When the Taxman Cometh, Independent Systems Is There
by Alex Woodie

Another national election came and went last week, leading to the election of new leaders and the passage of new laws. While the promise of change from President-elect Barack Obama made the biggest headlines, businesses around the country should not overlook the many tax increases (or even decreases) approved at the state, county, city, and special-district level. Hand coding these changes directly into an ERP or accounting system can be a daunting task, but thanks to Independent Systems, System i shops can automate the calculations and remittance, and keep the taxman at bay. READ MORE >

Jinfonet Boosts Performance of Reporting Tool
by Alex Woodie

Jinfonet Software yesterday announced the general availability JReport 9, a new version of the Java-based business intelligence tool that's designed to integrate directly into Web applications. Improvements to JReport's memory utilization have boosted its performance by at least 40 percent, according to Jinfonet, while enhancements to its user interface, support for JSR168, and several dozen other new features round out the release. READ MORE >

SpoolFlex 4.2 Gives Customers More Control Over i Output
by Alex Woodie

It will be easier to produce highly tailored Excel spreadsheets loaded with i5/OS data using the latest release of the SpoolFlex output management system unveiled by DRV Technologies last week. SpoolFlex 4.2 brings new options for specifying how i5/OS data will appear when converted to the XLS format, including font, size, justification, and even color highlighting of rows and cells. The new release also makes it easier to configure SpoolFlex's e-mail distribution feature on System i servers. READ MORE >

Informatica Seeds Data Integration Cloud, Sees Pay Off
by Alex Woodie

Informatica is having success selling data integration tools and services to customers and providers of software as a service (SaaS) and cloud computing services. Last week the Silicon Valley outfit revealed that more than 10 percent of its OEM partners are cloud computing providers. The company also unveiled its latest cloud-based offering for Salesforce.com customers, and launched a new training and certification program around the data quality discipline. READ MORE >