News Briefs and Product Shorts

Kisco's Integration with ShowCase: Security Hole or Old Hat?

Companies that use the ShowCase Suite of business intelligence software from SPSS can now use Kisco Information Systems' SafeNet/400 network security software to manage users' access to OS/400 data through ShowCase. In its announcement last week, Kisco claimed that there is a "significant security exposure" as a result of the proprietary ODBC driver that ShowCase uses to access DB2/400 data. By writing to a user exit point that is provided with ShowCase, Kisco says, the "ODBC driver is visible and the security hole is closed." Support for the ShowCase exit point is delivered with SafeNet/400 Version 7.04. SPSS product manager Rod Reicks says the issue is a little bit more complex than Kisco makes it out to be. "From our perspective, calling it a security hole is misleading. This is just a natural extension of the exit point we've provided for a long time." About five years ago, ShowCase Corp. (before its acquisition by SPSS) wrote an exit point to allow customer to control access to the ShowCase software via their existing Infinium or J.D. Edwards systems. Alternatively, customers can use SPSS's own Warehouse Manager to control access to the data, he says. "If the data is unprotected, it's not for lack of tools, or capacity of the software. It's a failure to implement something," Reicks says, adding that it would be "ludicrous" for any reporting tool to totally circumvent OS/400 security.

Boundless Launches 5250 Terminal for Retailers

Boundless recently announced a new line of Linux-based thin clients that provide 5250 emulation. The new ADDS 5000 Series is based on the company's ADDS 4000 Series, which is primarily used to access UNIX, XENIX, PICK, and multi-user DOS systems. The first device in the new series, called the ADDS 5500, builds on these capabilities by adding 5250 and 3270 support, as well as emulation for accessing Tandem and Siemens computers. These new thin clients, which the Hauppauge, New York, company is targeting at the "branch replicated" retail market, will support a variety of screens, including CRT, LCD flat panel, and touch screens. The terminals will support a standard array of peripherals found in the retail industry, including magnetic stripe readers and signature capture devices, and will start shipping in April.

Del Monte Picks BPCS for Consolidated ERP

Del Monte Foods has successfully deployed BPCS, its system integrator, PHOENIX Business Consulting, announced this month. Del Monte took a fresh look at its business processes following the acquisition of certain businesses from the H.J. Heinz Company in December of 2002. In March 2003, Del Monte gave the new ERP contract to Greensburg, Pennsylvania, based PHOENIX, which had provided IT services to Del Monte before. The job involved migrating Unix and mainframe workloads onto a single iSeries server, running SSA Global's BPCS as the core ERP system. The new ERP system supports the entire U.S. operations of Del Monte, a $3 billion company, including its headquarters, and distribution centers and manufacturing facilities across the country. Dominic Clemente, Del Monte's enterprise applications manager, says PHOENIX completed its work six months ahead of schedule. "PHOENIX helped to match what is new with what already works, and that was of great assistance in Del Monte's IT conversion project," Clemente says.

Parasoft's SOAPTest Checks Web Services Against WS-I Standard

Web services developers gained new software last week to test their Web services against Web Services Interoperability Organization standards. Parasoft last week announced that its SOAPtest 2.5 testing software can be used to make sure that Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) traffic are up to par, as far as the WS-I's Basic Profile 1.0 standard goes. SOAPtest, a comprehensive tool for testing various aspects of a Web service, everything from WSDL validation to performance testing, uses the WS-I's own Testing Tools 1.0 for the new SOAP and WSDL checking. SOAPtest 2.5 costs $3,995 and runs on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Linux, and Solaris operating systems.

Green Bay Packaging Using Avantis to Get a Handle on Inventory

Green Bay Packaging is installing an OS/400-based asset management system to cut inventory and to improve its resource planning. The Green Bay, Wisconsin, based paperboard manufacturer will deploy the Avantis enterprise asset management (EAM) application from Invensys at its pulp and paperboard mill in Morrilton, Arkansas, Invensys announced recently. Avantis will be hooked up to the manufacturer's Invensys-based automation system, Foxboro I/A Series, which will allow real-time production equipment, maintenance, and operations monitoring. In addition to tracking inventory and equipment, Green Bay will use Avantis for purchasing, and the company hopes to make much better use of historical data in managing and selecting vendors, says Green Bay's EAM project manager, Ben Coyle. Within six months of deployment, Coyle expects Avantis to "significantly shrink inventory, increase production equipment reliability, and improve all resource scheduling and planning," he says. Two consultants have been brought on board with the project, including Inventory Management Analysis Ltd. from Tillsonburg, Ontario, and Performance Consulting Associates of Duluth, Georgia. Invensys is based in London, England, and has U.S. headquarters in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

California Software Enhances INFINITE NET

California Software last week announced INFINITE NET 3.1, the latest release of its screen modernization software for OS/400 and mainframe servers. INFINITE NET 3.1, which is now available, comes just a month after the Version 3.0 release of the product. "Web-based technology is evolving at such a fast rate that we are continually adding functionality and features to our existing products," says Carol Conway, president of the San Clemente, California, software company. One of the new features in this release is a new remote client printing capability that supports spooled print jobs from the OS/400 server, using LPR/LPD. The product's development component, called the INFINITE NET Studio, has also been enhanced with new WYSIWYG features, auto-generated input facilities, new debugger and trace features, and the capability to give a screen generated outside the 5250/3270 datastream GUI attributes, "as if they were inherited by a typical green screen," the company says.