IBM and Nortel last week unveiled plans to launch a new System i-based voice over IP (VoIP) solution later this year. The offering, which will run under a Linux partition and integrate with Lotus collaboration software, will support organizations with as few as 25 users–a significantly smaller target customer than the System i-based VoIP offering that IBM and partner 3Com started shipping last year.

IBM has identified VoIP as a major new application area for System i platform, and for good reason: Organizations are considering the replacement of legacy PBX systems with software-based solutions that can do everything that traditional

School may be out for summer, but that doesn’t mean that learning has stopped. For the folks in the IT department at the North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI), for example, the summer months will provide time to learn more about the benefits of the new online disaster recovery solution from SafeData. The installation at DPI is only a few weeks old, but so far, SafeData has gotten a gold star for its efforts.

From its headquarters in Raleigh, the North Carolina DPI is responsible for overseeing all 115 primary and secondary school districts, or local education agencies

When it comes to i5/OS business intelligence (BI) solutions, good old Query/400 has a huge following. While the tool is no longer being updated by IBM, many i5/OS shops have large investments in Query/400 that they aren’t able or willing to abandon. Rather than force customers to start from scratch, BI software developer New Generation Software is now helping customers protect their Query/400 investments by inputting the queries into its NGS-IQ suite through a new API announced last week.

The new API from New Generation Software (NGS) enables users to take their older queries developed with Query/400 and run

S4i Systems has added support for standard PC file types with version 3.1 of S4i Express, its i5/OS document management system for System i servers. With the change, S4i Express users can now store and serve Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF documents, in addition to standard i5/OS output, making the product more useful to modern IT shops. Other features added with the new release include control over PDF security options and support for priority printing and distribution.

One of the hallmarks of the System i platform is its support for open standards. If System i servers could only run programs and

An iSeries shop in Massachusetts has successfully deployed Voxware‘s voice-directed picking solution, called VoiceLogistics, the company announced last week. As a result of the implementation, Eastern Bag & Paper Group was able to reduce errors and improve the efficiency of its warehouse operation.

Eastern Bag & Paper Group is a distributor that sells a line of 1,500 products, including tabletop disposables and small wares, packaging, decorations, party supplies, and cleaning solutions, to companies in nine states in the Northeast and New England region. The company operates its core back-end applications on the iSeries server, and was looking for a

Configuring TCP/IP on a System i server is a critical step that must be taken before you can conduct any e-business with your customers or partners. However, while almost everything on the i5/OS platform can be configured from a command line interface, some TCP/IP configuration items–notably DHCP and DNS–require the System i graphical client: iSeries Navigator. Manta Technologies recently introduced a new course covering this topic.

With Manta’s new course, called “Managing TCP/IP Using iSeries Navigator,” System i administrators can learn how to get their servers ready for the Internet. The course begins by discussing the basic configuration tasks that

Patrick Townsend & Associates is best known for its i5/OS encryption offering. But did you know that the company makes encryption software for other platforms, too? Yesterday, Pat Townsend announced that its Alliance AES Encryption software has been certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)–the agency that governs the AES standard–to run on Windows, Linux, Unix, and z/OS, in addition to i5/OS.

Pat Townsend’s Alliance AES is a utility that enables users to encrypt and decrypt their data. On the i5/OS platform, the product supports the encryption of a range of data types, including whole DB2 files,

Brooks Internet Software last week announced a new release of ExcelliPrint, a software product that allows non-IPDS printers to print the IPDS output of i5/OS and z/OS servers. With ExcelliPrint version 3.2, Brooks has introduced support for Windows Vista, among other improvements.

While the Intelligent Printer Data Stream (IPDS) and Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) architecture–sometimes referred to as AFPDS–implements features that are important in high-volume printing environments, the high cost of native IPDS printers from IBM has left some customers feeling a bit trapped. For that reason, vendors such as Brooks Internet Software and others have devised IPDS emulation solutions

The Drummond Group recently published the test results from its first quarter AS2 interoperability testing. Twenty-four products from 18 companies completed the latest round of testing, which included a new test designed to support the use of AS2 in the banking and financial services industry.

The latest round of certification tests included many familiar names in the B2B business, including Axway, Boomi Software, BridgeGate International, Bridgeware, Cleo Communications, Click Commerce, The Descartes Systems Group, EDS, EXTOL International, GXS, IBM, Inovis, /n software, nuBridges, SEEBURGER, Sterling

Maple Leaf Farms, the duck farm that was founded in 1958, may a bit old fashioned when it comes to duck recipes. But when it comes to back-office computer systems and B2B connectivity, the Milford, Indiana, company is on the cutting edge, and it gives its B2B software supplier, EXTOL International, much of the credit.

With 1,200 employees working together to sell 16 million ducks per year in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Asia, Maple Leaf Farms has cornered a pretty good chunk of the market for ducks and duck products. Assisting the company in its quest to sell