- CNET Article
September 16, 1997
Netscape Communications (NSCP) and Actra, a
Netscape joint venture with GE Information Services
(GE) will release a new version of Netscape's
2-year-old software for publishing Web sites by the
end of the month.
PublishingXpert 2.0 by Actra replaces Netscape's
Publishing System 1.6, released in January. The new
product is part of Actra's CommerceXpert family of
Internet commerce applications, originally announced
in May as CrossCommerce.
PublishingXpert is designed for both business --
and consumer-oriented publishing on Web sites or
extranets, and it includes multi-hosting features for
ISPs or publishing ventures with multiple titles. The
software also allows publishers to charge for
subscriptions, as beta customer International Data
Group does for some publications.
The new software has been completely
re-architected from the last Netscape version, Actra
said, and offers personalized content delivery,
content management, secure payments from CyberCash,
billing services, advanced search capabilities from
PLS and Verity, and centralized administration.
It also introduces AgentXpert, a CORBA-based agent
framework for detailed personalization and one-to-one
marketing and uses NetObjects' Fusion tools to
enhance its Web site-building capabilities.
Actra said Netscape and its channel partners will
distribute PublishingXpert and other CommerceXpert
products. PublishingXpert 2.0 will be available by
the end of the month on Sun Solaris starting at
$75,000. An SGI Irix version is due by the end of the
year, with a Windows NT version due in the first
quarter of 1998. PublishingXpert is bundled with
Netscape Enterprise Server and LiveWire Pro tools and
works with Oracle's database server software.
Actra also announced prices and shipping dates for
its other e-commerce products in the CommerceXpert
family. ECXpert, software for EDI (electronic data
interchange) over the Internet, is available now on
Sun Solaris, priced from $50,000. It will be
available on Windows NT within 30 days.
SellerXpert, Actra's software for accepting
self-service orders online and for communicating with
partners and suppliers over the Net, is scheduled to
ship within the next 30 days, priced from $195,000.
Netscape Communications Corp. in Mountain View,
Calif., is at (415) 937-2555 or http://www.netscape.com/.
Actra Business Systems, in Sunnyvale, Calif., is at http://www.actracorp.com/.
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