Press Release from IBM and Xerox
dated September 10, 1998
Salutation Press Releases
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 21, 1998--Xerox Corporation and IBM are the first major US vendors to announce plans to add support for the Salutation Architecture in upcoming products, according to Robert F. Pecora, managing director of the Salutation Consortium.
The IBM and Xerox announcement is part of an initiative to deliver a new solution that helps customers manage paper and electronic documents across an enterprise. The Salutation Architecture is added to products to simplify their network plug-and-play interoperability. It is an open technology available without cost to hardware and software developers.
Pecora said, "Salutation technology will enable IBM and Xerox to provide a new generation of products that simplify network collaboration."
According to the companies, Xerox intends to add Salutation Architecture support to its flagship Document Centre family of digital multifunction office systems. IBM will supply software called NuOffice to link its Lotus Domino web server software from IBM's Lotus Development Corp. subsidiary. Together the products deliver a unified system for scanning, document management, e-mail, messaging, fax, and distributed printing.
The Salutation Architecture is open middleware technology for locating and controlling equipment across the Internet or a company intranet. It lets you query the network to discover which attached devices can receive your images, files, and messages. Salutation reduces LAN administration by autoregistering new devices on the network and by supporting ad hoc discovery, with no need for enterprise-wide directories.
Pecora said, "Salutation-enabled products from multiple vendors
are available in Japan, and we expect to see products from these
and other vendors launched in the US. Manufacturers of
network peripherals and office systems want to make network
collaboration simpler and more convenient for their customers.
Salutation can help them reach that goal and improve their
competitive position." The Salutation Consortium recruits and
supports developers incorporating the Salutation Architecture
into hardware and software. Most recently, the Consortium
sponsored the independent development of port-of-entry
software that extends Salutation interoperability to legacy
peripherals attached to Windows PCs.
In the Fujitsu booth at AIIM'98 in May the Salutation
Consortium demonstrated a scan-directly-to-Notes application
using products from Axis Communications and presented
Salutation-enabled NuOffice software from IBM. NuOffice is
marketed in Japan, along with a family of supporting peripherals
and software from Canon, Fuji Xerox, Mita, Muratec, and
Ricoh. Market momentum around the NuOffice effort has
resulted in Fuji Xerox adopting the Salutation Architecture as a
company standard for networking office automation equipment.
In other industry recognition, Mita's Salutation-enabled
Network Connection Kit for Notes was named "Best of
Comdex" in the category of Enterprise System Software at
Comdex Japan in April. NuOffice provides a complete office
system for large customer sites with many mobile or
telecommuting users. It includes Salutation extensions to Lotus
Notes that enable users to print, scan, fax, and email without
concern for device drivers or directories. The NuOffice user can
send documents to printers and other peripherals, rather than
only to a PC. The user can receive fax information as email and
send email to fax machines. Running on Lotus Notes Domino
Server and Lotus Notes Client, NuOffice allows a document
received from a peripheral, for example, a scanner or fax, to be
imported into a Notes database. Additionally, a NuOffice user
can access and distribute information right from a peripheral
device, without opening a laptop, logging in to a workstation, or
dialing a phone number.
The Salutation Consortium is a non-profit corporation with member organizations in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Member companies include Adobe Systems, APTi, Axis Communications, Brother, Canon, Cisco, Eastman Kodak, Fuji Xerox, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, Integrated Systems, IBM, Kobe Steel, Komatsu, Konica, Matsushita, Mita, Mitsubishi, Murata (Muratec), Okamura, Oki Data, Ricoh, Rios Systems, Sanyo, Seiko Epson, Sharp, Sun Microsystems, Toshiba, and Xerox.
The Consortium's web site is http://www.salutation.org.
Salutation Press Releases