Pindar Systems, a specialist in catalog content technology, has announced Agility, an all-new enterprise catalog commerce server that will enable B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to commerce) companies to develop complex catalogs and promotions across print, online and supply chain channels worldwide. It will debut at next week’s Seybold Seminars conference in New York.
Agility is built with a Java-based, J2EE-compliant Web application server architecture. Currently in beta testing, the system is due to be released commercially early in the second quarter this year. It can be deployed across a variety of operating systems, including Mac OS X.
Pindar Systems’ object-based EDGE data management technology allows Agility users to link objects, the basic building blocks of the data structure, into an infinite variety of taxonomies, according to Pindar Systems CEO Paul O’Sullivan. Each object can include an unlimited number of attributes.
Using EDGE, together with Agility’s numerous merchandising, creative, production and collaboration tools, B2B companies can create an unlimited number of catalogs based on geography, industry, brand, channel, customer type, and more, O’Sullivan said. For B2C companies, Agility provides extensive brand asset management capabilities, collaborative online “whiteboarding” to speed the creative design process, as well as supporting leading third-party forecasting/analytical tools and customer-facing e-commerce systems.
Pindar Systems has built into the Agility platform the scalability and flexibility to fit the size, workflow regimen and IT requirements of virtually any business, O’Sullivan said. In response to customers’ desire to open their catalog system to new in-house and external organizations, such as customer service representatives and trading partners, Pindar Systems has responded with a multi-level licensing structure for Agility that makes the addition of even hundreds of new users economically viable, he said.
A suite of optional productivity-enhancing modules allows each business to tailor Agility to its own needs. Available modules include Agility Workflow, Agility Content Gateway, Agility XML Importer and XML Exporter, Agility Table Wizard, Agility Whiteboarding, Agility PDF Generator, Agility Supplier Gateway, and Production Advisor for Agility.