News Briefs and Product Shorts

• The same type of remote hosting services that IBM will be providing for xSeries-based CRM solutions will be available for iSeries later this year. Last week IBM announced that it is partnering with Onyx Software to offer hosted marketing and sales force automation software. This offering has IBM remotely managing the xSeries servers that run the Onyx CRM software, while the xSeries servers remain at the customer's site. IBM calls this form of hosted/in-house solution "Services Anywhere." One IBM spokesman said an industry article erroneously stated that this joint IBM-Onyx Services Anywhere software would be available on xSeries as well as iSeries platforms (in fact, it's available only on the xSeries). The spokesman also said that Services Anywhere would come to the iSeries later this year, but did not provide further details.

• Center Parcs, a series of environmentally friendly vacation "villages" scattered across Northern and Western Europe, has successfully deployed Island Pacific's Java-based business intelligence system to complement its OS/400-based InFocus Merchandise Management system. Officials with the resort company, based in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, said that the new business intelligence system, called The Eye, has already led to new insights. "Since implementing Island Pacific's Merchandise Management system two years ago, we have experienced notable improvements in efficiencies across our operations," said Robin Betterton, Center Parcs' IT manager. "The recent addition of The Eye has allowed us to gain new insights into our business and guest-spending patterns." The Eye is a datamart application that integrates with InFocus and allows users to develop queries and reports to answer operational questions and to make forecasts. Center Parcs' 13 villages are self-contained resorts that cater to Europeans looking for short, environmentally sensitive getaways. Center Parcs villages are marked by lush foliage, on-site stores, and a dependence on bicycles for transportation, but the key distinguishing factor at each village is the "subtropical swimming paradise," a transparent covered dome that houses a wave pool, river slides, children's pools, Jacuzzis, and saunas. The 30-year-old company employs more than 10,000 people and housed more than three million guests from 1999 to 2000.
• LXI's Tape Tracker 3.5 tape management software has been certified to work with Legato Systems' NetWorker 7.0 network backup application, LXI announced last week. Tape Tracker simplifies tape management by keeping track of vaulting, reporting, scratch management, and other tape activities across OS/400, Linux, AIX, Solaris, and HP-UX platforms. Tape Tracker also integrates with many major network-based backup applications, including NetWorker, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, VERITAS Software NetBackup, Computer Associates BrightStor, and others; integration with LXI's own Media Management System backup software for OS/400 servers provides AS/400 and iSeries connectivity for Tape Tracker. NetWorker 7.0, which Legato announced in mid-March, features expanded backup-to-disk capabilities, including support for the new class of ATA drives that are shipping on midrange storage arrays, in addition to support for Microsoft Windows 2003, Macintosh OS X, and improved support for enterprise Linux. NetWorker does not support OS/400.
• WRQ's Verastream host integration software will soon be sporting Microsoft .NET logos. Last week the Seattle emulation and integration software provider announced it has completed Microsoft's BizTalk Server Adapter Validation program and a .NET Connect logo program, which confirms that Verastream has completed Microsoft's rigorous testing for BizTalk Server application integration interoperability. Verastream allows users to repurpose business logic in older host systems--including mainframe, OS/400, Unix, and Hewlett-Packard HP3000 and OpenVMS platforms--into new components, based on the Web services stack, that can more easily be manipulated by newer development and runtime platforms. WRQ claimed the new BizTalk Server validation shows its commitment to Microsoft tools and server platforms, while at the same time the company's Web site says Verastream offers equal support for .NET and Java, the two dominant development camps.
• Dynamic Systems Solutions, the Pompano Beach, Florida, developer of OS/400 auditing tools, announced last week that IBM has given ServerProven certification to its Auditron/400 utility. Auditron/400 tracks modifications made to sensitive data elements on AS/400 and iSeries servers, and assists in the management and control of iSeries system security. One of the promising new uses of Auditron/400 is tracking data changes made in ERP systems used by pharmaceutical companies to help those companies comply with new federal guidelines governing digital documents, called 21 CFR Part 11. The IBM ServerProven Certification provides a level of assurance to prospective customers that the solution has been implemented and used in the field. It can also help pave the way for discounts and other packaged offerings IBM offers to its customers and business partners.
• The Dominican Republic's largest bank has chosen Vision Solutions software to implement a high availability environment for its banking application. Vision Solutions announced last week that Banco Popular, which has $21 billion in assets, has chosen Vision Suite to ensure the availability of its Fiserv International Comprehensive Banking System application, running on an iSeries Model 840. While other high availability software providers have alliances with Fiserv and have experience with the ICBS application, Vision claims that Banco Popular selected its high availability offering because of the "special integration"--including software interfaces and documentation--between Vision Suite and ICBS, among other reasons. "Over the years Vision Solutions has closely worked with Fiserv on enabling ICBS for high availability using Vision Suite," says Ron Peeters, senior director of business development for Vision Solutions. "This has led many ICBS users, such as Banco Popular, to adopt Vision Suite to keep their banking application available." Lisbert Hidalgo, Banco Popular's user's support manager, says that, after reviewing high availability software vendors and their customer references, "it became clear that Vision Suite is the best of breed solution for ICBS users." Banco Popular has engaged IBM alliance partner GBM for the Vision Suite implementation.

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