News Briefs and Product Shorts

Teamstudio Helps Automate Build Process with New Domino Tool

Domino shops looking to reduce errors introduced during the development, testing, and roll-out of new applications may want to check out a new product announced by Teamstudio this month. Teamstudio Build Manager is designed to automate the configuration of Domino and Notes applications as they move from development to quality assurance (QA) and production, increasing application security and quality. Some of its functions include creating predefined Access Control lists (ACLs) that can be automatically applied to the database during promotion, singing the database and agents with the proper Notes ID, keeping a centralized log of all database promotion activities, and sending out e-mail alerts notifying users of changes to the application. "The risk of human error in the build process can have a drastic impact on data integrity and application quality," says Nigel Cheshire, Teamstudio's chief executive. "Teamstudio Build Manager is a software integrity solution that helps build quality into an application from the start by eliminating the human error factor and automating the steps in the build process."

Bottomline Improves PDF Digital Signature Support with Create!form 6.1

Bottomline Technologies last week announced the general availability of a new release of its Create!form document management software for improving the output of ERP applications running on OS/400, Unix, and Windows operating systems. Create!form version 6.1 includes two new product components, including the Create!form Designer and Create!form Director components, which bring enhancements in several areas, including streamlining the modeling and automation of complex transactional business processes, the company says. These new components also help boost the generation of output and offer improved support for digital signatures in PDF documents, according to the company. While Create!form supports OS/400 output and is commonly used in J.D. Edwards environments, the spool file merge component of Create!form runs on Windows, as does the form design tool. In addition to the core Create!form module, Bottomline offers several add-on modules that increase the flexibility of ERP output, including Create!archive, Create!stream, Create!print, Create!email, Create!fax, CheckDefense, and Create!form ACH. Pricing for Create!form 6.1 starts at $10,000.

NetShops Picks CommercialWare to Process Transactions from 80+ E-Commerce Web Sites

NetShops, an Omaha, Nebraska, company that runs a collection of more than 80 online specialty stores from its Web site at www.netshops.com, has picked CommercialWare to supply an integrated suite of software for managing its direct commerce operations. With peak activity of 5,000 orders per day, NetShops needed a scalable order management system. It got that with CWDirect, an OS/400 application that serves as the foundation for CommercialWare's multi-channel retailing suite. CWDirect captures all customer interaction data and handles order management, fulfillment, and customer service. In addition to CWDirect, NetShops is installing CW Collaborate for drop-ship management, and CWData and CWAnalytics for business intelligence. Donny Askin, founder and chief executive of Natick, Massachusetts-based CommerialWare, commended NetShops on its choice. "NetShops has a comprehensive e-commerce interface and the choice of CWDirect and the other CommercialWare products gives it a robust back end that allows its online stores to work in concert with one another," he says. CWDirect 9.0, which was unveiled earlier this year, is available preloaded on a special CommercialWare Solution Edition eServer i5 Model 520.

CommuniGate Pro 5.0 to Bring 'Carrier Grade' VoIP, Vendor Says

The next version of CommuniGate Systems' (formerly Stalker Software) CommuniGate Pro e-mail and collaboration software should be available in about a week, according to a spokeswoman with the company. CommuniGate Pro version 5.0 features numerous enhancements in the Voice over IP (VoIP) area and will provide a carrier-grade, software-based PBX system, the company says. With version 5.0, the session initiation protocol (SIP)-based CommuniGate Pro will act in a variety of new functions, including serving as a teleconference Server, providing auto-attendant and interactive voice response (IVR) functionality, providing call queuing and automatic call distribution (ACD) functionality, and serving voicemail. The company also claims users will be able to easily add nodes to their CommuniGate clusters, and scale up their "SIP Farm" to meet demands, while new logging functions and APIs will facilitate integration with billing systems. "The Internet is constantly evolving into the most widely used communications backbone, and users now demand sophisticated Internet Communications including instant messaging, e-mail, and Voice over IP," says Vladimir Butenko, chief executive of the San Francisco Bay Area software firm. OS/400 is one of several dozen operating systems that CommuniGate Pro runs on, and the spokeswoman says OS/400 support will quickly follow the product's initial support for more popular operating systems.

Symbol Validates eSP's Stay-Linked in New Certification Program

Warehouses using eBusiness Solutions Pro's Stay-Linked host access middleware on barcode scanners from Symbol can feel confident about their software choice as a result of a new certification program at Symbol that eSP participated in and passed. Last week the two companies announced that eSP was the first vendor to have its software validated by Symbol as part of Symbol's new Solutions Validation Program. As part of the validation process, Stay-Linked was installed on two Symbol products, the MC50 enterprise data assistant and the MC9000 mobile computer, and tested in various configurations and scenarios against a Manhattan Associates warehouse management system. According to the vendors, Stay-Linked performed as documented for all device, application, host server platform, and terminal emulation combinations. In addition to the new Solutions Validation Program, which is used for testing applications that install on Symbol computers, the vendor has created the SymbolPLUS Partner Program to validate the performance of peripheral connections, such as wireless printers and GPS receivers.

2005 Tax Preparation Software Now Available from Acclaim

The air is getting cold, the leaves are falling, and birds are flying south. All are sure-fire signs that year-end accounting and tax statement duties are right around the corner. One of the software vendors with products that can help is Acclaim Software, which this month announced the availability of the 2005 versions of its software packages for printing and filing W-2 and 1099 tax documents from your OS/400 server. Both of the packages, called W-2 Magnetic Media and 1099 Magnetic Media, feature interactive data entry, help screens, verification reports, generation of transmittal forms, and output to PC diskette, tape, and e-filing. Alternatively, the programs will print your employees' tax forms, on preprinted continuous or laser forms, or on blank perforated laser tax forms using form overlays, which are included with the software. An import program makes it easy to bring existing employee data into Acclaim's W-2 or 1099 packages. Both packages cost $695 each, a price unchanged from last year.