Symtrax Makes Reporting Easy with StarQuery 1.5

Symtrax is shipping a new release of StarQuery, its Microsoft Excel-based query tool that supports DB2/400, Oracle, SQL Server, Domino, FoxPro, and a multitude of other databases. One of the cool things about StarQuery Version 1.5 is the new StarQuery Runtime feature, which allows users to run queries right from their desktop without requiring them to create their own queries, or allowing them to modify the query or view confidential information. Other new features in StarQuery 1.5 include new database mapping, new variables available at run time, improved integration with the Oracle database, and improved "tooltip" help.

Plastech Finds System21 a Good Fit for ERP Consolidation

Plastech Engineered Products, a $1.2 billion provider of blow-molded and injection-molded plastic products for the automotive industry, is expanding its use of Geac's System21 ERP software. Last week Geac announced that the Dearborn, Michigan, manufacturer has selected the OS/400-based System21 over a competing ERP system used by LDM Technologies, an interior and exterior plastic trim manufacturer that Plastech recently acquired. After upgrading the 15 LDM Technologies' plants to System21, Plastech, which was founded in 1997 and now operates 33 plants across the Upper Midwest, will undertake the upgrade to System21 Aurora, the latest RPG IV-based ERP suite Geac launched last year. "Geac System21 supported our growth from a $200 million company to a $1.2 billion corporation," says David LeBlanc, vice president of IT at Plastech. "We can retrieve information regarding high-scrap items, identify which plants use specific types of resin, and monitor manufacturing run rates, all at our fingertips." Geac says the new contract is worth more than $300,000.

Coglin Mill's RODIN Is Ready for i5, V5R3

Coglin Mill, the Rochester, Minnesota, developer of business intelligence software for the OS/400 server, recently announced that its flagship extract, transform, and load (ETL) software, called RODIN, supports the new release of OS/400, i5/OS V5R3. "RODIN is i5 ready," said Alan Jordan, Coglin Mill's vice president of development and support. One of the areas that Coglin Mill is targeting with the latest release of RODIN and the eServer i5 is compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, the "truth in financial reporting" law passed in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom corporate scandals. Coglin Mill says its OS/400 data management tool can bring companies into "bullet-proof" compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley by ensuring the accuracy of data, providing control over business processes, and providing audit trails through its error management capabilities.

Optio Gives Control of Printers Back to the People

If you've moved away from advanced function presentation (AFP) printing to save money on printers, you might have lost some degree of control over your print jobs. Optio Software is shipping a new version of Print Manager, a software product designed to re-instill control over printers and to eliminate the need for IT personnel to babysit printers. Print Manager helps to automate enterprise printing environments with its AFP-like capability, to ensure delivery of every page and notify users of the progress of print jobs. Print manager can also break up large print runs by sending parts to several printers, and its automatic fail-over features can help ensure that print runs are completed. Optio says Print Manager, which works with its electronic document management software suite, supports many different ERP and healthcare management systems.

Metaserver Integration Suite Targets Ease-of-Use

Metaserver recently announced Metaserver 5.0, a new version of its business process integration (BPI) software suite that lets programmers and business analysts build composite applications, from 5250 data streams and many other sources. Business activity monitoring (BAM) received a boost with Metaserver 5.0 through new prebuilt reports that allow customers (primarily midmarket insurance carriers) to more quickly be able to tell, for example, which policies are selling best, to whom, and in what markets. Specific business processes can now be automatically triggered through new File Listeners and FTP Listeners, further integrating business processes living across different platforms. Metaserver 5.0 brings enhancements to the suite's Mapping Designer, which is now better able to handle large XML schemas, as well as the Modeling Environment, which, the New Haven, Connecticut, company says, features more drag-and-drop functions.