In brief

Proofpoint advances its messaging capabilities
Proofpoint has released version 3.1 of its Messaging Security Gateway and Production Server solutions, featuring numerous spam elimination capabilities in a single and highly scalable software platform.
The solutions combine Proofpoint’s machine learning technology, intelligent perimeter defences and e-mail firewall capabilities with anti-virus and robust, outbound-content security features.
www.proofpoint.com

BI solutions released into open source
A team of industry veterans is looking to shake up the business intelligence (BI) marketplace with the release of a comprehensive platform of BI capabilities as an open source project.
The newly-formed Pentaho BI Project provides enterprise-class reporting, analysis, information delivery, data-mining and workflow capabilities geared towards helping organisations to operate more effectively.
www.pentaho.org

Oracle boosts its search capabilities
Oracle has completed its acquisition of certain assets of TripleHop Technologies, a provider of information search, retrieval and classification software. The deal will extend the database giant’s development of a comprehensive enterprise search offering.
The acquired technology, MatchPoint, combines semantic and statistical analysis to improve the recall and precision capabilities of user queries, along with the ability to categorise information in context.
www.oracle.com

Improved functionality for Siebel’s CRM solution
Siebel has enhanced the functionality of its hosted CRM offering with the release of version 8 of its CRM OnDemand software, which includes new features to streamline team collaboration and enable segmentation for targeted marketing programmes.
Other additions include group calendaring and delegated task management, and contact networking.
www.siebel.com

Cisco announces new security features
Cisco has added new security, scalability and desktop applications to its customer contact solutions, which are designed to help organisations to improve their customer service processes.
The enhancements are part of the Cisco Customer Interaction Network, a continuously evolving suite of customer relationship management applications and multi-channel services. The SIP-enabled network allows companies to intelligently route customer interactions to the most relevant contact centre agents, regardless of their location.
www.cisco.com

FAST powers public website
Associated New Media (ANM) has selected advanced search technology from Fast Search and Transfer (FAST) to power its customer-facing website.
Users of the site can now benefit from FASTs’ automatic Sentiment Analysis solution, which analyses the content of 130,000 independent hotel reviews and rates each one out of ten, depending on the average sentiment.
Ratings automatically change in real-time, meaning that results can be more accurate than those of traditional guides.
www.fastsearch.com

Siemens extends use of Open Text software
Open Text has announced that Siemens AG plans to expand its Livelink ECM content archiving capabilities to create a central, globally accessible archive. The consolidation of remote archives to the Open Text system is aimed at improving information access, lowering operations expenses and increasing process efficiency. The archiving capabilities, part of a service-oriented architecture-based Livelink platform, will ensure the ability to easily evolve the solution in line with changing IT requirements.
Siemens's solution will also include e-mail management and archiving capabilities, content from Microsoft SharePoint and Open Text's Livelink ECM for SAP(R) solutions.
www.opentext.com

Gartner places IBM in magic quadrant
Gartner has placed IBM in the Leader Quadrant of its 2005 Magic Quadrant for Web Services Platforms.
According to the analyst firm, leaders are performing well in web services, have a clear vision of market direction and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership position within the market.
www.ibm.com