News Briefs and Product Shorts

• For some time, many of us have suspected there's a lot more to making a Krispy Kreme doughnuts beyond sugar and flour. And, now, thanks to a new white paper by OS/400 software developer EXTOL, we know what that secret ingredient is: EDI, or electronic data interchange. No, it's not some derivative of MSG. EXTOL's new white paper, entitled Strategic EDI and the Mid Sized Enterprise, details how Krispy Kreme uses EDI to improve the efficiency and accuracy of several key back-office functions, all in the name of delivering hot, fresh doughnuts to our bellies. EXTOL's latest white paper is one in a series of reports that look at new and innovative ways that organizations have deployed EDI technology beyond the traditional supply chain. To download the white paper, go to EXTOL's Web site.

• When Bass Pro Shops casts its marketing materials out, far and wide, you can rest assured, knowing that the multi-channel hunting and fishing sporting goods retailer will get a good bite. Last week, the Springfield, Missouri, company, an AS/400 shop that has been featured in numerous case study articles by IBM and others, announced that it will use Group 1 Software's data verification technologies to gain a more accurate single view of its customers. Group 1's data quality solution helps companies eliminate errors and redundancies in their customer contact databases. An IT director with Bass Pro Shops said it plans to use Group 1's software to verify customer contact data as it enters the company, which will yield greater flexibility in determining data quality processes and developing marketing.
  
  
• WISYNCO Trading Limited, a Jamaican plastics manufacturer and distributor of finished goods, developed a new B2B e-commerce Web site using LANSA's development environment. The company uses MAPICS on an AS/400 to manage the plastic production and distribution of goods from Pillsbury, ConAgra Grocery Products, Gallo Winery, Welch’s, Nestle, Ocean Spray, and Haagen-Dazs. The company tried for more than a year to build a Web site that would allow its thousands of customers to place orders and to check on shipments over the Web, but failed. After bringing in LANSA's Commerce Edition, which features pre-built templates for Web-based order entry, inquiry, and customer self-service, and after a few weeks of development, it had a Web site up and running, LANSA says. As a result of the implementation, WISYNCO is a leader in e-business among Caribbean manufacturers and distributors, according to LANSA, and is now considering extending its system to wireless devices.
  
  
• Automotive ERP software developer BRAIN North America last week announced the release of SupplyWEB 6.0, the latest version of its supply chain execution for companies in the automotive supply chain. New features with this release include advanced global capabilities and expanded functionality in areas such as demand management, purchasing, supplier shipping, and invoicing. BRAIN's corporate parent, BRAIN AG, in Germany, recently filed for provisional insolvency because of the poor economic conditions in Germany and is in discussions with investors. However, the corporation recently expanded BRAIN North America's Ann Arbor, Michigan, headquarters. BRAIN's software runs on OS/400 and other platforms and is in use at more than 1,600 sites, according to the company.
  
  
• A new report from Forrester Research indicates that the market for customer relationship management software will make a steady comeback over the next five years, after the CRM market took a modest dive after the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. The market for CRM dropped 5.4 percent in 2001, but will grow at a compound annual rate of 11.5 percent from 2002 to 2007, Forrester said. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, research firm also declared that CRM will be driven even more by consulting firms, which already make up more than half of the market. The firm also found the fastest-growing segment in the CRM space will be marketing-automation applications.
  
  
• In past issues of this column, we've brought you news about how the iSeries is making its impact all over the world. From the iSeries version of the Segway Human Transporter (see the last story in "News Briefs" in the December 18, 2001, issue) to the new iSeries computer speakers from Benwin, we've done our best to cover all angles of the iSeries industry. Now we've encountered a new iSeries product from Agilent Technologies, leaders in developing the Fibre Channel and, now, the iSCSI storage protocols. Agilent's new iSeries developer's kit assists developers in creating IP-based storage solutions, using the new iSCSI storage protocol. For more information about the Tachyon iSeries Developer's Kit, go to Agilent's Web site.
  
  

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