BACKGROUND
Very few systems today support the automatic receipt or transmission of data via e-mail even though the Internet has transformed e-mail into a pervasive communications medium. The ability to receive business information in a relatively low-tech manner, (such as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet attachment to an e-mail), from suppliers, customers or company personnel and automatically strip the attachment, process the data and load it into a back-office system can be invaluable. Conversely, the ability to automatically produce operational reports from data stored in your ERP system on a scheduled basis and then distribute via e-mail as binary attachments provides significant opportunities for cost savings.

E-MAIL PRIMER
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the standard e-mail protocol in use on the Internet today. SMTP was originally designed for only ASCII text, but MIME, UUencode and other encoding methods now enable program and multimedia files to be attached to e-mail messages. SMTP servers route SMTP messages throughout the Internet to a mail server, such as POP3, which provides a message store for incoming mail.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is the most common encoding method for transmitting non-text files via Internet e-mail. MIME encodes the files and decodes it back to its original format at the receiving end.

UUencoding is an encoding method sometimes used for transmitting non-text files from UNIX systems via Internet e-mail. Originating in the UNIX community, UUencoding was one of the first methods for sending binary files as attached files over Internet e-mail, but today, MIME is much more widely used.

Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) is a standard mail server commonly used on the Internet. It provides a message store that holds incoming e-mail until users log-on and download it. POP3 uses the SMTP messaging protocol.

FUNCTIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Some of the NLINK E-mail eXtender functional highlights include:

• Automatically handles simple text e-mails and e-mail attachments in either MIME or UUencode.

• Supports multiple attachments (MIME multipart) potentially encoded in different formats.

• Automatically verifies intended recipients have a valid e-mail address.

• Automatically archives all received e-mails if required.

• Automatically resolves DNS addresses.

• Uses de facto Industry Standards (SMTP, POP3, MIME, etc.) for a truly portable system.

• The NLINK E-mail eXtender supports NLINK’s advanced features of Store & Forward, Automatic Error Recovery, and Clustering.

• The NLINK E-mail eXtender can accumulate data from multiple transactions, users and/or systems before processing the received data.

The NLINK E-Mail Wizard

CoNNectors, eXtenders, the NLINK Server and NLINK Modules are components of a total environment for delivering process integration within and between companies. The NLINK product suite has been independently certified on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista as a pre-requisite for continued inclusion in the Microsoft Certified Partner Program. As you would expect, NLINK operates equally well on Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

REQUEST AN NLINK DEMO
There`s really only so much information you can absorb by reading about an enterprise software product suite like NLINK. At some point you need to see the software in action and that`s what the NLINK Demo is all about. Click here to register.

NLINK PRESENTATION VIDEOS
If you are interested in learning more about the NLINK product suite but are not yet ready to schedule an interactive WebEx demo of the NLINK Product Suite but you would like to see some NLINK presentation videos click here to register.


SALES AND PRICING INFORMATION
For sales and pricing information regarding the NLINK Product Suite please contact: .


TECHNICAL INFORMATION
For more information regarding the technical details of the NLINK product solutions please contact: .