News Briefs and Product Shorts

IIS Wins Award for Document Workflow System at a J.D. Edwards Shop

Image Integration Systems has won an award for the successful implementation of document capture and workflow software with Oracle's J.D. Edwards World and EnterpriseOne applications used by MDU Resources Group, an energy and construction materials company based in Bismarck, North Dakota. The solution combined IIS' Windows-based DocuSphere workflow software, EMC's Documentum content management software, and Trinity Technologies' Documentum interfaces. "Instead of manually pushing paper across multiple locations for review and approval, DocuSphere enables us to capture documents and route them electronically for review and approval, further automating and integrating the transactional processing that occurs within PeopleSoft," says Warren L. Robinson, executive vice president and chief financial officer of MDU Resources. A preliminary post-implementation review by MDU Resources shows the overall productivity of the A/P processes has increased by more than 30 percent, with similar reductions in manual content creation, cost per transaction, and cycle times, IIS says. MDU Resources estimates the productivity of its knowledge workers in finance, administrative, and legal functions has increased by about 35 percent, as a result of improved document retrieval times and the decreasing frequency of lost documents. The implementation brought IIS the Best Practices Award from the Association for Information and Image Management.

Intentia Taps ICCG to Provide Movex Services in the U.S.

Intentia, which is in the process of merging with rival Lawson Software, last week announced it has appointed Independent Computer Consulting Group to be its prime partner for consulting and implementation services in the United States. ICCG, which is based in Warminster, Pennsylvania, employs consultants who are certified in Intentia's Movex ERP application, in addition to several other ERP packages, such as SAP, SSA Global's BPCS, Oracle's E-Business Suite and J.D. Edwards applications. Movex users who are currently ICCG customers include Congoleum, M.J. Soffe, and Swedish Match, Intentia says.

Qualcomm Keeps Truckers Informed with Update to FleetAdvisor Software

Qualcomm last week announced two new releases of FleetAdvisor, a Windows CE-based application truckers use to accomplish a variety of tasks while on the road, such as keeping Department of Transportation-compliant logs, getting automated arrival and departure alerts, tracking mileage, and GIS mapping. With the version 6.2 release, FleetAdvisor gains new features such as support for 802.11b wireless transmissions, new Excel exporting functions, a delivery status indicator, activation of the unit'slight upon receipt of a FleetAdvisor message, support for batch mode communications, new filtering logic to minimize false TrailerTRACS connects and disconnects, enhanced APIs for integrating with third-party routing applications, better debugging, and support for French. Trucking companies with more than 6,000 vehicles and 8,000 drivers are encouraged to use the new version 6.2.3, which brings enhanced integration with iSeries servers, as well as support for Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Cluster Services.

Matrix to OEM Stay-Linked Wireless Session Control Software from eSP

Matrix Systems & Solutions, a developer of packaging and lot control (PLC) software used by food and drug manufacturers, and eBusiness Solution Pros announced a deal last week whereby Matrix Systems will private label eSP's Stay-Linked terminal emulation software for barcode scanners . "By participating in our Powered by Stay-Linked program, software application providers can seamlessly integrate our software with theirs, avoiding the need to develop and maintain their own solution for the highly specialized nature of wireless terminal emulation and advanced terminal session management," says Mike Pagani, eSP's vice president of marketing. Stay-Linked features a unique design that keeps all 5250, 3270, and VT100/220 terminal emulation and session control on the host, instead of the barcode gun, thereby decreasing the number of dropped sessions. Matrix Systems, which becomes the second software developer, behind Manhattan Associates, to OEM StayLinked, is calling its version of the emulation suite RFHostConnect.

DataMirror Unveils Operation Data Store Offering

DataMirror this month announced a new offering and sales campaign to help its customers create Operational Data Stores (ODS) without impacting production systems. DataMirror's new ODS solution brings the capability to capture changes made to the database of a production system in real-time, without slowing the production system or causing any downtime, a feature DataMirror calls Change Data Capture (CDC). An ODS is a separate database that mirrors a production database, and is used for business intelligence, business activity monitoring (BAM), application testing, and other uses. DataMirror says it can capture data from a database running on practically any system, from mainframes to mobile devices, for loading into an ODS.

Richard Schoen Enters the Blogosphere

Maybe it's time to buy a Blackberry device, RJS Software president Richard Schoen wonders aloud in his new blog, "Deep Thoughts with Richard Schoen," which went live at the beginning of the month. After all, if a Blackberry turns out to be as useful as his new 30GB Apple iPod, which Schoen's wife recently gave him for his birthday, then he could find himself being even more productive while golfing, waiting for a plane, or otherwise filling his day with access to e-mail. But alas, there's a hook: "Can I really learn to type with my thumbs?" Schoen writes. "I wonder if there's such a thing as carpal thumb syndrome." Views on consumer technology aside, Schoen plans to use his new Web log as a way to communicate with customers of RJS Software, which develops document management and workflow software that runs on iSeries, Windows, and other servers. "Blogging is a great way to provide information to customers and developers," Schoen says. "It also gives customers the chance to directly ask me questions and provide opinions and feedback on RJS products and development trends." You can view Schoen's blog at richardschoen.blogspot.com.