News Briefs and Product Shorts

• Quadrant Software has a new release of its forms management software for OS/400 servers. Formtastic Fusion5 Version 5.1 features a number of functional enhancements, including an improved designer, new output capabilities, closer integration with Quadrant's companion fax and e-mail products. First, the product's Windows designer tool, DesignerPRO, gives users greater control over layers and objects on the screen, where, previously, accidental movements of the mouse could result in deleted objects. The designer also includes new auto text-centering features and other features for fine-tuning the positions of objects. Formtastic Fusion5's change management component, VersionManager, features new functionalities that allow changes to be tested while work is still in progress on a document. User error should also decrease as a result of the enhancements Quadrant has added to the suite's data-mapping tool, SmartMAP, which provides "printer previews" of how spool file renderings will look with specific printers. Enhancements allow SmartMAP to alert users anytime they place an object outside of the printable area, and let them know of other printer limitations. The suite's intelligent document routing component, IntelliDOC, should make users more productive. With Version 5.1, IntelliDoc allows users to add conditioning to a range of lines, rather than just a single line, for more sophisticated form handling with a single command. The Formtastic Fusion5 component that keeps documents on the OS/400 server synchronized with clients, Synchronizer, has also been improved. Users can get logged on and working faster with less interaction than before, Quadrant says. Last, Quadrant has updated the Formtastic Fusion5 engine itself. Improvements include expanded capability for specifying certain printer paper source drawers, enhanced collation functions, and support for AFP output from DDS file mergers. The Taunton, Massachusetts, software company says that Formtastic Fusion 5 Version 5.1 integrates with most major OS/400 ERP packages, and pricing starts at $8,400.

• New OS/400 freeware was recently made available by Rejbi Software. The Perrysburg, Ohio, subsidiary of Technology Solutions Incorporated launched Rejbi:XR, a cross-referencing tool that allows programmers to see how and where an object is being used, what objects are being referenced by an OS/400 program, and to determine database relationships. Rejbi:XR's cross-reference database can be configured to update automatically in batch, or updated manually from the menu. Anybody can download Rejbi:XR for free. Users can purchase annual support and maintenance for $400. Rejbi has been busy lately developing new OS/400 freeware utilities. For a rundown on Rejbi's recent releases, see the September 24 edition of News Briefs and Product Shorts.
  
  
• ResQNet recently announced that two OS/400 ISVs, MedUSA and Innovative Computer Consultants, have created new GUI screens for their 5250 applications using ResQNet's screen-rejuvenation technology. MedUSA is using ResQNet to update the appearance of Med Prime, its medical billing and practice management software for OS/400 servers. The South Jordan, Utah, company had been under pressure from its customers to deliver a true Windows-style interface for Med Prime. Innovative Computer Consultants is using ResQNet to modernize eRegister, its point-of-sale software for retailers. The company said the new GUI will provide a better fit for its customers' retail environments, including the capability to display PDF and JPEG images for customers in more sophisticated environments, such as jewelry stores. Both ISVs cited rapid development times and non-invasive technology as major factors in their selection of New York City-based ResQNet's technology.
  
  
• Aurum Technology has redesigned, rebranded, and relaunched its OS/400-based community banking application, which was previously called Morningside. The new name for the application is the Aurum Banking System, and it features several improvements that the Plano, Texas, based software company says will give customers more freedom to modify the core banking system and integrate it with best-of-breed extension products, such as automated teller machines, online banking, or check imaging. The key enhancements to the software vendor's OS/400 banking system are the development of an "integrated and object-oriented" database and new XML-based interfaces. Mike Hill, president of Aurum Technology's Community Banking Customer Group, said the business strategy and architecture decisions behind the Aurum Banking System were selected to protect customers' technology investments while providing an open platform that lets them pursue a best-of-breed technology strategy. Morningside customers that are running Aurum Banking System, or are scheduled to soon, include Wilber National Bank, Bank of Upson, The Patterson Bank, Waycross Bank and Trust, Macon Bank and Trust, First Federal Bank of Columbia, Summit Bank, St. Landry Bank & Trust, and Mirae Bank.
  
  
• Group 1 Software last week announced that its tax jurisdiction assignment software, GeoTAX, has been enhanced with new functionality that will help companies in the telecommunications industry comply with the Federal Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act and similar state requirements. GeoTAX, which runs on OS/400, mainframe, Unix, and Windows NT platforms, allows companies to match their customer address listings with tax jurisdiction information supplied by the state. Group 1 Software provides GeoTAX users with access to the most current taxation boundary files through a database that continually tracks and updates taxation boundary files nationwide. This GeoTAX database is updated quarterly.
  
  
• Frontline Solutions has issued its annual list of the top 100 supply chain companies for 2002, and, as you might expect, there are a few notable OS/400 vendors making the list. Companies were selected by experts and readers based on several criteria, including which companies did the best job of providing excellence and customer value to the supply chain. The criteria also included contract fulfillment and delivering an outstanding return to customers on their investment. The OS/400 software vendors making the list include Baan, EXE Technologies, J.D. Edwards,JDA Software, Kronos, Lilly Software, Logility, Manhattan Associates, T.L. Ashford, and Zebra Technologies, a barcode printer maker.
  
  
• Even the most novice surfers will feel like riding the nose this winter when they see Pacific Sunwear's new e-commerce Web site. The Anaheim, California, specialty clothes retailer, which had revenues of $685 million in 2001 through its 787 stores, was wondering how the mish-mash of disparate systems powering its old e-commerce Web site could handle the yearly 100 percent increase in traffic and 50 percent increase in sales it was experiencing. That's when it brought in IBM. The result is a new Web site powered by IBM's WebSphere Commerce 5.4 running on an iSeries server. The new site's highlights include a more visible shopping cart, advanced search functionality while shopping, customer registration that enables a quicker check out, new product list and detail pages that provide more detailed product photography with additional views, a first-time shopper tutorial, and a new look for the popular "my wish list" online gift registry. "The move to IBM's WebSphere Commerce significantly improves core shopping process times," said Ron Ehlers, PacSun's vice president of information services, "and establishes the foundation for future new site features that include additional online shopping and customer service elements." Gnarly!
  
  

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