News Briefs and Product Shorts

• Magic Software is offering free Web-based training to anyone who wants to learn to use its application development suite, Magic eDeveloper. As part of the offer, Magic is offering developers a free evaluation version of Magic eDeveloper 9.3, a 40-hour Web-based training course called "Fundamentals of Magic eDeveloper Programming," and three months of free technical support. Magic eDeveloper is a fourth-generation language environment that has recently been brought into the Web services age with support for technologies such as XML, Web Services Description Language (WSDL), and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Applications created using eDeveloper can be compiled to OS/400, Linux, Unix, and Windows operating systems. To sign up for the free offer, go to Magic Software's Web site.
  

• ASNA has built a cross-reference utility for applications written using ASNA Visual RPG and Caviar. The tool, called Impacta, will allow programmers to cross reference for file dependencies and conduct other tests of ASNA Visual RPG code out in the field, even among multiple PCs that are networked. Impacta, which was written in ASNA Visual RPG, works with ASNA Visual RPG 4.0 compiled programs. ASNA is already working on a version of Impacta for the forthcoming release of ASNA Visual RPG for .NET. Impacta will ship in August.
  
  
• The AS/400 system in use at Irish brewer Beamish & Crawford is getting a new Web interface, thanks to NetManage's OnWeb software, the Cupertino, California, software company announced last week. Beamish & Crawford, a division of the second largest brewer in Europe and a franchisee of Miller Brewing, was inefficient in the way it entered orders into its AS/400 order entry system. Sales representatives in the field would interrupt their sales activities to call headquarters and transcribe their orders to a customer service representative, who would then manually enter the orders into the AS/400. After implementing the OnWeb host integration system, which carries orders created using the sales representatives' IBM Lotus Domino-based CRM system to the back-end AS/400, Beamish & Crawford's customer service reps saw a 70 percent reduction in their workload and sales representatives were able to increase the number of clients they could service, NetManage says, adding that the brewer should see a full return on its investment in about six months.
  
  
• The private-sector lending arm of The World Bank Group has selected ALLTEL's commercial lending software package to manage its portfolio of loans to companies in emerging markets in more than 40 countries, ALLTEL announced last week. The International Financial Corp. will run ALLTEL's ACBS application through an application service provider unit of ALLTEL, called ALLTEL Information Services. ACBS runs only on OS/400 and Windows and is licensed by 36 financial institutions, including ABN AMRO, Bank of America, Barclays, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Dresdner Bank, JPMorgan Chase, PNC, and Scotiabank.
  
  
• H.A. Technical Solutions and IBM threw virtually everything they had at H.A. Technical Solutions' Linux clustering and data replication software, trying to cause some meaningful glitch during testing at IBM's Porting Test Center in Boston recently. The testing was conducted using IBM's entire range of Linux-ready servers--iSeries, zSeries, pSeries, and xSeries. The testers tried modifying files, copying whole directories, deleting files, interrupting the replication process, and even crashing the source server, to see if the software could handle the stress. They even tried failing over to dissimilar systems--such as having an iSeries take over for its fallen xSeries brethren--"several dozen" combinations in all. But in the end, whatever they tried, the software could handle, says H.A. Technical Solutions.
  
  
• PentaSafe Security Technologies announced some financial results of its first quarter for fiscal year 2003 last week. The Houston, Texas, company said its revenue for the quarter increased 37 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago, and that it added 54 new customers, bringing the total number of companies using its security policy management, auditing, and intrusion detection software to more than 1,300. (Earlier this year, a PentaSafe press release stated the company had 1,500 customers, but a call to PentaSafe confirmed that number was incorrect. The company says the higher figure was a typographical error.) PentaSafe, which is a privately held company and is therefore not required to disclose its financial figures, did not disclose its actual revenues for the quarter.
  
  

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