S4i Systems, Inc. today unveiled a new Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) capability in S4i Express--its electronic document management system for System i.

With this new feature, S4i has satisfied IBM's business and technical requirements for acceptance into the IBM SOA Specialty Business Partner initiative. The program is for Business Partners who make a significant investment in IBM SOA products and technologies through the SOA industry framework.

The S4i Express SOA feature provides an industry standard way to retrieve and store business-critical documents under S4i Express control. The S4i Express SOA services are available for most operating systems and platforms and may be integrated into both Web- based and operating-system dependent applications.

SOA provides a set of standards that result in developers being able to create and deploy applications much more quickly and at lower cost. In this case, a document management application no longer requires custom development for close integration into an organization's business application. Therefore, requisite components in S4i Express can be integrated into one or many applications.

According to S4i's CEO, Spencer Elliott, "S4i Express is now not only an application that can be used as a stand-alone tool to store and retrieve documents, but it also integrates into client applications and services to add functionality and richness. This represents a big opportunity for developers on any platform to take advantage of the industrial quality of the System i and S4i Express without having specific System i knowledge."

The company said that one mainstream System i ERP software vendor already has licensed S4i's SOA feature along with S4i Express and soon will offer its customers an integrated document management solution.

S4i began working on the SOA module for S4i Express in September 2007, shortly after IBM announced the SOA Specialty Business Partner program. "We see lots of ways that System i shops can integrate document management functionality into their core processes to improve the dissemination of information and workflow. Other tools will soon follow that use the SOA module as a building block," says Spencer.

IBM estimates demand for SOA enabled products at $86 billion. Last year, it expanded its PartnerWorld Industry Networks, IBM SOA Business Partner Community initiative to include an SOA Specialty.

As a member of the SOA Business Partner Community, S4i can take advantage of technical and sales resources offered by IBM. S4i Express is now listed in the IBM SOA Business Catalog-an online directory of certified SOA solutions. The SOA feature is licensed separately from S4i Express. Licensing fees will be announced soon. The first release of the SOA module is ready to ship and uses the IBM WebSphere application server.

About S4i Systems, Inc.

S4i provides electronic document management and DASD management solutions for IBM System i computers. As an IBM Advanced Business Partner, S4i is committed to continuously delivering functionality and supporting their customers on the System i platform. S4i is customer driven and demonstrates this everyday by providing 24X7 customer support and listening to the needs of their customers to help define future capabilities. S4i is represented by direct sales or through resellers in the Americas, Europe, S.E. Asia and Thailand.  S4i Systems, Inc. is located at 4755 Oceanside Blvd., Suite 130, Oceanside, CA 92056. For more information, visit http://www.s4isystems.com.                                                   

S4i provides electronic document management and disk management solutions for iSeries, AS/400 and IBM System i. With a strong commitment to continuously delivering trusted value, S4i's customer and service driven team provides project design, implementation and project management services to ensure a successful software deployment.

S4i is headquartered in San Clemente, California, and has a European facility that also houses development, support and marketing professionals. S4i Europe is centrally located in Warrington, England. Ready access to S4i solutions is also achieved through downstream distribution relationships with value add resellers in 10 countries, and upstream relationships with IBM, as well as many ERP,.CRM, SCM, and other vendors that offer industry specific solutions for iSeries and AS/400 systems.

To find out more about S4i Systems and its products see their listings in the MC Showcase Buyer's Guide.