Sterling Gives Peek at Next Release of Gentran

September 4, 2007 Alex Woodie

Sterling Commerce will focus on boosting business integration capability for certain horizontal industries with the next release of its Gentran Integration Server, which is slated for general availability next month.

With GIS version 4.3, the Ma Bell subsidiary plans to add support for the B2B exchange standards adopted by several industries, including the Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX), Petroleum Industry Data Exchange (PIDX), Open Applications Group (OAGi), and the Global Upstream Supply Initiative (GUSI).

“Standards are a critical component of our customers’ integration strategies because they must have the flexibility to interoperate with all trading partners across various industries and marketplaces,” says Chris Johnson, vice president of B2B product management for Sterling Commerce.

GIS, which is written in Java, runs on i5/OS and other major business computing platforms, although the number of IBM System i customers running GIS is comparatively low. Many of Sterling’s midrange customers still run the old Gentran Server software for their EDI requirements.