Jinfonet Software yesterday announced the general availability JReport 9, a new version of the Java-based business intelligence tool that’s designed to integrate directly into Web applications. Improvements to JReport’s memory utilization have boosted its performance by at least 40 percent, according to Jinfonet, while enhancements to its user interface, support for JSR168, and several dozen other new features round out the release.

JReport is a lightweight suite of business intelligence tools used by some of the largest companies in the world, including Bank of America and Deutsch Bank. The software runs on any Java-based Web application server, and is typically

Another national election came and went last week, leading to the election of new leaders and the passage of new laws. While the promise of change from President-elect Barack Obama made the biggest headlines, businesses around the country should not overlook the many tax increases (or even decreases) approved at the state, county, city, and special-district level. Hand coding these changes directly into an ERP or accounting system can be a daunting task, but thanks to Independent Systems, System i shops can automate the calculations and remittance, and keep the taxman at bay.

Independent Systems, which was bought by

It will be easier to produce highly tailored Excel spreadsheets loaded with i5/OS data using the latest release of the SpoolFlex output management system unveiled by DRV Technologies last week. SpoolFlex 4.2 brings new options for specifying how i5/OS data will appear when converted to the XLS format, including font, size, justification, and even color highlighting of rows and cells. The new release also makes it easier to configure SpoolFlex’s e-mail distribution feature on System i servers.

SpoolFlex is a mature and stable product designed to help System i shops reduce their dependency on printers and paper output by grabbing

Informatica is having success selling data integration tools and services to customers and providers of software as a service (SaaS) and cloud computing services. Last week the Silicon Valley outfit revealed that more than 10 percent of its OEM partners are cloud computing providers. The company also unveiled its latest cloud-based offering for Salesforce.com customers, and launched a new training and certification program around the data quality discipline.

Informatica is one of the leading providers of what used to be known as extract, transform, and load (ETL) tools. ETL tools have gradually morphed into a new class of data integration

Brainware, a young company that makes document scanning and content management software, has partnered with Fujitsu to sell pre-integrated data capture solutions based on Fujitsu’s scanning hardware and Brainware’s software, the companies announced last week.

Brainware was founded in 2006 following a management buyout of a subsidiary of SER Systems, a German developer of enterprise content management and call center software. Today, the company has its U.S. headquarters in Virginia and offices in several European countries.

Brainware claims that more than $100 million have been invested in its core “neural network” classification and search technology, also called Brainware,

Wavelink, a developer of software for mobile devices, rolled out a new product last week that ensures only authorized users can connect mobile devices to corporate radio frequency (RF) networks. Called the Avalanche Certificate Manager, the new product will help prevent hackers from stealing corporate assets from rouge devices, while giving companies the user-level customization they need.

The danger posed by wireless LANs and RF networks hit home earlier this year when it was revealed that hackers broke into a major retailer’s servers by logging through unprotected wireless networks, a technique that’s become known as “war driving.” To protect

Partners PowerTech and LogRhythm are teaming up this Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. ET to offer two free Webinars on System i log management for financial institutions.

The IBM i operating system possesses a mature and comprehensive log management capability that exceeds the functions of many of its peer OSes. Unfortunately, it speaks a different language than most other platforms, requiring a bit of work to integrate it with the rest of the network.

For many shops, this integration is achieved with a cross platform security information event management (SEIM) platform, which captures and normalizes logs from a

Lawson Software last week rolled out a new solution, called Lawson Security FastTrack, aimed at speeding the implementation of its security offering for its S3 suite of ERP software, Lawson Security 9.0.

Security FastTrack combines an implementation methodology with pre-built content to reduce the time it takes to implement Lawson Security to as little as six weeks, the company claims. The offering was developed by security experts, and includes a preconfigured and customizable set of task-based security classes, processes, templates, training modules, and tools.

Lawson Security implements a role-based, rule-based object oriented security system. The software is based on Lawson

Surprise, surprise: Small and mid size businesses (SMBs) are pulling back on IT spending plans in reaction to the economic crises. This, according to a new survey from Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

CompTIA conducted an online survey in September in which it asked 772 SMBs (companies with between 10 and 999 employees) in the United States, Canada, and England about their spending plans for technology and overall expansion in the next 12 months.

The results showed a nearly even split: 51 percent of respondents said they planned to increase spending on IT, while 49 percent said their IT spending

A study released last week by ABI Research predicts that spending on radio frequency identification (RFID) products will grow at an average rate of 15 percent over the next five years, becoming nearly a $10 billion industry by 2013. However, that number could drop as a result of the global economic crisis.

ABI Research is a company based in New York, London, and Singapore that conducts studies and publishes forecasts of interest to manufacturers in the automotive, consumer electronics, wireless, and broadband industries. Its primary focuses are wireless connectivity, telematics and navigation, and home networking and consumer video technologies.

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