|
News Briefs and Product Shorts
This issue of Midrange Stuff features a number of stories on document management issues facing
iSeries shops, so it's fitting that this week's lead News Brief centers on that topic. FormScape last week announced its document output software has
been certified by J.D. Edwards to manage output
generated by the OneWorld ERP suite. We also have a story about two cities in Indiana that plan to save
$500,000 by going in together on an iSeries system for police, fire, and paramedic services.
FormScape announced last week that
FormScape 2.4 and its FormScape Output Stream Access software have been tested and certified to work
with J.D. Edwards' OneWorld enterprise suite.
With FormScape, customers can accept documents produced by OneWorld, which uses the Adobe PDF
format, and reformat them to ASCII data streams. The software adds greater flexibility, such as printing to
PCL and PostScript printers, formatting and delivering the output by e-mail, archiving the document to the
Web or on laser disks, or integrating the output with FormScape's subset of XML. FormScape runs on
Windows, and the certification covers FormScape's integration with OneWorld running on OS/400, AIX,
Solaris, HP-UX, and Windows NT.
New World Systems, a Troy,
Michigan, provider of enterprise software for law enforcement and government, announced last week that
two Indiana cities have signed a contract to purchase the company's OS/400-based suite of public safety
applications. East Chicago and Hammond, both located in Northwest Indiana about five miles from each
other, near the south shore of Lake Michigan, will buy, install, and use the Aegis Public Safety suite jointly.
New World Systems said that by pooling their resources, the two cities were able to shave about $500,000
off the cost of installing separate modern systems. The contract is worth about $3.2 million to New World
Systems in software license fees and services, the company said. The 118,500 citizens who live in the two
cities will also benefit by the shared installation, which was pushed forward by the mayors and financial
officers of the two cities, because police and rescue personnel will be able to respond more quickly to
emergencies and the departments will be able to share data more easily. Integration of service will also
extend to nearby Gary, Indiana, another Aegis user. The installation will include the Aegis Computer Aided
Dispatch and Records Management modules for police, fire, and emergency medical service, a Mobile
Computing module, the Regional Data Sharing module, and other modules--all of which will be installed on
a new iSeries server.
Proginet announced a $225,400 drop in revenues
for its second quarter, which ended January 31, a 13 percent decline from a year ago. The Garden City,
New York, company, which sells data sharing and password utilities for OS/400 and other platforms,
reported revenues of just under $1.5 million for the quarter. The company suffered its biggest setback in
revenue for software-license fees, which were down 31 percent, to $593,007. Revenue from software
maintenance was up 8 percent, to $865,181, but it was not enough to offset the downturn in new sales,
which was largely responsible for the net loss of almost $200,000 for the quarter. The company, which is
publicly traded on the OTC Bulletin Board, reported a net gain of $213,087 a year ago.
Following a successful pilot program to develop a wireless check-in system, Harrah's Entertainment has chosen Jacada to rejuvenate additional OS/400 applications in its hotels and
casinos across the country, the companies announced last week. Jacada's Java technology played a key part
in the recently completed Remote Check-In System, which allowed Harrah's Total Rewards customers to
bypass the line at the front desk and check in to the hotel using a PDA connected to an OS/400-based server
over a wireless network connection. The project went live eight weeks after conception, and helped to drop
guest check-in times at the hotel by 60 percent, said Tim Stanley, Harrah's vice president for IT. "Harrah's
IT team has been pleased with our initial experience with the Jacada Interface Server, and we are eager to
continue exploring ways to leverage and extend our iSeries-based operational systems using Jacada,"
Stanley stated in the press release. Harrah's plans to use Jacada's suite of rejuvenation tools, renamed the
Interface Server last year, to develop Web browser-based front-ends to existing OS/400 green-screen
applications.
If you have any questions or doubts about whether or how WebSphere runs on IBM servers--and, as you're probably aware, there have been plenty over
the last two years--you may want to check out the new WebSphere Innovation Center that VAR juggernaut
Avnet Hall-Mark opened in San Antonio, Texas, last
week. WICs are sites where customers can get demonstrations and technical briefings for a variety of
WebSphere workloads, including WebSphere commerce and translation software, voice recognition
software, enterprise application integration, and Web enabling legacy data. Avnet's San Antonio WIC
differs from the Avnet Hall-Mark/Rave IBM WIC, recently opened in New York City, because it
concentrates solely on iSeries, pSeries, and xSeries implementations of WebSphere, whereas the WIC in
lower Manhattan showcases WebSphere running on other hardware platforms as well as IBM's.
The latest release of Lilly Software's ERP
suite for manufacturers contains new features that companies in the automotive industry should find
attractive. VISUAL Manufacturing 6.2.8, announced last week, streamlines EDI order entry and fulfillment
and eases the difficulties in managing complex orders, the Hampton, New Hampshire, company said. It also
allows distributors to manage operations on a customer-by-customer basis, including the capability to verify
order details, maintain price matrixes for parts by customer and date, establish shipping information, and
create thermal labels for orders. VISUAL Manufacturing, a C++ application originally developed for Microsoft's Windows, was ported to OS/400 in 1998
and now runs on a variety of operating systems and major relational database systems.
|
Sponsored
By
QUADRANT SOFTWARE |
|
ELECTRONICALLY CREATE & DELIVER MISSION-CRITICAL DOCUMENTS
QUICKLY, RELIABLY, AND COST-EFFECTIVELY
The Leader in Electronic Document Distribution
For over a decade, Quadrant Software has provided leading-edge solutions for the midrange computer
enterprise to increase productivity, lower costs, and improve communication. Quadrant Software
offers a suite of Electronic Document Distribution (EDD) solutions that reliably and electronically
create, manage, secure, and deliver forms, fax, email, barcode labels, MICR checks.
Proven Solutions
Our solutions are found worldwide in businesses that require efficient creation, management, and delivery
of their business documents. Our customers span manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, insurance, food
processing, financial services, and more. From small businesses to Fortune 500 and international Blue
Chip firms, Quadrant Software provides custom-engineered solutions that promote employee efficiency
and reduce overhead costs.
Partnerships
Our reputation reflects the company we keep. We have established relationships with the world's leading
application vendors including J.D. Edwards, Infinium, Computer Associates, Lawson, daly.commerce,
Mapics, BPCS, Mincron, Friedman, and RealVision, to name a few. In addition, we have a long-standing
history with IBM as an IBM Business Partner and development partner. These relationships mean that we
offer top-notch solutions custom designed for your operating environment.
World-Class Support
Our iron-clad warranty and maintenance programs are backed by a dedicated team of support, education,
and implementation professionals who are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to ensure the
usability, security, and dependability of our products. Add over a decade of experience at installing,
implementing, and training for our solutions in the most sophisticated operating environments, and that is
why Quadrant Software is the one company you can rely on.
Awards
Our best of breed solutions have been recognized for product quality and excellence by numerous,
prestigious industry journals including Midrange Systems, Midrange Technology Showcase, News/400,
Reliability Ratings, and DP Labs among others. Without a doubt, customers and experts agree: the best
solution for Electronic Document Distribution is a Quadrant Software solution.
Satisfaction
As the market leader in customer retention and a highly rated IBM Business Partner, we measure our
success by your satisfaction. Year in and year out, we receive the highest rankings for overall customer
satisfaction, proving our commitment to you as a customer. Our relentless pursuit of quality and
excellence has made us the industry leader and protects your investment in our products.
At Quadrant Software we design and deliver Electronic Document Distribution solutions that soar with
imagination and empower your business to securely create, manage and deliver mission-critical
documents. Our success results from our uncompromising commitment to quality, excellence, and your
satisfaction. That's the Quadrant Software difference. From system architecture, product design and
rigorous quality assurance to professional services, technical support, and documentation, it's easy to see
how Quadrant Software rises above the competition.
For more information or for a live demo of our EDD solutions call 800-258-3399 or visit
www.quadrantsoftware.com/products
|
|
|
 |
|
