EXTOL Selects IBM System i Express for NEW EDI Appliance
Uncomplicated Reliability, Performance and Security Deliver Small Businesses the Perfect Platform for High Performance, Comprehensive “EDI-In-A-Box”
POTTSVILLE, Pennsylvania, April 10, 2007 – EXTOL International today announced the EXTOL EDI Appliance, based on the new System i Express line from IBM. The new offering is optimized for small and medium businesses, where there are limited IT resources to support complex EDI and supply chain participation.
EXTOL’s ready-to-use EDI software is perfectly matched with the “all-in-one” System i Express platform. This enables small and medium sized companies to play big, leveling the trading field with their partners, and meeting the supply chain demands of their customers. The EDI Appliance will include all the software capabilities needed for EDI participation and a complete system for less than the traditional cost of separate applications needed to comply with EDI business mandates.
Why i?
EDI operations involve the most critical transactions in any company’s order-to-cash cycle. This demands the reliability, easy systems management and built-in security of System i Express with new, per-user pricing that enables clients to grow technology resources at pace with business needs.
Why EXTOL?
The EXTOL EDI Appliance, based on the System i Express model 515, designed for 5 to 40 users, provides scalable high-performance and high-reliability EDI processing capability, along with very flexible implementation options. Tony Baran, CEO of EXTOL, explained, “It provides the advantages of a hosted solution. However, since it is behind the firewall, it enables much deeper integration with existing applications than is possible with a remotely hosted system. Businesses that are short on IT staff or EDI expertise can take advantage of EXTOL Managed Services to deploy and/or operate any portion or all of their EDI operations, while retaining the option of changing to internally managed EDI at any time with no conversion effort or cost."
EXTOL delivers the expertise in addressing EDI requirements, and the Appliance eliminates the complexity by providing a pre-packaged instance of multi-enterprise integration, optimized for the particular requirements of EDI. These include pre-configured transaction sets and communications, AS2 support, VAN functionality, pre-defined reports, user view features for business departments, automated notifications, and more.
“With IBM System i Express, clients can expand their IT infrastructure as the business evolves rather than replacing it or buying more servers every time they need to support a new function,” said Elaine Lennox, Vice President, System i Marketing. “This value will provide IBM business partners like EXTOL an attractive platform for their solutions, and help them to win new clients. The EXTOL EDI Appliance is a great example of this.”
About EXTOL International, Inc.
EXTOL International, Inc. is a leading provider of B2B integration application software for resource constrained companies who want to integrate demand driven supply chains. EXTOL solutions are ready-to-use applications that target multiple B2B and internal challenges with a common integration platform that empowers existing IT teams to respond rapidly to new business opportunities and demands. EXTOL solutions are also available preconfigured to address specific electronic commerce applications including EDI, AS2, XML, data synchronization (1SYNC) and the integration and management capabilities required to take full advantage of supply chain functionality. For more information, please visit www.EXTOL.com
