity for developers on any platform to take advantage of the industrial quality of the System i and S4i Express without having specific System i knowledge," he says. "We see lots of ways that System i shops can integrate document management functionality into their core processes to improve the dissemination of information and workflow."

Indeed, one unnamed "mainstream" System i ERP software vendor has already licensed S4i's SOA feature along with S4i Express, and will soon offer an integrated document management solution to their customers, S4i says.

The SOA feature requires WebSphere Application Server, and is licensed separately from S4i Express. The SOA feature is ready now.

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