If the Winshoes fit...

Nevrona Designs hopes its new ND-Winshoes will be a shoo-in. The product is centered around the popular open source Internet component suite, Winshoes. According to Nevrona Designs, ND-Winshoes provides enhanced technical support, documentation, and consulting services for Winshoes, similar to the services that Red Hat and other vendors provide for the Linux operating system. Chad Hower, the creator of Winshoes, recently joined the Nevrona Designs development team and is coordinator of the ND-Winshoes project.

The enhanced documentation and examples that ND-Winshoes offers will be released under the same open source license as Winshoes and will be available for free download from the Nevrona Designs Web site as they become available. Technical support is available through three annual plans: level 1 provides access to private support forums for US$49; level 2 adds e-mail tech support for US$99; and level 3 adds e-mail and telephone tech support for US$249.

"Open Source projects such as Winshoes are great for the timely addition of features and bug fixes, but the technical support and documentation that professional developers need is often not there," said Jim Gunkel, president of Nevrona Designs. "With ND-Winshoes, we will be providing much needed help for those who are just getting started with Internet programming, as well as uncovering the hidden power of Winshoes for the experienced developer."

Isn't there a game called Risk?

Yes, it's a "classic" board game of strategy and world domination, according to its maker, Hasbro. But risk in software development is no game, and managing that risk is something that newly-formed RightWare Inc. hopes to tackle with its flagship product, the Active Risk Management System 2.0.

ARMS, which was released last week, is a two-component suite of team-based risk management software. The product enables software development teams to identify, analyze, control, and communicate project risks. ARMS is aimed at preventing common risk management errors like relying only on the initial risk assessment, failing to include all team members in the risk identification process, or overlooking a risk management process altogether.

ARMS uses a unified process that combines the practices of four well-known risk-management methodologies -- PMBOK, MSF Proactive Risk Management Model, SEI CMM Risk Management Key Process Area, and NASA's Continuous Risk Management. "ARMS provides all members of the development team with the tools they need to track evolving software project risks that can affect project schedules, cost, and scope," claims RightWare CEO Gregory Parker.

According to RightWare, ARMS allows users to unify their project teams through improved risk communication; foster a project environment that does not exclude risk identifiers; get a better picture of how mitigation affects project schedules; link risks and track the impact of change on related risks; and retain historical attributes about project risks, impacts, and their mitigation items.

ARMS can now be ordered and is expected to ship Oct. 25. It comes in standard and enterprise editions for Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT. Both components of the suite -- Team Manager and Team Member -- come in single-user and five-user licenses. Floating and site licenses may be negotiated.

The ARMS Team Manager costs US$1,599 for the enterprise edition and US$999 for the standard edition (works only with Access datastore). ARMS Team Member lists for US$1,299 for enterprise and US$799 for standard. Both products include two no-cost support incidents.

The mantra is e-commerce

Yantra Corp. of Acton, MA. will debut its PureEcommerce software solution at Internet World this week. Geared toward business and consumer users alike, PureEcommerce allows companies, their customers, and their suppliers to manage and track orders throughout the cycle via a Web browser.

Built as a solution for on-line business transactions, PureEcommerce is designed for all companies that sell their products online. Auction sites, e-retailers, and net markets are all potential users of PureEcommerce. According to Devdutt Yellurkar, CEO of Yantra, PureEcommerce ensures flawless delivery of products to their Internet customers in a personalized way that reinforces the company brand, and builds customer loyalty while reducing operating costs.

PureEcommerce consists of several different components, including personalized fulfillment, collaborative sourcing, reverse logistics, delivery management, supplier portals, and PureEcommerce adapters. A flexible, modular system, PureEcommerce takes full advantage of the latest communication and integration standards. Its object-oriented architecture and open APIs ensure ease of integration and customization. Based on Oracle, PureEcommerce's databases allow for high-volume processing.

Participating in a PureEcommerce pilot program, five rapid-growth e-businesses have now migrated to Yantra's virtual supply chain solution: MotherNature.com (see related article), iVillage.com, Toysmart.com, SciQuest, and Petstore.com.