FHS Archives - Page 365 of 379

Versata Completes Port of Java Tool to iSeries

September 14, 2004 Alex Woodie

Versata recently followed through on its promise to support the iSeries with its J2EE development tool, which, it claims, can automate 98 percent of the process of generating Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and cut Java development costs in half. In August the Oakland, California, company announced that Versata Logic Server Version 5.6.2, which, together with the Versata Logic Studio, make up the Versata Logic Suite, is now available on iSeries servers running Linux.

In March, Versata announced plans to support the iSeries with its Versata Logic Suite (see “Versata to Bring Java IDE to OS/400”). The Versata Logic Suite is

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Olympic Effort Not Required for Publishing Business Communications

September 14, 2004 Dan Burger

Publishing your own newsletter or product bulletins is a strategy used by many companies to achieve a polished and professional method of communicating with business partners, customers, employees, and other stakeholders. For years this was accomplished with printed publications that required substantial amounts of time and labor and costs. If you could reduce production expenses, primarily printing and mailing, and also accommodate the inclusion of more timely information, you would probably be looking at publishing content via an e-mail newsletter, Web site, or portal.

One organization that has taken advantage of this publishing opportunity is the United States Olympic Committee.

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Tree of Life Finds Supply Chain Answers in Datamart

September 14, 2004 Hellena Smejda

Supplier performance is a key success factor in the fiercely competitive food distribution business. How quickly and how well suppliers fill orders affects not only service to retail customers but also profitability. So it’s no surprise that the first datamart tackled by Tree of Life, an international food distributor based in St. Augustine, Florida, was the supplier datamart.

Owned by Dutch food giant Royal Wessanen, Tree of Life distributes natural foods and gourmet foods to more than 15,000 retailers across the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. Its customers range from chains, including Wal-Mart and Safeway, to independent health food

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SSA RFID Offering Shows Benefits in Wal-Mart Test

September 14, 2004 Alex Woodie

Wal-Mart’s top 100 suppliers won’t need to go live with their radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging operations until January 1, but that isn’t stopping one third-party logistics company from trying it out early. The RFID Deployment Center in Dallas is helping customers comply with Wal-Mart’s mandate, using RFID hardware and software from multiple vendors, including SSA Global, whose RFID middleware enables the 3PL provider to automatically generate Advanced Ship Notices from its SSA warehouse management system.

The RFID Deployment Center was created in January, when Wal-Mart announced that the Dallas area would be the test bed for RFID technology.

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Newlook Software Builds Smart Clients from iSeries Apps

September 7, 2004 Alex Woodie

Looksoftware launched a new version of its application modernization platform yesterday that allows companies to build smart client interfaces for their iSeries applications. Company officials say the new smart client functionality available for newlook and centric 7.0 will give users the advanced functionality they’ve come to expect from fat-client Windows interfaces, while maintaining the ease of deployment of browser-based clients that administrators have come to appreciate.

Looksoftware launched centric in January 2003 to provide a better set of tools for integrating iSeries applications with other programs, notably CRM systems. The integration tool shares a development environment with newlook, the company’s

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Florida Utility Links to 7-Eleven for In-Store Bill Pay

September 7, 2004 Robert Gast

Thanks to modern conveniences, busy Central Floridians can get wired on ice-cold energy drinks and pay their electric bills all in one stop. Folks with electricity, water, or Internet services supplied by Kissimmee Utility Authority can now remit for these services 24/7 at 7-Eleven convenience stores all across the state. And at the heart of this new system lies an OS/400 server.

In July 2004, 7-Eleven’s own self-service Vcom financial services kiosks in Central Florida began accepting utility bill payments, a service not offered at most convenience stores. Proprietary Vcom touch screens allow Kissimmee Utility Authority customers to settle accounts

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The i5 Is In Demand During the U.S. Open

September 7, 2004 Alex Woodie

Wherever Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova goes during the U.S. Open in New York City this week, a gaggle of reporters and photographers is sure to follow, creating a media feeding frenzy only possible in the Big Apple. But on the court, things are a bit more civil, thanks in part to a new eServer i5 system from IBM that can dish out tennis scores and Sharapova photos to millions of adoring fans and media types over the U.S. Open Web site, in real time.

For the 13th straight year, IBM Global Services is providing technology for the United States

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Goering Bolsters iExcelGen with Better Automation

September 7, 2004 Alex Woodie

Goering iSeries Solutions last week launched a new release of iExcelGen, a utility that streamlines the loading of OS/400 data or spool files into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and then distributing them automatically. The new release has support for FTP, ZIP compression, and automatic formatting, and has the capability to split very large reports into manageable chunks.

The iExcelGen eliminates the hassle of manually converting DB2/400, Query/400, SQL/400, or spool file data from the native OS/400 format into XLS. For PC users who are adept at sorting through data in Excel, and using the celebrated spreadsheet program to generate polished graphics

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Boost Launches Event Monitoring Software for OS/400

August 31, 2004 Alex Woodie

Imagine getting a text message on your cell phone the minute your iSeries detects that inventory levels have reached critically low levels. It could save your company thousands of dollars and hours of hassle by getting a jump on the ordering process. Such a notification system is now available from Boost Information Systems, a Rochester, Minnesota, software company that recently launched Boost IntelliSense for the iSeries Version 2.0.

Boost IntelliSense for the iSeries is a unique product designed to free users’ time by alerting them to specific events when they occur on their OS/400 systems. It can alert employees

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Informatica Drives Data Integration for Upsher-Smith

August 31, 2004 Alex Woodie

The planning and analysis group at drug-maker Upsher-Smith Laboratories was in a special kind of Excel hell. With a monthly data feed from a pharmaceutical information clearinghouse topping 50 million rows, technicians had to do some fancy summarizing or risk breaking the celebrated spreadsheet program, which bottoms out at 64,000 rows. So the company decided to implement a data warehouse, and when it came to connecting to its core OS/400 systems, including SAP, it found success with Informatica‘s data integration tools.