News for Today, Mar 30

Today's top items of interest:

• Akonix published an executive guide on IM in the enterprise, with a specific focus on the benefits it brings to the workplace when properly managed and controlled. Target market is CIOs. Available free, although registration is required. PDF format, 290KB, 8 pages. Akonix


• Other stakeholders in the Symbian alliance are considering acquiring partial stakes in the Psion sale, instead of allowing Nokia to purchase the lot, and therefore gain a controlling stake in Symbian. theregister.co.uk


• Plumtree Software announced an integration between its corporate portal platform and Yahoo! Messenger. This is designed to enable Plumtree customers to add presence awareness, instant messaging and application alerts into their applications. Comment: Yahoo? But it's the third placed player in the consumer IM space. Why not Microsoft MSN Messenger or AOL IM? Why not fully-fledged corporate platforms, eg, Lotus IM, Microsoft LCS, etc. C'mon ... Plumtree. A Line56 article says support for other platforms is coming.


• Captaris announced Version 4.1 of Teamplate for .NET, its business process automation software. New features: an enhanced workflow design wizard, tighter integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, and integration with RightFax, among others. Available immediately. Captaris


• BT Syntegra released its Message Management Platform (MMP), a single-point management solution for cross-platform messaging system management. MMP's "secret sauce" is its Common Management Interface (CMI), a web-based console that serves as a window into enterprise messaging operations. This tool enables administrators to enforce consistent system-wide policies and procedures across messaging operations through a single interface. CMI will manage messaging administration services in the future. BT Syntegra


• Microsoft is pleased with the progress of Microsoft Office 2003 in the retail channel. Microsoft


• Forrester, a technology research company, says that companies are too concerned with 'tactical collaboration tools', and should think beyond individual collaboration components. It thinks that IBM and Microsoft will continue to be the two leaders in the market, although also thinks that Novell and Oracle have a chance. Forrester