News Briefs and Product Shorts

BOSaNOVA Bolsters Thin Clients with SSL Encryption, Single Sign-On

BOSaNOVA has enhanced the security of its Windows and Linux thin client products. Last week the Phoenix, Arizona, company announced that its BOSaNOVA XTC and WTC line of thin clients, which are based on Microsoft Windows XPe and CE.NET, respectively, and the BOSaNOVA LTC thin client, which is based on Linux, now come with 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption on the TN5250e GUI emulation software. The BOSaNOVA WTC also offers an encrypted connection to Microsoft Terminal Server using SSH, while the BOSaNOVA XTC Thin Client also supports Single Sign-On (SSO) capabilities. "The convenience of SSO with the XTC product provides an industry first in thin clients," says Martin Pladgeman, president of BOSaNOVA. "Until now, the use of SSO was limited to PCs, since the multi-emulator product offered by most thin client manufacturers lacks the sophistication required to accomplish SSO with IBM systems. BOSaNOVA yet again is pushing the envelope for iSeries users in this emerging market."

Aggressive Growth Strategy for Hino Trucks Hinges on iSeries-based ERP

A new iSeries-based ERP system will be instrumental in handling an expected surge in business at Hino Motors Sales USA, the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, distributor for Hino Motors Limited of Japan, which is in the process of building a sales and service network to sell medium-duty trucks in the U.S. market. IDS Enterprise Systems, which was acquired by Swedish ERP software vendor IBS last month, says the replacement of a legacy system with the IDSe42 application will give the company, which is also known as Hino Trucks, a greater degree of control over truck sales and distribution, warranty claims, spare parts, and accessory stock and supply. After evaluating a number of automotive ERP vendors, Hino found IDS' software was ahead of the others and delivered advanced functionality for the automotive industry, says Derek Kaufman, senior vice president of Hino Trucks. "The automotive industry is highly competitive and we needed an efficient, scalable, and flexible solution in order to be able to adapt to new business demands and fast growth." Hino Trucks plans to ramp up production to cover 30,000 trucks sales a year. The new system, which will include parts, warranty, vehicles, BI, WMS, dealer connect, and account modules, is worth $1.3 million, and is scheduled to go live October 31, 2005.

EXTOL Gets the Better of Oracle in EAI User Survey

Longtime midrange software vendor EXTOL received some validation for its work in the enterprise application integration (EAI) and B2B areas last week when ebizQ, a research and publishing company dedicated to the Byzantine world of data integration, honored EXTOL with an EAI Buyers' Choice Award. What made this award special for EXTOL (and the reason we're covering it, because we don't normally cover product awards) is the other two companies that also received buyer's choice awards: WebMethods and Oracle. Anybody even remotely familiar with the EAI market knows that WebMethods, which won first place, is one of the top dogs in the product class. And, frankly, the folks at EXTOL have to feel extremely good about beating Oracle, which came in number three in the rankings. The rankings were tabulated from the results that ebizQ members gave their vendors in the following areas: ease-of-use, technical excellence, flexibility and reuse, maintenance and support, security, support for standards, skills required to implement the solution, and ROI. EXTOL, which develops, sells, and supports the EXTOL Business Integrator, received enthusiastic support from end-users for its customer service, ebizQ says.

Optio Inks Deal with CD Group to Automate Tasks at EnterpriseOne Shops

Optio Software and CD Group recently unveiled a new partnership that will be of interest to Oracle EnterpriseOne shops looking to save money on paper-intensive business processes. As part of the deal, which was unveiled at the Quest/OAG user conference near Dallas two weeks ago, Atlanta-based CD Group will resell and integrate Optio's e.ComIntegrate, e.ComPresent, and Imaging Solutions products at EnterpriseOne shops looking to automate their procure-to-pay and order-to-cash processes. Specifically, EnterpriseOne shops can expect to improve their procurement process by customizing outbound purchase orders and scanning inbound documents into Optio's workflow and document archive system; extracting ERP data from transactional documents; integrating data into EnterpriseOne through standardized workflows; and providing users with access documents stored in Optio's document archive system directly from EnterpriseOne. Optio Software is also based in Atlanta.

Guam Telecom Company Goes Private, Upgrades OS/400 App Along the Way

GTA, a local exchange carrier providing telecommunications services on the Pacific island of Guam, has successfully deployed the latest version of ICMS, CSG Systems announced last week. CSG Systems, the Colorado software company that purchased the OS/400-based suite of billing and customer care applications from IBM in 2002, says GTA upgraded to the latest version of ICMS as part of GTA's transformation from a government entity to a privately held telecommunications operator; GTA had been using ICMS since 1999. GTA was impressed with the success of the ICMS upgrade, says Bob Taylor, president and CEO of the island company. "CSG completed the project ahead of schedule, which greatly accelerated GTA's timeframe for its market launch," he says. In addition to the ICMS upgrade, GTA has signed a contract to use CSG's print and mail services to produce monthly statements for its 40,000 subscribers. GTA also will be relying on Sateri Systems, a CSG partner, to provide electronic bill presentment and online customer service.

Software AG Gains SAP Certification for Family of RPG, COBOL, PL/1, and Natural Adapters

Software AG is due to announce that its Legacy Integrator family of adapters for applications written in RPG, COBOL, PL/1, and its own Natural language, have been certified for use with SAP's NetWeaver integration platform. The German company, which acquired Israeli connector-maker Sabratec earlier this year, has worked with SAP to certify its XI Adapter for EntireX and XI Adapter for Natural products with the SAP NetWeaver platform, which enables customers to link their legacy applications running on mainframes, iSeries, and Unix servers with SAP applications. The certification is a key element of Software AG's strategy to provide a full range of service-oriented architecture (SOA) capabilities to modernize customers legacy systems.