Centra Software announced expanded support in Centra 7 for the newly launched Microsoft Office System 2003. The on-premises instant messaging available in Live Communications Server now enables a Microsoft platform option for online collaboration and complements the support for scheduled Web conferencing and collaboration through Microsoft Outlook and Web conferencing through Microsoft applications like Word and Excel already available in Centra 7 today.

CoCreate announced that GoEngineer has joined CoCreate’s Partner Program and will be reselling OneSpace.net as its collaboration software offering. OneSpace.net is an engineering collaboration toolset. It includes a secure project workspace, integrated meeting center for Web-based meetings, application sharing, instant messaging, decision and task tracking, and a 3D model explorer for evaluating product designs and integration with Microsoft Outlook.

Geac announced it has extended its presence in the furniture industry by winning a new business contract with UK manufacturer Oxley’s Furniture Company Ltd., for its Geac StreamLine enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. The system will assist Oxley’s in all aspects of its business including manufacturing, customer management, order fulfillment and financial operations. The contract also includes the implementation of a Microsoft Exchange network by Geac.

Siebel Systems announced it is acquiring with customer relationship management application service provider UpShot Corp. According to eWeek, UpShot’s offline client is chief among the technologies Siebel intends to migrate to Siebel CRM OnDemand.

Microsoft gave developers a look at the next operating system release, code-named Longhorn. As part of the presentation yesterday, executives from Amazon.com, which recently created prototype software that displays products from its site in a Longhorn-style interface, using Amazon’s existing Web services. The prototype takes advantage of the new connections Longhorn allows between different programs. For example, it lets a user meld a product-release schedule from Amazon with a personal calendar from Microsoft Outlook.

The Detroit Free Press has this review of Apple’s latest OS release, Panther. The article says that more than 150 improvements in virtually every one of its tightly integrated features make it a must-have for the Macintosh crowd. Those improvements let Macs work with the Microsoft Exchange programs used on many corporate Windows networks. Panther also makes it easier for Macs to access Windows networks.

Factiva and Verity announced they will jointly offer enterprise customers the opportunity to integrate a set of Factiva’s industry-specific taxonomies with Verity’s K2 Enterprise. Verity K2 Enterprise integrates search, classification and personalization capabilities for enterprise portals to uncover information and data residing in both internal and external repositories. K2 Enterprise offers gateway support to leading information repositories, including Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, ODBC and Documentum.

IntelliReach Corporation announced the availability of MessageScreen Platinum, their advanced spam, virus and content filtering solution that integrates Sophos’ virus detection engine. The combination of Sophos’ powerful engine capabilities and IntelliReach’s corporate messaging expertise aggressively addresses the new breed of spammer, which has embraced many elements of the hacker community. MessageScreen is a content filtering solution that acts as a messaging firewall, providing email security for Microsoft Exchange, Novell GroupWise and Lotus Notes.

Ensim Corporation announced that NaviSite, Inc. is the first company to launch services based on the Ensim Unify platform. NaviSite was able to deploy hosted Microsoft Exchange Server 2003-based services to its customers within the first 30 days of selecting Ensim Unify. Ensim Unify is the result of close collaboration between Microsoft and Ensim to provide operation support system and a portfolio of snap-in software for specific hosted services, such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and ASP.NET Web sites.

Postini announced it received PC Magazine’s Editors’ Choice Award for the second time this year. The review appeared in the magazine’s "Enterprise Spam Tools" anti-spam product review, authored by Larry Seltzer, and will be published in the November 11, 2003 issue. The review compared enterprise anti-spam software products and managed services from six vendors. Each product was installed on a Microsoft Exchange server and tested over a four-day period. The full review can be found at PC Magazine’s Web site.