Ed Scannell

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday announced it has released documentation that allows corporate and third-party developers to take full advantage of the XML-based schemas, called DatadiagramML, in its Office Visio diagramming tool.

At the end of April WebSphere Commerce, IBM Corp. will formally announce Version 5.6, an upgrade to its e-commerce platform that will include a new feature called Starter Stores. Starter Stores is a collection of business processes configured to address different business requirements for different customer segments such as b-to-b, b-to-c, and partner and channel management.

Financial services is one of the early commercial markets that top-tier grid computing suppliers are pursuing. Many bread and butter applications used by this industry involve heavy number crunching and are typically used or accessed by thousands of their business partners and clients.

Charles Schwab & Co. in December went live with a Linux-based grid computing system in an effort to speed up some of its compute-intensive investment management applications.

BEA Systems Inc. and Cape Clear Software Inc. are boosting service-oriented architectures (SOAs), hoping to ease the creation of enterprise application services.

BEA Systems Inc. bolstered its Java-based development strategy Monday, rolling out new software that allows corporate and third-party developers to create and deploy any Java or service-based application for its WebLogic server.

Trying to add more muscle to its supply chain software strategy, IBM Corp. on Tuesday announced it has agreed to purchase all the shares of Trigo Technologies Inc.

Trying to build some momentum going into its annual PartnerWorld conference in Las Vegas next week, IBM Corp. on Wednesday announced it has now signed up 200 independent software vendors (ISVs) in 10 months to its ISV Advantage Initiative, including some it has ripped away from archrival Microsoft Corp.