Ever wished you could access and edit your DB2/400 records directly from a Web browser? If so, perhaps you should check out iData, a new tool recently introduced by Profound Logic. The use of AJAX and other Web 2.0 techniques provides an extremely fast and intuitive way to access the database, according to Profound. And while the iData beta is focused primarily on database editing, it will soon expand to include other capabilities, such as querying and reporting, Web form creation, and Web application development.

As one of the promising providers of third-party application development and modernization tools for

For those of you who enjoy watching and participating in the IBM vs. Microsoft tussle for supremacy in unified communications and collaborative software, make a note of the latest IBM Lotus Sametime products hitting the streets this week. They are Sametime Standard 8 and Sametime Entry. Each product offers features that many small to mid size companies will find important for comparison shopping, but not likely to cause anyone to place an order tomorrow.

Lotus Sametime Standard follows the product line established by what was formerly known simply as Sametime. The version known as Sametime Entry has, as you might

For many businesses, customer contact is managed and executed through e-mail systems like IBM Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook. When these businesses seek to upgrade to a CRM system to increase the effectiveness of their customer contacts, it behooves them to work with these e-mail systems in close concert. That’s largely what Touchtone has done with the latest release of its i5/OS CRM system, Wintouch eCRM version 7.0, which will also soon gain VoIP support.

Wintouch eCRM is a suite of interconnected modules designed to help System i shops better manage several aspects of their businesses, including customer service, sales,

New Generation Software (NGS) has delivered yet another addition to its Decision Assist line of prebuilt business intelligence (BI) applications for various industries. With Decision Assist–Healthcare, NGS is enabling hospitals and other healthcare organizations that rely upon the System i server to quickly set up dashboards, portals, multidimensional models, and other elements of a BI solution that would normally take a considerable amount of development.

While the market for ERP software is not expected to increase as quickly in 2008 as it did in previous years, there are some IT industry pockets that are forecasted to improve. BI and CRM

For two-and-a-half years, SafeData has provided a service to help customers get their System i applications back online during and after disasters. Last week, the Rhode Island company launched a new hosted service that aims to keep the calls coming in, even when their primary phone system goes down.

While much emphasis has been placed on building resiliency into servers through disaster recovery (DR) and high availability (HA) solutions, never overlook the importance of the phone system to conducting business. After all, if customer service representatives can’t field phone calls from customers, a percentage of transactions will be lost.

SafeData

IBM is helping to distribute a patch for a security vulnerability discovered in a Lotus Notes file viewer that could allow an attacker to take full control of an affected computer. IBM says the flaw, which was disclosed last week by Core Security Technologies, only affects the Lotus Notes client, and not the Domino server. A patch is available for Notes version 7 and 8.

Sebastián Muñiz from the Core Impact Exploit Writers Team (EWT) at CorernSecurity Technologies is credited with discovering a buffer overflow vulnerability in a third-party file viewer that’s used to open Lotus 1-2-3 e-mail attachments.

Superior Care Pharmacy will install a suite of i5/OS-based supply chain management software from International Business Systems (IBS) to help it manage its distribution business, IBS announced last month.

Superior Care Pharmacy was founded in 1988 as a long-term care pharmacy, and added medical supplies, oxygen tanks, and an equipment rental division four years later. Today, the Salt Lake City, Utah, company has grown to supply about 2,000 nursing facilities, hospitals, and rehabilitation facilities around the country with supplies, oxygen, over-the-counter drugs, and nutritional supplements.

Recently, the company set out to find a software solution that could help the company

Link Computer, a Pennsylvania IT consultancy, has partnered with the Australian software vendor looksoftware for its System i application modernization tools, the companies announced last week.

Many of Link’s 350 customers in the mid-Pennsylvania region use the System i server, and are now considering their options for modernizing their key applications without extensive redevelopment or replacement, says Tim Link, president and CEO of Link Computer

Link assisted its customers in this modernization quest, which had been mostly fruitless, up to this point. “We’ve trialed all the key alternatives in a practical evaluation and implementation process,” Link says.

Then Link

Like many ISVs, government software provider New World Systems offers versions of its applications that run on i5/OS and Windows, enabling it to meet the needs of customers with different server preferences. While the i5/OS version of its Logos and Aegis suites of software used to be pretty popular among county and city governments, lately the Windows-based versions of those products have been about 13 times more popular.

New World, a privately held company based in Troy Michigan, is very good about posting new customer wins on its Web site (unlike some ISVs). From the beginning of October to the

English soft drink manufacturer Calypso has tapped Inovis to supply Internet-based EDI capabilities enabling Calypso to streamline its order-taking process, Inovis announced last week.

According to Inovis, the 129-year-old drink maker based in Tattenhall, Cheshire, relies heavily on its Value Added Network (VAN) to funnel orders into its i5/OS-based System21 ERP system. However, the previous VAN used by Calypso was slow and unreliable, and that put the company’s business at risk.

“EDI is a business critical system for Calypso,” says James Holmes, Calypso’s IT and CRM director. “Over 80 percent of our orders by volume are received by EDI, with