SAN MATEO (02/25/2000) - Automakers to create super exchangeGeneral Motors and Ford Motor Co. have decided to unite their respective supply-chain exchanges, and have convinced DaimlerChrysler to sign on to create "the world's largest Internet company and trade exchange," predicted Brian Kelly, vice president of Ford and president of the company's e-commerce activities. The new, unnamed company will oversee the blending of Ford's AutoExchange with GM's TradeXchange, officials said. The new super exchange is expected to level the playing field and provide a common access platform for automotive suppliers around the world, officials from all three companies said.
Novell takes aim at GroupWise
Novell Inc. next week will outline features of the next version of its GroupWise messaging and collaboration suite, code-named Bulletproof. Novell sources said Bulletproof will use XML as a backbone for tighter application integration, and will use enDirectory as the foundation of GroupWise, acting as the data store. Although sources said Bulletproof probably will not appear until fall 2000, more details are likely to surface at Novell's BrainShare conference in March.
Leap year warnings issued
Although the aftermath of the year-2000 date change can hardly be called a hangover, some in the computer business are warily eyeing the arrival of Feb.
29. That 2000 is a leap year is not obvious in calendrical terms, and there is a chance that some systems will fail to recognize the additional day, either by not recognizing the date Feb. 29, or by not accounting for the extra day in date-based calculations. However, miscalculations are not expected to be widespread, particularly in light of the relatively uneventful arrival of Jan.
1.
IBM, AT&T join on wireless plan
IBM and AT&T have teamed up to offer wireless access to corporate systems.
Using AT&T's wireless IP network, IBM will provide software solutions to give corporate customers access to the Internet and to internal intranets and databases. IBM and Sprint several weeks ago announced a similar joint service for users of Sprint's PCS wireless service.
Dell to detail wireless LAN system
Dell Computer Corp. next week will begin what it's calling "Phase II" of the company's BlackBerry wireless initiative. On Monday, the computer maker will announce TrueMobile, a wireless LAN feature for its Latitude family of mobile offerings. Designed for office environments, the TrueMobile wireless LAN feature will eventually expand to Dell's other mobile and PC offerings, said one Dell representative.
SAP Steps into ASP Business
At the CeBIT 2000 trade conference in Hannover, Germany, this week, SAP announced that it will be stepping into the ASP realm with the creation of a company devoted to application hosting services for MySAP.com participants. The new, unnamed company will be able to serve as an ASP host for vertical exchanges, which will require SAP to support its own and third-party applications, said Bernd Kidler, director of service marketing at SAP. The new company will be able to extend hosting to non-SAP ERP and front-end packages through the use of SAP's Business Connectors integration software, Kidler said.
The new SAP company will begin operations April 1.