CapTech releases TopTier Software`s Enterprise Unification Platform v4.0 in SA

Intuitive business software connects ERP, CRM and SCM applications, documents and data to individuals throughout the enterprise and beyond

TopTier Software Inc, a leading provider of business enterprise software, recently announced the release of the TopTier Enterprise Unification Platform Version 4.0. Built to meet the demands of frustrated ERP, CRM and supply chain management customers, Version 4.0 unifies ERP, CRM and SCM software in one desktop window, while delivering best-of-breed knowledge management and unstructured content capabilities. It extends access to these critical applications and their data across entire organizations, their customers and vendors.

"Although we already had ERP and other software in place, we couldn`t make them connect or provide access to employees throughout the company," said Tim Hambers, Director, Business Process Consulting for Basic American Foods. "TopTier`s Powerful new portal technology optimized our existing software and gave us a genuine return on our total investment."

"TopTier Software`s Enterprise Unification Platform Version 4.0 release continues to break down the barriers to action that technology boundaries have erected between business users and the information they need," said Hadley Reynolds, Research Director at Delphi Group.

"TopTier`s portal platform provides a level of integration at the business desktop that helps business people discover new ways to leverage the value of enterprise software investments."

TopTier created their Enterprise Unification Platform Version 4.0 to address the needs of corporate managers and employees worldwide who yearn for a collaborative marketplace to share real-time information between the enterprise, customers, vendors, and suppliers - not just within the production, customer relations and supply chain management divisions of a company.

Version 4.0 is designed to allow users to move beyond the complexities and incompatibility of software applications, Web environments, documents and data, creating a powerful collaborative desktop under a simple personalized interface. Ultimately, individuals can access and customize the software applications they want on their desktops and have the ability to use search engines and "Drag and Relate" data between applications with intuitive answers to their business questions.

"This powerful new portal technology gives our employees the ability to take initiative in their unique business roles and better serve our customers needs," said Chambers. "The new 4.0 Unification platform will empower the BAF team to easily access and focus on timely analytical information and documents, helping create innovative forecasting, planning, scheduling, and trend analysis tools to drive business success."

"We built the Enterprise Unification Platform to empower individuals with a unified view of their role in a business enterprise and creative tools to take advantage of hidden business opportunities," said Shai Agassi, CEO and founder of TopTier Software.

"Sales teams, for example, can find better ways to negotiate not just on price, but what`s moving on the factory floor, what`s in a supplier`s inventory and what the supplier`s terms are. Our clients tell us that TopTier`s enterprise software pays for itself by improving their bottom lines through greater efficiency and new opportunities for revenue generation - exactly what ERP, CRM and SCM were intended to do."

In a recent Gartner Research Note authored by Gene Phifer, Vice President and Research Director, Gartner, TopTier Software was referenced as "exhibiting the most vision" of all portal vendors mentioned. Included in the research were IBM, InfoImage, iPlanet and Plumtree.

Key differentiator: sorting out the chaos

Customers invest in enterprise portals to sort out the chaos in the unstructured data - to find documents and prompt an employee`s attention when a document of specific importance is delivered. New knowledge management features of Version 4.0 include:

• High-powered search engine - Version 4.0 integrates with any available search engine as well as supports its own indexing/search integration tool. This search feature provides impeccable search accuracy, is highly scalable and multi-lingual, and supports every file type.
• Heightened search capabilities - Users now have the flexibility to search by concept, Boolean logic, and metadata.
• Intricate categorization means - Version 4.0 has a personalized classification tool built in and integrates easily with various taxonomies including file systems and LDAP-based taxonomy.

One example of this commanding knowledge management system is how users can now search for specific topics in the portal and in return, retrieve documents that focus on the topic area. While searching under "Computer Displays" you can see all the results under the parallel topic areas of "Computer Monitors" and "Computer Screens" as well.

"Companies like SAP and Invensys` Baan have been relying on TopTier Software for their Portal product and Unification Platform technology for several years now" said Greg Gorbach, E-Manufacturing Director, ARC Advisory Group, "this latest 4.0 release offers the key to creating virtual applications by unifying much of the business value trapped within back-office and front-office applications and making it accessible to customers, suppliers and employees, even if you`re not a Baan or SAP shop."

Key differentiator: seamless integration

Version 4.0 promises true scalability and functionality, offering support for a number of diverse yet widely utilized platforms including Netscape, HTML, and syndication. This service enables users to extend their IT investment and also tap into additional available resources.

• Netscape - Version 4.0 supports the last two versions of Netscape browsers.
• Thin Client/HTML - Version 4.0 supports a complete thin client that does not require downloads, ActiveX controls or Java - simply pure HTML. This version also supports SSL to ensure network security.
• Syndication - Syndication of content allows customers and partners to project iViews outside of the portal framework.

Key differentiator: personalized content

Users of Version 4.0 will also have access to TopTier`s iViewStudio, a Web-based service that enables users to publish and subscribe to personalized views of information from internal business applications and syndicated media resources for the portal - and then access and correlate this information via TopTier`s patented "Drag and Relate" technology. Specific iViews can now be imported with a single drag and drop into the new portal, enabling users to streamline their decision-making process by having direct access to the exact information they need in a form most appropriate to them, revolutionizing the definition of "content" by providing information ranging from simple weather reports and news feeds to detailed data found within enterprise line-of-business applications.

"Through the integration of TopTier`s Enterprise Unification Platform and Open Text`s Livelink, we are working closely together to develop innovative collaborative commerce solutions to unite business content from multiple applications and substantially enhance a user`s access capabilities," said Andrew Pery, Vice President of Global Marketing, Open Text.