Vignette announced the results of a recent study of nearly 400 information technology (IT) executives that shows customers are looking for more sophisticated, out-of-the-box integration between enterprise applications, information systems and portal initiatives. The latest version of Vignette Business Integration Studio (VBIS) supports the leading Web services, as well as J2EE-based integrations and Microsoft .NET-based integrations. VBIS also has out-of-the-box integrations to more than 70 different applications from companies such as SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft, Artesia and Lotus Notes.

SCO Group announced the release of SCO Authentication 2.1 for Microsoft Active Directory and UnixWare Office Mail Server 2.0. InternetNews says the new version of Office Mail Server improves the product’s support for Microsoft Outlook, utilizing a new version of the Office Mail Connector for Microsoft Outlook, providing compatibility for sharing email, calendars, discussion groups, address books and tasks.

Windows & .NET Magazine reports that Microsoft isn’t abandoning Microsoft Outlook Express after all. Instead, the company will bundle Outlook Express with Windows, which means that the next major update won’t be available until Longhorn, the next version of Windows, ships in 2005.

Learning Tree International announced the addition of Microsoft Exchange 2003 Administration: Hands-On to its course curriculum focusing on the Windows Server 2003 technology. Aspects of Exchange 2003 covered in the course include creating mailbox and mail-enabled Users, Contacts, Distribution Groups and Queues; managing Exchange 2003 Servers with Exchange System Manager Microsoft Management (MMC); and using advanced built-in tools to monitor Exchange services and SMTP traffic.

Windows & .NET Magazine reports that Microsoft has big plans for your future. In about 2 years, if all goes well, Microsoft customers will be lining up for a spending wave to pay for the Longhorn wave of technologies

FaxCore Corporation announced that its FaxCore 4300 product offers a document delivery and archiving solution that helps healthcare providers ensure HIPAA compliance. FaxCore 4300 is built on Microsoft’s .NET (Windows Server 2003 Web Edition) platform.

Sieve, which became a proposed Internet Engineering Task Force Standard in January 2001, is a scripting language designed to let end users write email filters, such as automatically sorting incoming mail into folders based on a sender’s address. TechNewsWorld says that even thought Sieve was designed to sort incoming mail, it’s now being looked at to fight spam.

EDUCOM and eManage have undergone further product integration with the latest releases of their software products. The eManage solution categorizes electronic records into a corporate taxonomy, retaining them, and identifying discrepancies when compared to the corporate policies. The latest release, eManage/EN v4.5, adds Web-based functionality and improves access security to Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint environments.

Microsoft said that the MSBlast worm that attacked enterprise and home computers this week, exploiting a flaw in Microsoft’s Windows operating system, cannot affect mobile and wireless devices.

MSNBC reports that most people were able to get their message out despite yesterday’s massive power outage in the U.S. and Canada. Folks just had to be persistent and patient. cell phones worked, sort of, as long as you kept redialing. Email went through, if your computer had power or you had a BlackBerry.