News Briefs and Product Shorts

• Varsity Logistics, a San Francisco, California, provider of OS/400-based shipping automation software, last week announced that catalog retailer L.L. Bean has selected Varsity's ShipSoft transportation management system to handle its shipping operations. ShipSoft is an integrated shipping solution for parcels in the United States and Canada. In addition to streamlining the identification of transportation carriers, obtaining shipment pricing, ensuring compliance with established shipping rules and regulations, and preparing documentation, ShipSoft enables point-to-point tracking and analysis of shipment data maintained in a historical database, Varsity said. L.L. Bean's IS manager, Scott Ross, said the company compared several TMS offerings and eventually chose ShipSoft because of Varsity's knowledge of the shipping industry, its focus on customer satisfaction, and the fact that its software runs on iSeries servers. L.L. Bean plans to use ShipSoft internally, for its own merchandise, as well as externally, for its partners that ship merchandise directly to consumers from their facilities. Varsity said this new shipping project represents a milestone for the $1 billion multi-channel retailer because it will provide a seamless experience for the customer and better control over all outbound shipments for L.L. Bean's operations. The benefits expected to result from this project include lower administration costs, faster shipment processing, and reduced shipping expenses.

• SEAGULL last week announced support for Oracle's Oracle9i Application Server with Transidiom, SEAGULL's legacy extension software that transforms OS/400 and mainframe business logic into Java, XML, and Microsoft COM or .NET components. As a result of this new partnership between SEAGULL and Oracle, OS/400- or OS/390-based business logic that has been transformed by Transidiom into Enterprise JavaBeans can be invoked and served by the Oracle9i Application Server. Previously, Transidiom supported Web application servers from IBM, BEA Systems, Microsoft, and Apache. SEAGULL is also now a member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork.
  
  
• Clothier Brooks Brothers has replaced its Oracle/Unix-based retail management software with an OS/400 solution, according to JDA Software Group. Last week, JDA, a Scottsdale, Arizona, provider of ERP systems for the retail industry, announced that the Brooks Brothers division of Retail Brand Alliance has replaced the Retek Merchandising Solution, which is developed by Retek, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the Merchandise Management System, JDA's ERP suite for OS/400 servers. In addition to the core Merchandise Management System, Brooks Brothers is using JDA's business intelligence system, called Retail IDEAS, and Advanced Store Replenishment (a solution originally developed by E3, which JDA acquired last year). Retail Brand Alliance runs all three of these JDA packages for additional brands besides Brooks Brothers, including its Casual Corner, Petite Sophisticate, August Max, Carolee Designs, and Adrienne Vittadini brands.
  
  
• LXI announced last week that its tape management software for OS/400, LXItms, now works with StorageTek's tape libraries and management software. LXItms automates the selection, mounting, dismounting, and ejection of tapes, and manages the allocation of tape drive resources in libraries supporting multiple platforms. The specific StorageTek libraries supported by LXI include the L180, L700, L5500, and 9310 "PowderHorn" tape library. LXI announced that LXItms can help form a complete backup and recovery system when implemented alongside StorageTek's own tape management software, which includes ACSLS, LibraryStation, and RMLS. RMLS expands AS/400 connectivity to StorageTek's tape libraries and allows users to share libraries with a multitude of different computing platforms. ACSLS is a Unix-based library-enablement application for mainframe, AS/400, Unix, and Microsoft NT platforms that functions as the central service provider for all library operations. LibraryStation is similar to ACSLS, except that it allows non-mainframe platforms to access mainframe-based library resources. By building support for StorageTek tape libraries into LXItms, LXI is giving companies the capability to include OS/400 backups on a wider array of tape libraries that were previously used for non-OS/400 activities.
  
  
• The deadline for distributing 2002 tax forms to employees is still months away (the end of January 2003, in case you're wondering), but if you want to take advantage of electronically generated tax form creation services, you've only got a matter of weeks. ACOM Solutions last week announced its 2002 IRS Tax Form Solution, in which the Long Beach, California, company's Professional Services division will design an electronic 1099 or W-2 tax form. ACOM will also help you merge the form with employee payroll data and print it out on your own laser printer. ACOM says this service saves time and money by eliminating the need to deal with pre-printed tax forms. To enroll in this service, ACOM requires four things: a copy of the 2002 preprinted tax form the company plans to use, an envelope sample, dummy spool data output, and 10 sheets of the blank paper stock to be used. The deadline for submitting the dummy spool file is October 31. Pricing is $1,195 for a one-sided form or $1,995 for a two-sided duplex form.
  
  
• Lawson Software will deliver new capabilities in the forthcoming releases of its software to help companies in the healthcare industry comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the St. Paul, Minnesota, ERP software vendor announced last week. The new HIPAA-covered transactions that Lawson expects to deliver will include enrollment in, and removal from, a health plan, as well as deductions of health plan premiums from paychecks. Lawson said the creation of these files will apply to release 8.0.3 for the version of its ERP suite that runs on Unix and Windows NT, and to release 7.2.2.5 for OS/400. The company did not say when these releases would become generally available. Lawson is working with Hollstadt and Associates, a Burnsville, Minnesota, management consulting firm with expertise in HIPPA, to develop its plan for dealing with the requirements mandated by HIPPA. For more information on Lawson's HIPPA plan, go to www.lawson.com/healthcare/hipaa.
  
  

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