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2/23/98

Surfing for Saabs

Java-based legacy integration tool drives dealer extranet.

Saab Cars USA, Inc.'s 245 North American dealerships soon will be able to browse across an extranet to find the makes, models and colors their customers want.

Saab's Intranet Retail Information System (IRIS) extranet site, which will run on a Lotus Domino Web server, will link the dealerships and service centers to inventory databases running on IBM AS/400 and mainframe computers. Jacada, a Java-based legacy integration tool from Client/Server Technology, Inc. (CST), of Atlanta, generates the HTML screens from mainframe data.

"Being able to check inventory at different locations from any machine with a browser is a great improvement," says Markus Harry, a sales representative with B&B Saab, a Santa Clara, Calif., dealership that serves Silicon Valley. It definitely beats the current 286-based dial-up, poorly organized system, he adds.

Saab will rev up IRIS in April, when the Norcross, Ga., car-maker unveils its 1999 models.

Meanwhile, another vehicle maker, Caterpillar, Inc., of Peoria, Ill., also has driven into CST's camp. It, too, has licensed Jacada so it can provide dealers browser access to AS/400s.

Vaunting VRML

Intranet content developers on the edge of three-dimensional design techniques last month got a boost when the International Standards Organization made the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) 2.0 specification a standard. VRML can be used on a corporate Web for everything from visualization of building layouts to representation of complex data, such as pricing models.

Netiva Web tool to ease tax collection burden

Santa Clara County plans intranet-based tax inquiry applications.

California taxpayers living in Santa Clara County might not like the tax bills they got this year any better than they used to. But if they've got a problem with their bills, they'll probably like the service they receive a whole lot better.

That's because the county's tax collection department is providing employees browser-based access to property records. For years, these workers had to burrow through microfiche reports to find information that will now be available to them via an intranet.

The employees will be able to search for records based on the property ID number - the only search term available on microfiche - the property owner, the address of the property or the property owner, or the owner's Social Security Number. The time spent on individual inquiries will be cut in half, says Jim Rusnak, who was the project manager.

In preparation, Rusnak worked with the county's data processing department to extract data from master files and build relational databases using Sybase, Inc. SQL servers. He then partnered with Netiva Software, Inc., of Campbell, Calif., to develop the Web application that would interact, via Microsoft Corp.'s Open Database Connectivity, with the database.

This was the first instance of the Netiva software interfacing with a large database - the county maintains approximately 650,000 property records, Rusnak says. As such, he adds, developers ran into some technical difficulties but none that were insurmountable.

And now things promise to get a bit less grueling for those dealing with the Santa Clara County tax collection department.

VW bug gets chatty

In case you're wondering about the genesis of that hot new intranet gadget you've been reading about . . .

The folks who bring you the latest technological toys are known for working hard. But as witnessed at the recent Internet Showcase produced by industry pundit David Coursey, they're also known for playing hard.

Although only a Coursey-chosen cast of companies were given stage time to demo their latest Web wares at the San Diego gathering, everyone could have a say, and a bit of fun, by tagging a whitewashed VW.

Some participants, such as Bob Frankston and Dan Bricklin, were old hands in new roles. More than a decade ago, these two designed VisiCalc, the earliest electronic spreadsheet. Today, Frankston is in research anddevelopment at Microsoft Corp. and Bricklin is crafting a nonlinear document for mat suited to Web pages for start-up Trellix Corp.

The "Love Bug" was covered with graffiti by the end of the three-day event, and attendees were sufficiently hyped - or perhaps hypered - up. During the week, they mingled in and out of sessions munching geek sweets such as Twinkies and Sno-Balls while downing Jolt.