Companies Join to Boost Data Integration

Lumapath Inc. and Ascential Software Corp. are looking for allies in the information asset management space to enhance their respective data integration offerings.

LumaPath last week introduced its flagship data integration product, Real-Time Relevance Server, and announced that it had joined forces with Stellent Inc., of Eden Prairie, Minn., and Pivotal Corp., of North Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Real-Time Relevance Server automatically delivers structured and unstructured data content and presents it to users in real time.

It does this by unobtrusively analyzing the context of a users active window, then automatically locating relevant information in other information sources, such as Microsoft Corp.s Outlook and Office applications, Web sites, and flat files. Then, with the single click of a mouse, the user can move the retrieved information into another application, according to officials at LumaPath, of Maynard, Mass.

LumaPath will integrate Stellents Outside In Content Access technology with its Real-Time Relevance Server. When the LumaPath server software opens an e-mail message with an attachment, Outside In Content Access automatically extracts the content of the attachment, enabling the LumaPath software to bring it into the Relevance Server, according to officials.

LumaPath also penned a technology alliance with Pivotal to deliver a joint solution that integrates Real-Time Relevance Server software with Pivotals eRelationship Suite of CRM (customer relationship management) software to provide a more comprehensive perspective on customer- related information.

Relevance Server integration adapters are available for Siebel Systems Inc.s eBusiness 2000, Lotus Software from IBMs Notes and Microsofts Outlook messaging software, Windows NT file systems, and internal and external Web sites.

Separately, information management software maker Ascential late last month acquired Torrent Systems Inc., which develops parallel processing infrastructure software for the creation and execution of data warehousing, business intelligence and ana-lytical applications. The combined company will provide solutions for high-end data integration.

Ascentials $46 million purchase of Torrent, of Cambridge, Mass., builds on a relationship the two companies started in March. Ascential, of Westboro, Mass., plans to come to market immediately with software that incorporates Torrents technology into its own DataStage XE data integration product line. The combined products provide data transformation, meta-data management and data quality assurance, according to officials.