The advent of optical character recognition (OCR) technology has done much to speed the handling of documents. Without a way to digitize the information in documents, the paper crush would threaten to overwhelm. But OCR and related workflow technologies aren’t perfect, and often just shift the burden from manual paper shuffling to manual electronic document shuffling. A company called Brainware says it has way to lessen the e-document drudgery by truly automating the input and verification of any paper-based document, from the mailroom to the ERP system.

For decades, visions of the paperless office have danced like sugarplum fairies in

Bug Busters Software Engineering last week unveiled RSF-HA 8.3, a new release of its replication and high availability software for IBM i environments. The new release introduces support for remote journaling, which can ease replication task management and drive better performance, particularly in high volume environments, the company says.

Bug Busters has been selling its Remote Software Facility product line for many years, but only in recent years has the Seattle, Washington, company altered the product to provide high availability functionality. Previously, RSF was used to chain AS/400s together for purposes such as distributing application upgrades.

As the market for

PARADE needed a more efficient method to replace many manual and time-consuming processes for laying out the magazine’s editorial and advertising contents. The time-honored tradition of one person manually preparing the publication for printing had become a bottle neck when making last minute changes. Recently, the publishing company turned to ASNA‘s AVR for .NET and DataGate for .NET tools to create a new system that lets advertising and editorial staff plan and build individual magazines online.

PARADE is the most widely read magazine in the United States, appearing in more than 440 newspapers nationwide, with a circulation of 32

Magic Software last week unveiled uniPaaS version 1.5, an updated version of its framework for developing next-generation Web applications. The release brings a new .NET client that should make it easier for developers to deliver advanced Web-based functionality on Windows devices, as well as a new connector for upgrading older Magic technologies, such as its 4GL eDeveloper platform, to the new uniPaaS framework.

Unveiled earlier this year as G5, uniPaaS is Magic’s flagship offering for developing rich Internet applications (RIAs) utilizing Web 2.0 techniques and the software as a service (SaaS) delivery mechanism, such as mobile, field service, supply

Before SSA bought a struggling Infinium Software in 2003, Infinium, along with its System 2000 line of ERP software, was one of the most well-known brands in the AS/400 market. For several years, we didn’t hear much out of the Massachusetts outfit, as the software line took on new names and was overshadowed by competing SSA solutions. Last month, Infor–the company that subsequently purchased SSA–revived the Infinium brand once again with two announcements related to the casino industry.

Infinium has always had a strong market in the casino industry, which is very heavily populated with System i machines, particularly with

These are tough economic times, to be sure. But if there’s one bright spot in the forecast for the IT industry, it’s the surging interest in mobile computing. To that end, Jack Henry & Associates announced that its browser-based mobile banking application, whimsically called goDough, has been successfully adopted by more than 100 customers over the last 12 months, enabling its customers’ customers to check dwindling account balances with unparalleled ease.

Unveiled in November 2007, goDough enables customers of banks and credit unions that use Jack Henry’s core banking software to do many of the things they would do in

i OS trucking software developer Innovative Computing is ready. Ready for IBM i 6.1 and ready for the new laws governing electronic transmission of tax information to the IRS. The Oklahoma company is also gearing up for a new release of Innovative Enterprise Software (IES)in ’09.

To support i 6.1, Innovative last month unveiled IES R8V02M03. The new version brings certification for I 6.1 as well as changes needed to support the latest operating system.

The new version also brings changes to handling of W2 and 1099 forms. As of December 1, the IRS is requiring companies to phase out

Organizations that are looking to hook up their .NET applications to DB2/400 data sources may be interested to hear that DataDirect Technologies‘ ADO.NET data provider is now certified for IBM i 6.1, the latest release of the OS/400 operating system.

DataDirect Technologies develops database drivers that connect applications to the world’s major database management systems. The company focuses on integrating mainframe applications via ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, and custom drivers, although it also supports IBM’s System i and System p operating environments.

Yesterday, the Massachusetts company announced a new release of DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET that supports i 6.1. The

Bank Sumsel, the Indonesian bank owned by the South Sumatra and Bangka Belitung provinces, has opted to use Vision Solutions‘ MIMIX HA high availability software to guard its System i servers against downtime, the software vendor announced last week.

With more than 500,000 customers, dozens of branches across the country, and an online banking division, Bank Sumsel is one of Indonesia’s largest banks. Not surprisingly, the bank, which has assets of more than six trillion Indonesian Rupiah (about $500 million), relies upon the bullet-proof IBM midrange server to run its core banking applications from Misys and other vendors.

With

Zephyr Development is conducting a Client Access replacement campaign to try to convince AS/400, iSeries, i5, System i, and Power Systems shops to drop the IBM 5250 emulator and instead use a less-expensive emulator: Zephyr’s PASSPORT.

Texas-based Zephyr traditionally focuses on mainframe emulation solutions, but it occasionally touts its System i (AS/400) solutions, such as it has done this fall with its new Client Access replacement campaign.

Zephyr’s argument hinges on the high price of Client Access and the lack of pricing transparency. “Client Access has often been perceived as being ‘free of charge’ or even a compulsory part of