News Briefs and Product Shorts

• BOSaNOVA last week introduced a new 122-key keyboard that gives AS/400 and iSeries users full access to all of the function keys, even in Windows Terminal Server and Citrix environments. While 122-key PC keyboards are commonplace in this day and age, users of these keyboards are often unable to take full advantage of the keyboard--particularly the upper function keys, says Martin Pladgeman, BOSaNOVA president. "We realized that although 5250/PC 122-key keyboards work well enough with a PC or thin client running embedded 5250 emulation software, when the user attaches to [Microsoft] Terminal Server or Citrix the trouble starts," he says. "The keyboard, in these instances, functions only as a regular PC keyboard; typically the upper function keys do not work." As a result, these users have resorted to complicated combinations of key strokes to replace what a single upper function key used to provide them. BOSaNOVA, the North American distributor of BOScom's products, says it resolved this problem by developing a driverless 122-key keyboard, which includes keyboard map files that can be imported to 5250 emulation programs, such as Client Access or BOSaNOVA's TCP/IP. BOSaNOVA is bundling this new keyboard with its new line of LTC Thin Clients. They can also be purchased separately for $125 each.
  
  

• WorksRight Software today started shipping a new version of its OS/400-based ZIP/CITY address verification software that supports the new five-digit Metropolitan Statistical Area codes required by the federal government. With WorksRight's new version of ZIP/CITY, users will be able to identify the correct five-digit MSA codes associated with a given ZIP code.  Additional functions have also been added to allow users to select all ZIP codes within MSA codes. ZIP/CITY includes all of the ZIP codes serviced by the U.S. Postal Service and includes city names, city abbreviations, state names, telephone area codes, time zones, and latitude/longitude coordinates. The Madison, Mississippi, company also announced a new version of it Canadian Postal Code software today. Canadian Postal Code, which also runs on OS/400 servers, can identify more than 780,000 Canadian postal codes with matching city, province, area code, time zone, and latitude/longitude coordinates. Additionally, Canadian Postal Code lets users use a postal code to retrieve the city and province name and all other information associated with that postal code, including finding the nearest dealer and computing the airline distance between two postal codes. Both ZIP/CITY and Canadian Postal Code are available as yearly subscriptions, which cost $494 for ZIP/CITY and $900 for CPC.
  
  
• Group 1 Software, the Lanham, Maryland, developer of address verification software for OS/400 and other platforms, last week announced it will be delivering address verification as a Web service. The company says its new Universal Coder product, based on its new LESLIE Web services architecture, lets users to easily integrate, configure, and maintain the Group 1 address verification capability across disparate platforms. Companies will also be able to subscribe to Universal Coder, which will feature Java and Microsoft .NET interfaces, as an API-based service. LESLIE and Universal Coder should also benefit Group 1 by enabling it to concentrate on a single development effort. Group 1 says Universal Coder is today available on Windows NT, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, and Linux. The company says it will be moving other data quality products (presumably its OS/400-based ones) to the LESLIE architecture in the coming months.
  
  
• ROI has a new gig. The Kennesaw, Georgia, company, which found success selling OS/400-based payment management software, is going into the construction business. Last week ROI announced that its subsidiary Tectonic Solutions, which it launched in April, has released a seven-part product suite geared toward helping companies in the building and construction industry to more effectively manage their product information. The Tectonic suite announced last week includes Product Data Manager, Product Explorer, Product Configuration Assistant, Product Comparison Assistant, Product Visualizer, Product Design Assistant, and Product Submittal Assistant. ROI says a significant opportunity exists in the $860 billion American construction market to help companies share product and project information more effectively. To direct the development of Tectonic and its products, ROI hired several construction industry veterans, including Andrew Arnold, Marc Goldman, and Richard Rast. The company's software is under deployment at Architectural Specialties of St. Paul, Minnesota. ROI is expected to announce more industry-specific offerings in the future.
  
  
• The Australian affiliate of Amway, the $4.5 billion consumer products company, has successfully integrated its AS/400 order management system with a new CRM application, its CRM software provider, Onyx Software, announced last week. The implementation of the Onyx Employee Portal at Amway of Australia is the latest in a global roll-out of Onyx Employee Portal at several affiliates. Amway is the direct marketing giant from Ada, Michigan, that sells a range of vitamins, skin care, therapeutic magnets, laundry soap, and other products, via an army of 3.6 million "independent business owners" across the world. Amway of Australia modeled its Onyx Employee Portal implementation on Amway Korea, which successfully installed the Onyx software for 300 independent business owners in South Korea in February. Amway of Australia's new Onyx Employee Portal system will consolidate and centralize information for the organization's independent business owners, will help manage marketing campaigns, and will track independent business owners' performance against sales goals. Many Amway subsidiaries and affiliates, including its corporate parent, rely on OS/400 technology to manage orders, complete credit card payment, and conduct electronic commerce. Onyx Employee Portal runs on Windows 2000.
  
  
• Geac, developer of the System21 ERP suite, announced a partnership with Harmon, Lynch & Young last week, involving Harmon, Lynch & Young's OS/400-based EDI (electronic data interchange) and barcode label software. As part of the agreement, Geac will sell, implement, and support EDICOM, an automotive EDI and release accounting solution for OS/400, for System21 ERP automotive users in the United States. The agreement also has Geac integrating Harmon, Lynch & Young's EDICOM Smart Label system into its standard System21 Aurora offering for automotive customers in the Americas. EDICOM Smart Label is a barcode label solution that generates labels and supports the new scan-to-create and scan-to-verify shipping processes, which Geac says are increasingly popular. The EDICOM Smart Label software also integrates with T.L. Ashford's BarCode400 software product. System21 Aurora is Geac's next-generation ERP system; it was launched in April.
  
  

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