Industry News

Altris Teams with SAIC...

Altris Software, a supplier of enterprise document management systems has announced it is to team up with SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation) a US systems integrator. Both companies have established strong positions in assisting Fortune 500 organizations to operate more productively and efficiently through the effective deployment of appropriate information technologies. Initially Altris will be responsible for the sales activities and SAIC, with their breadth of services both globally and technically will be responsible for implementation and support, delivering the levels of service that power utilities demand. However in the longer term the agreement allows for either Altris or SAIC to take the leading sales role. Contact Paula Finley, SAIC, at 256-971-6489, 256-971-7305 (fax), Sarah Rushton, Altris, at 619-625-3000 ext. 320.

Global Petroleum Leader Amerada Hess Deploys FileNET DM Solution for SAP Enterprise Business System...

FileNET Corp. and ValueNET partner Align Solutions Corp. announced that Amerada Hess Corp., an international petroleum company, has deployed FileNET's Document Warehouse for SAP (used to streamline its accounts payable department). Align Solutions successfully implemented the solution in just three months at Amerada Hess' United States exploration and production division headquarters in Houston. The US$400,000 contract was signed in March of 1998 and the system became fully operational in July 1998. The FileNET application, part of Amerada Hess' US$26 million reengineering effort to implement a new system and process solution, was deployed to more effectively process invoices and improve the retention and sharing of project related documents. Future applications of Panagon Document Warehouse for SAP include the integration of several additional SAP document types, land records documents and joint venture contracts. With the initial phase complete, company officials plan to deploy the software throughout several field offices in West Texas, California, North Dakota and the Gulf Coast. Presently, Amerada Hess field offices manually process and distribute invoices to the Houston headquarters to be electronically scanned and stored. Once deployed throughout the field, the FileNET-based solution will enable each office to process invoices andretrieve images electronically, saving time and reducing cost. This next phase is expected to be operational by the end of 1998. Contact Lynda Orban, FileNET, 714-966-7141, Tamela Phillips, Align Solutions, at 770-725-4854.

Honeywell's Air Transport Systems Division Deploys Auxilium's Info*Engine...

auxilium inc., a supplier of packaged, web-based Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) software, announced the installation of its Info*Engine application suite at the Air Transport Systems (ATS) division of Honeywell. ATS serves the worldwide community of manufacturers of large air transport aircraft and the airlines that operate these aircraft, providing a wide range of integrated avionics systems and products. ATS chose Info*Engine to improve the division's Incoming Receiving process by supplementing their existing PDM initiatives, while providing an intuitive, web-based user interface throughout the manufacturing and engineering organizations. ATS discovered that some of the incoming materials requiring inspection were often being placed on hold because key part information was not readily available. By using auxilium's Info*Engine, ATS was able to integrate their Metaphase PDM system with existing legacy and Oracle databases. Inspectors can now access the information required from each of these systems, view it from a single web-based interface, complete the inspection and immediately move the materials out to manufacturing. For more information, contact Debbie Caldwell at 503-293-8480, 503-297-1116 (fax).

Bell & Howell Software To Be Promoted By Oce'...

Bell & Howell Company, a global provider of solutions for information access and distribution, announced the signing of a referral agreement enabling Oce' Printing Systems USA Inc. to market Bell & Howell's The TransFormer software to Oce' customers in the United States. Under the agreement, Bell & Howell and Oce' will join forces to address the need to modify print output easily - without major changes to existing software applications. The TransFormer was developed specifically to enable modifications of print-image output for production applications, making it easy for application developers to take advantage of new technology and enhance documents. The product eliminates costly, time-consuming application changes and enables users to maximize the efficiency of printing operations while improving the effectiveness of customer communications. For more information, contact Scott Bannor, Bell & Howell, at 847-568-6773, Rich Hilinski, Oce' Printing Systems USA, at 561-997-3178, http://www.oceprinting.com.

CSE Systems Corp. Announces New Headquarters in San Francisco...

CSE Systems is a provider of software that enables workflow-rich "middle office" applications such as order servicing, line subscription and customer service for the telecommunications and financial services industries. The company also announced that Shirish Hardikar was appointed president and chief executive officer. The European-based CSE Systems GmbH, previously held a small sales office in Los Angeles. The new San Francisco headquarters will staff to a level five times that of the former LA operation, and will include sales, marketing, and product development and customer support functions. It will serve as the main office for CSE Systems’ operations in North America, Latin America and South America. The new office is located at 580 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA, 94105; telephone 415-995-9800.

Cyco Software Announces New German Office...

Cyco has announced that it will open a new office in Munich, Germany on January 1, 1999. Opening the Munich office will enable Cyco to strengthen its longtime relationships with customers, dealers and distribution partners in the Germany, Switzerland and Austria (DACH) regions. The office will be managed by Cyco Europe, Cyco's European headquarters in the Netherlands. For more information, contact Arjan Timmermans, Marketing Manager, at 404 6343302 ext. 140.

DOCUMENTUM Adopted for Document and Web Content Management at $2.5 Billion British Petroleum ETAP Oil Field Development...

the company announced that its document management software for client/server and Web environments was adopted by British Petroleum's Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP), a development of an initial group of seven "integrated" oil fields in the UK sector of the North Sea. All ETAP documents, drawings, and Web content on client/server, intranet and extranet platforms are managed by DOCUMENTUM's Enterprise Document Management System 98 (EDMS 98). The ETAP IT infrastructure is based upon NT servers running Oracle databases, with IBM portable clients running Windows 95 and the IE 3.0 browser. For more information, contact Clay Helm at 925-463-6800.

Fortress Technologies and Janus Technologies Partner For Auto-Discovery Data Reconciliation Capabilities...

Fortress Technologies Inc., a provider of information technology (IT) Infrastructure Management consulting and software, announced that Janus Technologies Inc. has integrated the company’s auto-discovery reconciler technology with Argis asset management software. Janus’ new interface, called ArgisReconcile, enables companies to strategically reconcile selected discovery data about assets with the asset repository. The technology saves time and money by eliminating the manual process of sifting through large amounts of discovery data to extract only the needed information. The announcement was made at Janus Technologies’ 4th Annual Asset Management and Argis User Group Conference. For more information, contact Karen Lien Miller, Fortress Technologies, at 630-455-9360 ext. 335, Kathy Shoop, Janus Technologies, at 412-787-3030.

G5 Messaging Interoperability Agreement Now Posted on the Internet...

In May 1996 twenty world leading Fax and Messaging vendors met to discuss the need for a fundamentally new messaging service designed to follow post, telex, fax and e-mail as the fifth messaging service. The result of the meeting was the foundation of the G5 Messaging Forum, an open, non-profit organization. Its mission was threefold:

1. To draw up the definition for a new service.

2. To brand and promote the service.

3. To liaise with a range of Standards Bodies.

The Forum members' backgrounds included computer fax, Internet, Service providers, e-commerce, major computer suppliers, voice and fax machine vendors, between them accounting for the supply of some 30% of intercompany messaging stations. Included in membership were Rockwell, Equisys, Matsushita, Xerox, Symantec, National Westminster Bank, and a small UK company called 5th Generation Messaging, which provided the initial ideas and the Forum's Chairman. Other companies including Lotus and Microsoft assisted in the work program. Earlier this year, a mere 21 months after the initial meeting, the G5 Messaging Interoperability Agreement was posted on the Internet. The key features of the service are:

-The use of MIME to carry multimedia messages including text, image, voice, video and e-commerce.

Inserting document control information into the MIME header file for each message, thus providing a "carrier independent" design.

-Transmission by carrier (using fax protocols), Internet (using Internet protocols) or internal network (using TCP/IP).-Automatic fallback to fax (carrier) or Internet e-mail should a G5 Message transmission not be possible. These features ensure that anyone with a document on a PC will be able to send text/image across any carrier. The G5 Messaging specification also brings in the quality messaging features which are currently absent from fax and e-mail, including Automatic electronic postmark insertion at point of transmission; the postmark comprising unique message ID, time and date stamp and encrypted checksum on the file. A full message confirmation, including the return of the sender's postmark with one generated by the recipient. File (or content) negotiation with dropdown to baseline file formats by media type - an essential feature for successful multimedia messaging. Automatic "legally admissible" archiving of inbound and outgoing messages (Electronic Originals); compliant with 5 New International Codes of Best Practice to be issued in the USA, Europe and Oceania, under the "Electronic Original Initiative". 3 levels of security including:

1. Security attachment (e.g. for Smartcards)

2. Whole content encryption using S/MIME but with negotiation to match sender and recipient capabilities.

3. Single session encryption

These features accommodate a spectrum of messaging requirements from informal e-mail to registered post, and achieve cost savings in the areas of archiving and retention of around $2.50 per document. The full Interoperability Agreement for G5 Messaging is available at www.g5forum.org.

IDA and Daimler-Benz AG Join Forces...

InterData Access (IDA) Inc., a developer of engineering sharing and exchange solutions announced an exclusive marketing and development agreement with Daimler-Benz AG. Together, the companies will offer unique product engineering solutions for the automotive, aerospace, and discrete manufacturing industries throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. With this agreement, Daimler-Benz's internally developed visualization products will be made available to the commercial market. For more information, contact IDA at 708-344-1815.

NSM Teams Up With ImageMax...

NSM Jukebox, Inc., a provider of archival storage systems, announced a partnership agreement with ImageMax, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMAG), single-source provider of integrated document management solutions, to meet customer needs for digital asset management. ImageMax plans to integrate NSM’s full-line of CD Library Systems into its nationwide connection of service bureaus to meet customer demand for cost-effective, efficient media conversion, storage and retrieval services, and digital imaging systems. For more information, contact ImageMax at 610-832-2111, 610-832-1274 (fax), info@imagemax.com, or www.imagemax.com. NSM Jukebox at 678-475-1851, 678-475-1852 (fax).

InSystems Technologies and Data Systems Consulting Merge...

to create Enterprise Document Processing Solution with $9.3 Million in investment capital. InSystems Technologies, Inc. of Markham, Ontario, has bolstered its position as a software solutions provider to the financial services market by merging with Data Systems Consulting Inc. (DSC) of Roanoke, Virginia, the maker of FastForms. The new company, which will operate under the InSystems Technologies, Inc. name, has over 250 customers in 20 countries, including 48 of the top 100 insurance companies in North America and 30,000 life insurance agents and agencies. Michael J. Egan, President and CEO of InSystems will remain in his current role in the new company, while Russell H. Ellis, former President and CEO of DSC, will be the Senior Vice President of Strategic Business Development. Contact Gwen Lannaman, InSystems Technologies, at 905-513-1400, ext. 302.

PC DOCS/Fulcrum Licenses Chili!ASP to Enrich CyberDOCS...

Chili!Soft, Inc., a pioneer of cross-platform Active Server Pages (ASP), announced an agreement with PC DOCS/Fulcrum to integrate Chili!ASP in a version of CyberDOCS planned for release in 1999. The agreement will allow CyberDOCS to be deployed for the first time on Netscape servers for Microsoft Windows NT, as well as Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). CyberDOCS is the ASP-based browser client to PC DOCS/Fulcrum's DOCSFusion, the next-generation server engine for PC DOCS/Fulcrum's integrated knowledge management solutions, and to DOCS Open, its client-server document management system. Chili!ASP enables cross-platform applications based on ASP, the mainstream Web application platform made broadly available by Microsoft. The integration of Chili!ASP in CyberDOCS will allow corporations to easily deploy CyberDOCS across the enterprise. Contact Chili!Soft at 425-957-1122.

Uwi.Com And Penop Join Forces...

to simplify digital document security - business forms can now be signed on the Web. Securing web-based documents and e-commerce transactions will soon be as easy as signing your name. A strategic partnership announced between UWI.Com, a pioneer in web-based business forms, and PenOp, a developer of handwritten signature capture and verification software, offers organizations an integrated solution designed to provide a simple and secure method for signing business documents on the Internet. The integration allows users to electronically sign UWI.Com's web-based business forms as easily as signing paper forms, without being burdened by the passwords or PINS required by digital certificates. PenOp's software uses inexpensive digitizers to capture handwritten signatures on electronic documents with a view to creating a record that is as legally effective as a signature on paper. Contact Steve Shewchuk, UWI.Com, at 250-479-8334, Tony Panaccio for PenOp at 305-358-9500 ext. 201.

Bitstream Joins PODi...

Bitstream announced that it has joined the Print On Demand Initiative (PODi), an alliance of key vendors and service providers working in the digital color printing market. As a member of this initiative, Bitstream will participate in PODi's new Variable Data Printing Initiative (VDPI). The VDPI is an industry initiative focused on understanding and quantifying the value of variable color digital printing as a means of improving customer acceptance and application. The goal of the VDPI is to eliminate some of the obstacles facing variable data users, thus accelerating market acceptance. At present, the program is being supported by Adobe, EFI, NexPress, Scitex, The United States Postal Service, Xeikon, Xerox, and Varis. PODi is also inviting other companies who are active in database and relationship marketing, mail production, and digital printing to join this initiative. The Print On Demand Initiative (PODi) is a non-profit strategic marketing and educational initiative focused on evangelizing the opportunities in digital printing technology and services. PODi promotes a greater awareness about the applications and benefits of digital color printing through the publication of articles, independent research, industry seminars and special events. Membership in PODi is open to leading vendors and service providers involved in digital printing, database marketing and mail production. PODi's focus and activities are set by the Board of Directors, which includes Adobe, Scitex, Electronics for Imaging (EFI) and Xerox. Other leading industry supporters include AGFA, GammagraphX (GGX), GretagMacbeth, Hewlett Packard, Lanier, Minolta, NexPress, Splash, Tektronix, Xeikon, The United States Postal Service, and Varis. PODi also includes as Associate Members many leading digital print service providers, a directory of which can be found on the PODi web site. Additional information regarding PODi may be obtained by calling 716-239-6063 or on the World Wide Web at http://www.podi.org.

Texcel International Partners With Microsoft And Webmethods...

Texcel International has partnered with Microsoft and webMethods to submit a position paper to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) proposing the use of XML Query Language (XQL). Texcel created the initial draft of XQL and has been working closely with Microsoft and webMethods to bring the language to its current state. Texcel provides an XML content management system for authoring, updating, and assembling complex document information. XQL is a query language for XML document data that lets you search and retrieve information from a document in much in the same way as querying a database. XQL can be optimized so that queries against large databases can run quickly. XQL can be placed in URLs, which can be executed against XML document databases to select and display just the information you are interested in. XQL can also be used in programs or scripts, for example, Internet Explorer 5.0’s programming API. This greatly simplifies programming for Web pages or XML documents. Texcel can be contacted at its U.S. offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts by calling 617-621-7004.

EDS MISER Clients Offered Unisys Retail Banking, Check Imaging Products...

Unisys Corp. announced that EDS will offer Unisys FBA Navigator and VisualImpact solutions to financial institution clients using its EDS MISER core banking application. This agreement continues the ongoing relationship between Unisys and EDS in financial services. Earlier this year, Unisys and EDS signed a Marketing Associates Solutions Alliance agreement to market EDS MISER2 bank automation software in conjunction with Unisys ClearPath HMP line of enterprise servers.

In another announcement, Unisys, EDS, and the Transcor Group formed a marketing alliance to provide enterprise lending solutions and Internet-based loan origination solutions using Microsoft Windows NT-based technology. The addition of FBA Navigator and VisualImpact to the client base will enable EDS to leverage a full suite of Unisys retail banking and check imaging solutions. Contact Michael Drust, Unisys, at 215-986-6260.

Xerox And DOCUMENTUM To Bridge Paper And Digital Worlds...

Xerox Corporation and DOCUMENTUM, Inc. announced an initiative to link the network scanning capabilities of Xerox Document Centre Systems with the DOCUMENTUM Enterprise Document Management System 98 (EDMS 98). EDMS is an enterprise application platform for automating the management of business-critical documents. By joining forces, Xerox and DOCUMENTUM intend to widen the accessibility and improve the simplicity of network scanning from Xerox Document Centre digital office systems into DOCUMENTUM's EDMS 98. This collaboration will make it easier and faster for office workers to collect and share critical information across large enterprises. The two organizations will provide support to DOCUMENTUM Signature Partners in the development and delivery of offerings that employ Document Centre Systems to move paper-based information into the DOCUMENTUM EDMS 98 Docbase repository. Through its Document Centre Solutions Partners Program, Xerox will provide DOCUMENTUM Signature Partners with a software development kit to create these offerings. Contact Daniel C. Minchen, Xerox Corporation, at 716-427-4080, Clay Helm, DOCUMENTUM, at 925-463-6467.

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