News Briefs and Product Shorts

GT Software Adds Support for Cascading Style Sheets with VisualConnect 5.1

GT Software boosted the graphical capabilities of its Web-enablement software last week with the release of VisualConnect 5.1. iSeries and mainframe shops looking to Web-enable their 5250 and 3270 applications can take advantage of new graphical controls in VisualConnect, such as cascading style sheets, message pop-up boxes, and a new scripting facility, without a lot of programming. Perhaps the biggest enhancement is support for cascading style sheets, which enables users to control the graphical formatting of an entire application from a single file. GT Software says the new scripting facility will make users' lives easier by decreasing their reliance on API code to connect screen navigation with the back-end application logic, database access, and field and data formatting. VisualConnect's development environment has also been enhanced with new hot keys for managing available screen real estate and other features like automatic loading of the last project edited, saving the project color palette, and improved movement and sizing of GUI controls.

CCSS' System Monitoring Software Now Packaged With i5/OS

Beginning this week, system monitoring software from CCSS is included with the i5/OS (OS/400 V5R3) stack of installation disks that are bundled with new iSeries servers and are part of the upgrade packages for organizations moving up to the latest version of OS/400. CCSS manufactures and markets QSystem Monitor and QMessage Monitor, which are designed to monitor multiple items on multiple systems. The CCSS software is ready to install on a try-and-buy basis. "I believe this program (of including third-party software with the i5 OS installation disks) has been fueled by the fact that IBM is listening more to its customers," says CCSS Managing Director Ray Wright. "Not just listening, but doing something about it--finding a solution to customers' problems and needs. This was not happening in the past couple of years."

Wright says many companies have huge dependencies on their applications that are running on the iSeries. Even though the hardware and the operating system are exceptional, the potential for application errors and availability management errors are a real and present danger. IBM now has a greater appreciation for this. "Before this program, IBM only looked at whether the hardware and OS were working," Wright said. "Now they listen and are doing something about application availability, particularly at the large enterprise level."

Being selected for this program adds credibility and an IBM stamp of approval that gives Wright a high degree of satisfaction. He said the selection process was more stringent than becoming part of the IBM Tools Network or becoming an IBM Business Partner. "It took years of building credibility with IBM and with customers. Lengthy questions and analysis. I view this as the highest accolade CCSS has received from IBM." Wright said CCSS will remain part of this program for a minimum of six months, at which point IBM will review it and decide on extending the offer. During that six-month period, IBM has estimated that 20,000 companies will receive the latest i5/OS upgrade.

Venezuela's National Oil Company Goes 'American' for ERP

Venezuela's state-run oil company has chosen the iSeries on which to run its new ERP application. Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, has licensed 16 copies of American Software's OS/400-based ERP software to support its oil lubrication facilities throughout Venezuela, American Software announced last week. "American Software is very excited about the opportunity to work with PDVSA and enable it to rapidly implement an ERP solution on its new IBM iSeries platform," said Jeff Coombs, American Software's chief operating officer. PDVSA, which employs 20,000 people and brings in about $20 billion per year, holds the fifth largest proven oil reserves in the world, and is the third-largest oil provider for the U.S.

Seagull Unveils New Methodology for Legacy Modernization

First, there wereIBM's iSeries Initiative for Innovation and a new developer's roadmap, and they were pretty good. Then, last week, Seagull Software--one of the third-party providers now participating in IBM's iSeries programs--introduced an application modernization roadmap of its own, called the LegaSuite Transformation Methodology, or LTM, for helping customers incorporate their older applications into new service oriented architectures (SOAs). Seagull's new LTM program is designed around LegaSuite, its flagship collection of modernization tools for building new interfaces around the I/O of iSeries, mainframe, Unix, and Windows applications. There are four steps to SOA enablement in Seagull's LTM, including discovery, design, liberation, and deployment. In addition to step-by-step guidance, the LTM includes other tools and case studies to help LegaSuite users, and it even includes an online repository for storing users' project information. "What's especially exciting about SOA and legacy liberation is that many of the core building blocks of the project are already in place, unlike 'greenfield' development, where everything you specify must be built from scratch," says Don Addington, CEO and president of the Atlanta company.

Lawson Shops Outsource Apps to netASPx

Funeral services provider Alderwoods Group is one of four Lawson Software shops that have decided recently to outsource the management of their applications to netASPx, which specializes in managing Lawson and Kronos applications. Alderwoods, one of the largest operators of funeral homes and cemeteries in North America, is currently running Lawson's OS/400-based financial and human resources applications on an in-house AS/400 server. But that will soon change, as the company plans to outsource those applications to netASPx, and reap the cost-saving benefits. The other new customers that netASPx announced yesterday are Beth Abraham Health Services, Saint Peter's University Hospital, and inCode Wireless. With these customers, netASPx--which is based in Herndon, Virginia, and operates its primary data center out of Minneapolis--has passed the 50-customer mark.

WebMessenger Brings Lotus Instant Messaging to BlackBerry Users

WebMessenger this week announced the availability of new software that will allow users of BlackBerry devices to communicate with others using Lotus Notes Instant Messaging (formerly called Sametime). The new Lotus Notes Instant Messaging gateway and enhanced BlackBerry client software were added to WebMessenger Mobile Platform (WMP), the company's flagship offering, which is designed to bridge a variety of wireless networks and mobile devices with corporate data. The Los Angeles-based company and IBM also announced the forthcoming release of a version of the WMP server software that will run on Linux, thereby enabling the WMP server to run on IBM's Linux-enabled eServer platforms, including iSeries, pSeries, and Linux-based OpenPower server. Currently, the WMP server only runs on Windows. The company made the announcement at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, which is taking place in Orlando, Florida, this week.