
Actra to release its first EDI products next month (230)
By Caroline Gabriel
Netscape spin-off Actra will release its first products for electronic commerce next month. Under the banner Cross Commerce, the software will debut on 19 May and will include offerings for electronic data interchange on the Internet.
Actra, a joint venture between Netscape and EDI specialist GE Information Systems (GEIS), took over development of Netscape's Merchant and Publishing systems when it was founded a year ago. Both its Cross Commerce and Netscape's Crossware software, introduced last month, use these servers and are designed to be complementary. Actra focuses its efforts on Extranets and electronic commerce rather than enterprise systems, the main target for its parent.
The first Actra tools will include ECXpert, a tool that enables legacy systems to support EDI on the Net, and two Net-EDI packages, Order Xpert Seller and Order Xpert Buyer. The company will upgrade the Merchant and Publishing systems later this year. Publishing 2.0 will feature document management, support for Java and Javascript user interfaces, replication and push technology. It will be released in the third quarter.
Version 2.0 of Merchant System will make its debut late this year or early in 1998. Enhancements, according to senior product manager Jack Corsello, will include customisable back end services, order status monitoring and customer profiles. Additional customer services such as refunds and coupons will also be supported. An NT version of the Unix product is under development for release next year.
V3 Latest
First plant to grow on the Moon, err, dies
Cotton seedling freezes to death as Chang'e-4 shuts down for the Moon's 14-day lunar night
Fortnite news and updates: Fortnite made $2.4bn in 2018, according to SuperData
Fortnite easily out-earns PUBG, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018
Japanese firm sends micro-satellites into space to deliver artificial meteor showers on demand
Meteor showers as a service will be visible for about 100 kilometres in all directions
Saturn's rings only formed in the past 100 million years, suggests analysis of Cassini space probe data
New findings contradict conventional belief that Saturn's rings were formed along with the planet about 4.5 billion years ago