News Briefs and Product Shorts

• Key Information Systems is once again putting its expertise as a systems integrator and an IBM reseller into free e-Lab Web sites, where midrange users can research business and technology issues. Earlier this year, the Woodland Hills, California, company launched its first e-Lab Web site, which lets users research tape backup and disaster recovery issues. Now Key is offering two more free e-Lab Web sites, where users can explore how high availability software can reduce downtime and whether IBM's new Enterprise Storage Server Model 800 is the right SAN for them. Key's "Zero Downtime" e-Lab features links to white papers, comparative charts, press articles, and other information related to high availability, and also features a cost analysis tool that generates reports on the benefits that users can expect from employing a high availability system to reduce downtime during backups. Key's SAN lab features information on the new ESS Model 800 and cost analyses for customers. "The entry point for the Model 800 ESS is high, said Lief Morin, president of Key Information Systems. It "has rocket science under the covers, but it's not necessarily suitable for every company," he said. All three of Key's e-Labs can be accessed at www.keyisit.com/e-lab.

• iMessaging Systems last week announced the 2.02 release of iVoice, the company's interactive voice response (IVR) system for the OS/400 server. The company said this release includes availability, usability, development, and reporting enhancements to the product. Managers will be better able to monitor the day-to-day operations of iVoice and make better upgrade decisions because of improvements in the software's line status monitor, statistical reporting package, and call logs, iMessaging said. Another new feature is the capability to record and delete voice messages left by callers, which, iMessaging says, gives users a way to associate a caller's message with any transactions he may have completed. Version 2.02 also features better text-to-speech technology, including support for multiple languages, improved abbreviation capabilities, and overall higher quality text-to-speech, as a result of the incorporation of SpeechWorks' Speechify 2.1 engine. The company says software development times will be reduced, as iVoice development no longer requires an iVoice controller to be on hand, and all development and testing can take place entirely on the OS/400 server. System redundancy has been improved, iMessaging said, as voice files can now be mirrored, via IP, between primary and backup iVoice controllers. Users can also now record their IVR greetings and menu choices using any compatible PC with a soundcard; they now can also import voice files from other IVR platforms, as long as they are in the .VOX or .VAP voice file formats. For more information, go to www.imessagingsystems.com.
  
  
• Geac last week announced that it has entered into a $1.3 million contract with Fuji Xerox Australia to integrate Geac's System 21 ERP suite with a new supply chain system based on software from Oracle. The project calls for integrating the System 21 installation at Fuji Xerox's Sydney hub with the Oracle system located at Fuji Xerox's corporate headquarters in Singapore. The goal is to provide greater visibility of stock located in the company's Asia-Pacific region, to enhance forecasting, and to improve stock use. "The supply chain integration project will effectively provide us with an Asia-Pacific view of our business, instead of trying to balance local demand and supply," said Rohan Higgins, the company's Sydney hub project manager. The team of Geac consultants will also upgrade the Sydney AS/400 to a new iSeries Model 820, which will provide more processing power and allow the company to reduce downtime associated with backups by implementing logical partitions. Geac plans to add Web functionality to the OS/400 ERP suite (code-named "Aurora"), and Fuji Xerox is considering an upgrade to that product when it becomes available next year. Geac is hosting a series of one-day executive briefings in December to talk about its strategic directions for System 21. The traveling road show will be in Atlanta on December 3; Dallas on December 4; San Francisco on December 5; Detroit on December 11; Cincinnati on December 12; Madison, Wisconsin, on December 13; and Southbury, Connecticut, on December 16. Call 856-231-9400, ext. 4301, for more information.
  
  
• Patrick Townsend & Associates last week announced that its Alliance FTP Manager now supports SSL, allowing AS/400 and iSeries shops to securely exchange EDI data with other trading partners using IBM's Global Network and the Internet. The Olympia, Washington, provider of OS/400 communication utilities says the new 128-bit encryption and public key infrastructure security features will allow companies to eliminate their reliance on leased lines, frame relay connections, and dial-up connections by making direct, secure EDI connections from their OS/400 servers to IBM's trading network. Alliance FTP Manager integrates with all major EDI translators on the OS/400 platform, including those from Extol, Inovis, and Sterling Commerce, as well as Patrick Townsend's own Alliance EDI Workbench/400 translation product. Before using the new secure lines, companies will need to obtain a PKIX certificate from their network account representative, a process that Patrick Townsend says it will assist them with. Alliance FTP Manager is tier priced. For more information, go to www.patownsend.com.
  
  
• The GolfWorks has licensed CommercialWare's retail.commerce suite of software for multi-channel retailers. The Newark, Ohio, golf club manufacturer, which sells directly to consumer through a catalog and a Web site, previously used a homegrown system for its order and fulfillment management, but it decided to move to a prepackaged system to more effectively meet expected sales growth. The GolfWorks will be using the core retail.dot.commerce processing engine, an OS/400 application, for order management, customer service, fulfillment, and inventory. The company will also be implementing two Windows-based add-ons to retail.dot.commerce, including a business intelligence component called analytics.dot.commerce, and integration.dot.commerce, which will allow the company to integrate retail.dot.commerce with existing retail applications.
  
  
• Kisco Information Systems last week announced OnePass/400 Version 2.0, the newest version of its access control system for OS/400 servers. With version 2.0, Kisco has expanded OnePass/400's capabilities beyond that of a simple Telnet sign-on control system to a broader market. With this release, Kisco has delivered an API for OnePass/400 that allows companies to integrate the OnePass/400 control capabilities with any OS/400 application. Now the security of any 5250 application can be buoyed through OnePass/400's authentication regime, which requires users to enter a second password to access sensitive programs or screens. (Kisco lets users choose which programs to use OnePass/400 with.) As soon as OnePass/400 invokes the second password, the utility automatically retires that password and generates another. Kisco first developed this tool in 2000, to thwart the security risk of snoopers gaining access to OS/400 and Unix servers by intercepting user IDs and passwords when Telnet sessions are initiated over the Internet. The utility also features real-time monitoring and audit-trail capabilities, which third-party applications will also be able to use through the API offered with Version 2.0. For more information, go to www.kisco.com.
  
• About a year ago, this column predicted the eventual demise of the iSeries in favor of the pSeries and eSeries versions of the Segway Human Transporter. Today, we are happy to report that the iSeries version of the Segway is alive and well and that it has actually beaten the pSeries to market. Last week, the Segway went on sale for the first time. (Maybe you've seen Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos on television zipping around on a Segway, grinning like a child who had just been given the keys to the candy store, which, in some ways, he has.) From the outset, the workhorse eSeries, which is the largest Segway Human Transporter and features a carrying rack rated for up to 75 pounds of cargo, was practically a shoe-in for the first production run. The pSeries, which was the smallest and most nimble of the three, and the iSeries, a midmarket scooter "optimized for range and speed across a variety of terrain," were left to duke it out for the second slot. It seemed a reasonable notion that Segway would opt for a scooter duo with the highest curb appeal across the widest swath of the populous, and therefore go to market with the eSeries and the pSeries, which was designed for navigating densely packed city streets. Instead, Segway has gone with its two biggest scooters, as evidenced in this Segway comparison chart. The pSeries may yet come to market. Nonetheless, we applaud Segway's decision not to sunset the iSeries.
  
  

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