Bridgestone/Firestone Finds the Cosyn for BPCS Upgrade Dilemma
by Alex Woodie

Like many BPCS shops, Bridgestone/Firestone New Zealand had concerns about the way its ERP system handled spool files. The lack of sophisticated spooling capabilities required the company to insert hard-coded modifications into the program to manage documents. This worked fine, until the company prepared to upgrade the ERP suite, at which point the custom-coding would have required duplication in the new version. Instead, Bridgestone/Firestone NZ used a utility from Cosyn Software to solve the problem. READ MORE >

IBM, Red Hat Team Up to Push Linux into Enterprises
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

IBM and Red Hat yesterday announced that they have forged a broad alliance that will see Big Blue push Red Hat's Linux Advanced Server on IBM's entire line of eServer products. The agreement also includes collaboration on services, through Big Blue's Global Services organization, for the companies' respective Linux products. The deal seems to address many of the problems that have kept corporate customers from buying Linux as an alternative to Windows, Unix, and proprietary platforms. READ MORE >

Hummingbird Updates Connectivity Suite with Support for WinXP, SSL
by Alex Woodie

Hummingbird last week announced it has updated its suite of connectivity software, issuing new versions of its emulation package, X Windows Server, and Network File System access software. The version 8.0 releases of HostExplorer, Exceed, and NFS Maestro all have the capability to run on Microsoft Windows XP, and each individual product adds enhancements having to do with its role in Hummingbird's lineup. READ MORE >

inFORM Decisions Launches Document Management for Windows
by Alex Woodie

inFORM Decisions, an Irvine, California, software company that develops document management software for IBM's midrange AS/400s and iSeries servers, last week launched a new suite of document management software that runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems. iDocs for NT has the same basic capabilities and features as inFORM's iDocs Suite, with the main difference being that it reads the ASCII print datastream instead of the proprietary print datastream used exclusively in IBM iSeries and mainframe computers. READ MORE >

Event-Based Testing Drives Latest Release of TestWEB
by Alex Woodie

Original Software Group last week issued the version 1.3 release of TestWEB, the company's testing tool for Web applications running under OS/400 and other platforms. With this latest release, Original Software is allowing developers to test their Web applications based on page events, in addition to the standard navigation-based testing that checks how mouse movements and key clicks affect an application. The British company said this new event-based capability will greatly enhance the testing of complicated Web applications. READ MORE >

News Briefs and Product Shorts

L.L. Bean Breaks New Ground with Varsity Logistics. . .SEAGULL Builds Support for Oracle in Transidiom. . .Brooks Brothers Dumps Oracle System for OS/400. . .LXI Announces Support for StorageTek Tape Libraries. . .ACOM Ramps Up IRS Tax Form Solution. . .Lawson Reveals HIPAA Updates for Future Releases. . . READ MORE >

Corrections

The article "Vendor Snapshot: NexGen Pushes Services and Apps, Plays the Niches" has been edited to correct several errors. AGI is a subsidiary of IBS, not IBM. NexgenCommerce has a pure HTML interface, not a pure HTML/JavaScript interface. Ruth Clark's name was incorrectly spelled. Guild Companies regrets the errors. [Corrections made 9/10/02]

Reader Feedback and Insights

We value your feedback and insights on the OS/400 market. Please send a letter to the editor, and we will post it in a reader feedback column for this newsletter. READ MORE >