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Casahl plans data integration tools

The company's Replic-Action 5.1 server will boast new features and tools for transferring back-office data to users of Notes and Exchange.

2 min read
Casahl Technology later this month plans to rollout a number of new products to boost its family of server-based integration tools.

Next week, the Danville, California-based company's Replic-Action 5.1 server will debut with new features and tools for transferring back-office data to users of Lotus Development's Notes and Microsoft's Exchange groupware products.

For example, with the new tools, users can access and manipulate data from back-end database systems directly from a Notes or Web client interface. The program?s Real Time Query-by-Form feature provides users with the ability to query back-end data from and return records to a Notes or Web client in real time. Replic-Action also enables users to run SQL requests as part of replication without scripting.

The newest version of this server-based replication, migration, and integration tool features additional logging of real-time events and the option of installing real-time components separately.

Replic-Action 5.1 supports replication of back-office data as well as multiple bidirectional replications into a single Notes form. The new program also adds support for database scalar functions and a separate "Create Table" object. The new version also includes enhancements to the Query-by-Form and support for Notes Server cluster.

One of the new tools that makes Replic-Action technology extend beyond its traditional groupware accessory niche is RA.Interchange, a product designed to ease synchronization of multiple Exchange servers.

Another new tool allows two-way synchronization between database systems and Exchange. RA.Synch allows users to move data back and forth between Exchange and Microsoft Outlook and their corporate database systems.

"It allows Exchange to go beyond messaging to be able to build mission critical applications," Casahl CEO and founder Harry Wong said. Users can "indirectly manipulate data through replication...and you don't have to pay for new client licenses."

All of the tools are built to work with databases developed by Microsoft, Oracle, and Sybase.

Also this month, Casahl releases a tool that integrates Notes and Exchange with enterprise resource planning systems, like products made by SAP, Baan, and PeopleSoft. RA.ERP enables companies to integrate their groupware infrastructure with their back end ERP systems. The tool provides a point-and-click environment in which users can build applications for data sharing between their ERP and groupware systems.

Casahl tops off this bevy of releases with a tool that allows corporations using Notes and Exchange to synchronize information between the two. The tool provides support for text fields, file attachments, OLE attachments, Lotus Notes doclinks, discussion threading, and response hierarchies.

Analysts said that because Notes is an older product in the corporate world, the tool will help organizations deploy Notes data to their newer Exchange network.

"It is common for big corporations to have two to three separate mail systems. This product will fit in nicely in this messaging world," said Tim Sloan, an analyst with the Aberdeen Group.

Pricing for the different integration tools ranges from $8,000 for the RA.Synch product to $80,000 for the RA.ERP product, Wong said.