News Briefs and Product Shorts

• Portal technology is gaining popularity as a method to better control accessibility of applications and programs that are distributed on the Web. It also provides customizing tools that increase productivity when doing familiar tasks such as reports, to-do lists, and calendars. However, portal technology has been used primarily at high-end corporations, where tens of thousands of dollars in implementation costs plus maintenance fees are not a deterrent. Where does that leave an IT department at a small or midsized company? One option is BCD Int'l's portal product it calls Nexus. This week at COMMON, BCD announced it plans to provide 1,000 iSeries shops with a free license to Nexus, charging only for the annual maintenance fee, which is $2,195 for single use and $3,795 for multiple-partition use. Nexus debuted one year ago and was priced at $12,000 for a single license and $21,000 for multi-partition use. It provides secure access to iSeries Web applications from any Web tool, including BCD's own WebSmart, as well as linking to enterprise Windows NT, Linux, and Unix applications.
  
  

• Companies can now deploy Zephyr Development's emulation software with Apache Software Foundation's Tomcat Java Web application server. Last month Zephyr announced it tested and certified Tomcat to deliver its Web-based terminal emulation software, PASSPORT Web to Host. Before this development, customers were required to serve the PASSPORT emulation software from a Microsoft Windows NT or 2000 server running IIS, an IBM mainframe running WebSphere Application Server, or any other server running BEA's WebLogic Application Server. Zephyr says the primary advantage of using Tomcat is that it is free and is open-source.
  
  
• Quadrant Software, developer of iSeries document and fax management software, launched a new online partner program last week as part of its effort to streamline its partner program. The site has different areas for partners, prospective partners, and users. For prospective partners, the site has information about training, certification, lead generation, and commissions involving Quadrant's products. The new site also provides users with information about the location of certified Quadrant partners. But the most functionality is provided to actual partners. Depending on their authority levels, Quadrant's partners are granted access to password-protected areas of the site, which gives them access to Account Center, Products & Sales, Certification Center, and Tech Center. Account Center provides information on leads and commissions earned, and the capability to add and delete users from their account. Products & Sales provides access to the latest product specification sheets, configurations, technical documents, and application-specific updates. Certification Center provides information about certification and includes a simple application form to get started. Tech Center provides access to priority support for a partner's company and its customers, and includes product release updates, solution documentation, diagnostics, and support files. For more information on Quadrant's partner program, go to www.quadrantsoftware.com/partners.
  
  
• iWay Software (an Information Builders company) introduced its next-generation enterprise application integration (EAI) toolset last week. The company, which is best known for having the industry's biggest and most complete set of EAI adapters, rolled out new cluster management capabilities, a new remote installation and management console, tighter integration with Microsoft SQL Server, and new data adapters. The new remote installation and management console is designed to reduce the manual tasks involved in installing adapters on OS/400, OS/390, Unix, and OpenVMS servers, iWay says. Instead of having someone at the server to load the adapter, installation files can now be transferred and configured from a remote computer.
  
  
• Autumn is upon us, and do you know what that means? That's right. It's time to go back to school, even for you greybeards out there. Manta Technologies, an iSeries education provider, last week announced its giant "super series sale," in which it is offering a 25 percent discount on all computer-based iSeries training packages. The sale runs from September 15 to October 15. For more information, go to www.mantatech.com.
  
  
• California Software last week announced a new release of baby.NET, its legacy integration tool for redeveloping 5250 iSeries and 3270 mainframe screens as Windows .NET-compatible interfaces. With baby.NET Version 2.1, the Irvine, California, software company has jiggered the software to provide greater support for European and other international keyboards, and has also improved the performance, according to Karen Bass, the company's vice president of worldwide client services.
  
  

Sponsored By RJS SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

Implement Document Imaging on your iSeries-AS/400 in 30 minutes or less Image Server/400 is a Web browser-based document image management system for the iSeries. Documents can be quickly scanned and stored in IFS folders, and then located and retrieved for viewing via any Web browser. Integrate with other iSeries-AS/400 applications. Call us at 888-RJS-SOFT or download a FREE fully functional demo from our Web site at www.rjssoftware.com