Oblix update aims to ease business tasks

The Mountain View, California-based company next week will roll out a new version of its Web-based software package that uses directory services technology to help track business changes and ease the task of providing corporate services within large companies.

Oblix CSA (Corporate Services Automation) 3.5 features enhancements in three core areas: enterprise software and back-office integration, ease-of-use, and performance improvements.

The company said its software automates many common human resources tasks. For example, in the case of a new employee hire, a manager can use Oblix software to trigger requests for action in multiple departments. The software messages the various departments, so that a new desk, computer, email address, and building pass are ready for new hires on day one.

Oblix uses the term "digital persona" to describe the digital profile of an employee created by its software. By implementing the digital profile, the Oblix CSA package allows organizations to provide and track resources and services for employees, such as mobile phones, computer equipment, security and email access, and permissions to access corporate applications, Vivian Ganitsky, an Oblix product manager, explained.

"Oblix is taking directory services in a new direction--away from just email and registering to leveraging the directory and the Web into a data retrieval tool," said Villars.

Oblix Corporate Service Center and Corporate Directory make up the CSA package and take advantage of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)-based software from Netscape Communications, Novell, and Microsoft.

The company said it is announcing that Oblix 3.5 will also support Novell Directory Services (NDS) version 8 through the NDS LDAP interface, which analysts believe will boost Oblix's popularity.

"This is important for Oblix," said Rick Villars, an analyst with International Data Corporation. "One of the biggest groups of directory service users [is on] NDS."

The company claims Oblix CSA 3.5 has improved caching which can enhance performance for larger corporate deployments of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of users within a distributed intranet or extranet.

In addition, the new version of Oblix CSA supports a new ticketing process, using LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), through which the product can link to back-office applications, made by such giants as SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, and Baan.

Oblix also added new searching and reporting features, including the ability to export results and search filters.

List pricing in the United States for Oblix CSA 3.5 is $50 per user for the Oblix Corporate Service Center and Oblix Corporate Directory. The product will be generally available by the end of this month.