News Briefs and Product Shorts

• Fiserv CBS Worldwide last week launched a new OS/400-based banking application for managing credit card accounts. The new application, called MetaCard, includes separate issuer and acquirer modules, and has credit card program management features, including authorizations, fraud alert, loyalty programs, private-label processing, major purchase plans, and transaction-based pricing. Financial institutions can purchase the entire MetaCard suite, or just the components, allowing them to grow their credit card programs at their own rate. The client/server application uses a Microsoft Windows front-end, with back-end processing handled by an OS/400 server. Fiserv CBS Worldwide, a subsidiary of Fiserv, entered the credit card industry in 2001, when it purchased the assets of a credit card system. Based on those assets and additional development work, the company released MetaCard.

• Gallatin Technologies recently announced a new release of its electronic newsletter publishing system that supports IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 6. The kNEWS Professional is an electronic newsletter publishing application that provides a way to create, deliver, and track e-mail and Web newsletters. Gallatin says kNEWS Professional simplifies communications by allowing non-technical users to take on publishing tasks without assistance from the IT department or a Webmaster. The software provides spam-avoidance guides and includes pre-built reports for gauging the success of a letter. Workflow and security are built into the product, which supports text, HTML, as well as pure Web-based publishing. Last week the San Diego, California, company announced that its latest release of the product, kNEWS Professional 2.2.4, can support Lotus Notes and Domino 6, the newest version of the collaboration and communications platform. All supported Notes and Domino platforms can run kNEWS Professional, which, the company says, includes Windows, Unix, Linux, AS/400, iSeries, and eSeries servers. The kNEWS Professional starts at $2,500, which includes a single copy of the application and a license to publish an unlimited number of newsletters from a single server, as well as 30 days of technical support.
• FormScape last week announced two new forms packages for companies using J.D. Edwards applications and for companies in the financial industry. The new FormScape Enterprise for J.D. Edwards package, which will ship later this month, includes a set of pre-defined business documents, including invoices, statements, credit notes, purchase orders, checks, and remittance advices. FormScape's JDE package supports ERP 8.0, JDE's latest release, as well as all ASCII, PDF, and OSA data types used in JDE's applications. The company's new FormScape for Finance Solution allows users to distribute documents electronically in several different ways, such as via fax, e-mail, printer, and the Web. Because of the complexity of forms in the financial industry (single forms often require information pulled from multiple sources), this level of customized delivery gives the users a decided advantage, according to the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, software company.
• DataMirror reports it is having success in selling its data replication and high availability software to companies in the retail business. The Toronto, Canada, OS/400 software developer says several factors are contributing to the need for replication and resiliency software in the retail sector, chief among them is a heavy reliance on old legacy systems coupled with an increasing need to keep core computer systems online to satisfy customer and supplier requirements. In the data replication arena, DataMirror reports that "enterprise data repositories" (or business intelligence projects), portals, and radio-frequency-based inventory management systems are driving sales of its data replication product, which provides real-time replication and automatic transformation among the major database management systems. Some of the companies in the retail sector using DataMirror's software for either replication or high availability include Barnes and Noble, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Dillard’s Department Stores, Hallmark Cards, NAPA Auto Parts, Staples, Tiffany’s, and Target.
• Shops managing their OS/400 spool files with DRV Technologies' spool file management product, SpoolFlex, can now add PCL print commands to their spool files. Last week Atlanta-based DRV Technologies announced SpoolFlex 1.6, and the Add PCL tool is its main enhancement. The company says the Add PCL tool will give users more control over printing spool file pages, including management of source drawer and output bin selection, as well as more control over the production of copies and the capability to call macro to pre-existing electronic document overlays, on a page-by-page basis. SpoolFlex is a collection of tools for sorting, splitting, reformatting, printing, and distributing spool files from OS/400 applications. Licenses for SpoolFlex start at $495 per module, or it costs $2,995 for the entire suite.
• Here's a quick quiz to see if you're chief information officer material. It’s the late 1980s, and you're the IT director at Pacific Sunwear, "a leading mall-based specialty retailer of everyday casual apparel, accessories, and footwear designed to meet the lifestyle needs of active teens and young adults." You're looking for a new retail management system as the company expands outside of California, and you need a new computer platform to run it on. What do you choose? If you said Island Pacific's Materials Management System running on an AS/400, consider yourself promoted. Pacific Sunwear adopted Island Pacific's OS/400-based Materials Management System when there were just 23 stores, almost all of which were centered near the retailer's headquarters in Orange County (near Los Angeles). Since then, Island Pacific has grown to more than 800 stores in 48 states and Puerto Rico, and it is still adding stores and growing revenues. Last week, Island Pacific announced that Pacific Sunwear has signed a license agreement and will begin implementing two additional components of the Materials Management System suite, including Trends, an OS/400 replenishment solution, and IP Integrator, an embedded integration solution. The two new products will help Pacific Sunwear maintain its growth, says Ron Ehlers, the company's vice president of information systems. "As our company has evolved, our information needs have grown dramatically, and Island Pacific's merchandising solution has grown right along with us."

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