Vendor Snapshot: Stampede Chases the Notes/Domino Base
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

If you're one of the 90 million Lotus Notes users in the corporate world who sit at a PC, waiting impatiently for Domino applications to respond or for a big Notes database to replicate, Stampede Technologies' TurboGold Lotus accelerator programs were made for you. Stampede, which was founded in 1993, recognized in the late 1990s that streaming and caching technologies developed for audio and video applications could be reengineered to boost Notes/Domino performance, and it has built a business on the concept. READ MORE >

IBM Ships New Industrial Strength WebFacing Tool
by Alex Woodie

IBM last Friday started shipping yet one more product that allows its OS/400 and mainframe customers to transform green screens into Web interfaces. Its new Crys@lid Server is a third-tier Java-based converter that provides "industrial Webification" of 5250 and 3270 screens into HTML or XML, either on-the-fly or en masse, all at once. IBM, which doesn't normally sign OEM agreements, in June obtained North American distribution rights from the two French companies that are developing and marketing the Crys@lid Server. READ MORE >

New Tool Converts RPG Code to Free-Format Syntax
by Alex Woodie

Welcome to the 21st century, when RPG is no longer the red-headed stepchild of modern programming languages. Since IBM last year brought the free-format syntax to RPG, with OS/400 V5R1, RPG has begun to look quite a bit more like Java, C, Visual Basic, and even COBOL. eBI Synetics Group two weeks ago announced a new utility called AIMFREE that converts RPG/400 and ILE RPG code to the free-format syntax, allowing developers to partake of the free-format fruits without starting from scratch. READ MORE >

Quovadx Finds Legacy Quotient with Mainframe Connectors
by Alex Woodie

Quovadx, a provider of integration software primarily for the healthcare industry, last week announced new software connectors to pull data from OS/400 servers and mainframes. The new QDX Screen Rejuvenators can work as a screen-scraper in stand-alone mode to give 5250 and 3270 green screens new browser-based interfaces. Alternatively, the software can be deployed with Quovadx's core Java-based business-process-integration and transaction-server software to enable the preparation and delivery of Web services from existing servers. READ MORE >

Kisco Combines Fax, E-mail Apps and Updates Backup Utility
by Alex Woodie

Kisco Information Systems is repackaging and combining its two OS/400 fax and e-mail applications, BlueFax and the optional BlueMail module for BlueFax, into a single product called BlueSeries eXpress'it. This unified product features new screens and menus that, Kisco says, integrate the two products and make them easier to use. The upstate New York company has also released a new version of its OS/400 backup utility, DSK Manager, with improved search and restore capabilities. READ MORE >

News Briefs and Product Shorts

Idaho Electric Co-op Cuts Downtime with lock/DETECTOR . . . Comergent Announces Midmarket Version of Sell-Side E-Commerce App. . . iSeries Lures British Outsourcer Away from HP3000 . . . Survey: Financial Execs Not Entirely Happy with ERP. . .Rejbi Releases Fourth OS/400 Freeware App; 3 More in Works . . . Peregrine Files For Chapter 11, Sells Help Desk Software to BMC Software. . . READ MORE >

Reader Feedback and Insights

We value your feedback and your insights into the OS/400 market. Feel free to drop us a letter to the editor and we will post them in a reader feedback column associated with this newsletter. READ MORE >