By Nick Patience
Marimba Inc will today launch the first of a series of vertical pre-packaged applications today that are based on its Castanet internet-based software distribution and management suite. The Mountain View, California company is unveiling DocService, a document delivery application – the other vertical applications will be rolled out in the coming quarter. However, VP marketing Jacqueline Ross could not be persuaded to divulge the nature of the future applications. These applications are standalone and do not require the user to already have Castanet installed.
This application is meant for companies sending large numbers of documents – up to millions of users. Ross realizes that there are other companies doing bulk document delivery, such as Documentum Inc, but she believes that Marimba’s Castanet infrastructure set this offering apart from others and actually provides an opportunity for it to collaborate with those companies. It is in early negotiations with Documentum at the moment.
Like other document delivery systems, including email and FedEx and UPS, DocService gives the ability to deliver documents securely, and provides an audit trail. But, says Ross, DocService goes further as it provides the ability to determine whether or not the recipient has opened and read the document as well, which is a feature Castanet uses to determine whether or not software has been delivered to a desktop and whether or not it has been installed by the user.
From the recipient’s point of view, DocService provides for automated delivery of documents and the ability to pick and choose which documents they wish to receive, whether to receive the whole document or just a header and where to archive documents. However, it also enables systems managers to set profiles so that certain documents are forced down to users if need be through the use of recipient lists and categories. DocService uses Marimba’s byte-level differencing to determine whether or not a recipient t has already got a document or if it is the most up to date copy of the document.
DocService can use its own document repository or use existing ones, including those used with Documentum’s system, or LDAP, NDS or NT directories. In addition, publishers of the documents can brand the client software. DocService is in controlled availability now, and will be generally available in August on Windows NT and Solaris, with HP-UX and AIX versions to follow. Pricing is on a per-client basis, costing $2100 per client and $1,000 per server.
