January  1996

Vantive Announces Web Strategy And Products

VanWeb Offers Universal Customer Interaction On Web
The Vantive Corporation, a provider of client/server customer interaction software, has announced VanWeb, a technology solution and strategy to enable customer information management on the World Wide Web. VanWeb is a product enabling universal access to information for sales, marketing, customer support, defect tracking and help desk functions on the Web. Features include: ability to publish client/server applications on the Web integrating the universal access of the Web; leveraging the technology strengths of Vantive applications; and three-tier architecture, Vantive's open API and Vantive development/reporting tools. VanWeb is comprised of both Vantive Web Agent and Vantive Web Publisher. VanWeb enables any Web user to access, report, browse and retrieve information from Vantive Enterprise, a suite of client/server applications for customer information management. Van Web users can create and update data, link together and use locators to set up and perform complex queries on the Web.

Web users can search resolutions regarding a support concern, register for training or a seminar program, request new product literature, update personnel or corporate information, or retrieve competitive information on a prospect. Companies with their own internal web can check a case study status internally with the help desk department. With VanWeb, Vantive Enterprise users have myriad opportunities, including: a customer accessing resolution information or the status of a case in Vantive Support; an employee logging a problem report in Vantive HelpDesk; an engineer browsing the failure database in Vantive Quality; or a sales representative retrieving new information about a prospect in Vantive Sales. VanWeb enables anyone with a World Wide Web browser to interact dynamically with a Vantive database from any location around the world. Vantive integrates two concepts of Web interaction through VanWeb: first, normal hypertext page linking to provide the standard capabilities that users expect from the Web, such as universal access and embedded links to other pages; and second, Vantive relational database navigation provides a wide range of capabilities that duplicate the capabilities of a Vantive client. VanWeb comprises the Vantive Web Agent and Vantive Web Publisher to offer Web users new service and support capabilities.

• Vantive Web Agent - handles communication between a customer's Web server and the Vantive Enterprise. Vantive Web Agent allows browsers to navigate within the Vantive Enterprise as within the Vantive client. Van Web agent offers the Web user broad functionality to improve information access.
• Vantive Web Publisher - leverages the Vantive Open Dynamic Dictionary to allow Web designers to define Web forms, user groups, permissions, data integrity and workflow rules from within the Vantive development environment.
• Security - VanWeb offers network security at three levels to provide a fully confidential communication system. VanWeb authenticates Web users at the application layer using logins and permission groups. At the browsers level, authentication is ensured for access to sensitive corporate data. At the network layer, VanWeb can establish a firewall between the public network and corporate data by removing the "live" connection.
• Data Integrity - Any updates to the database performed through VanWeb will follow the same rules as updates performed through a Vantive client.

The flexibilites and navigation capabilities of VanWeb are made possible by leveraging Vantive technologies including: Vantive Open Dynamic Dictionary: a dictionary that provides form descriptions, field integrity, and permissions by both group and forms; Vantive API (VanAPI): establishes interactive, bidirectional connections between outside applications and Vantive clients and servers; Vantive Development Environment: this development environment allows nonprogrammers to modify, change, customize and extend the functionality of Vantive applications in a flexible 4GL developmental environment. Applications are customized with Vantive Tools for system administration, workflow notification and interface customization. Vantive Development is leveraged by VanWeb to create new forms, alter page backgrounds and layouts, define business rules and change permission schemes. For more information, contact Bob Tate at 408-982-5700.