MagnetStudio to Offer .Net Alternative

Application development software startup MagnetPoint Inc. will release a Java-based application development framework for building Web services next week.

The new framework, called MagnetStudio, will be positioned as a possible alternative to Microsoft Corp.s .Net Alerts, as its used to build Web services for messaging applications, including e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, presence and availability management, and scheduling and calendaring.

Developers create an application process or workflow in MagnetStudio, which then generates an XML template. The XML template is populated by the event triggered, and the XML application created is then run in the MagnetWorks runtime environment as an interactive session.

MagnetPoint, of San Francisco, is targeting the application toward Web developers rather than harder-to-find Java or C++ developers, company officials said. Applications developed support text, text-to-speech and voice recognition.

Ben Brauer, Web services product manager at Hewlett-Packard Co. in Cupertino, Calif., said HP is using MagnetStudio for a number of projects—for both internal and customer-facing applications–which he declined to comment on, saying that they were still in beta.

“Theyve created an enabling technology thats easy to use,” said Brauer. “Its easy to create a demo, easy to create an application for a variety of different services. It makes using Web services easier, especially when it comes to communications services.”

Bruce McIndoe, chief operating officer of iJet Travel Intelligence Inc., said his companys alerting service–which sends travel advisories and information from around the world via text, voice, SMS and fax, based on its 500,000 subscribers specific itineraries–is based on MagnetPoint technology, which the company outsources as a service.

“Its very flexible,” said McIndoe. “Every time you need to change a parameter in the XML document, you can change it right on the fly. You get a lot of value out of it, but its really simple and easy to work out.”