Products

Virtualizing the Enterprise

While traditional software solutions continue to lock up information in silos, the software applications and solutions of the future will deliver the right information to users and applications securely, transcending the common boundaries imposed by today’s traditional technology, including location, system, platform, language, application, etc. Imagine users from a single interface being able to transcend applications and systems to find the right information securely in one single action. Alero Technology products and solutions do just that!

Each Alero Technology product is a development framework that combines multiple technologies into one integrated product with one consistent architecture to help businesses build solutions and manage their enterprise information easer, faster, and cheaper. The result: true Enterprise Information Management solutions that bridge the gap between disparate data, applications, locations, and people.

Alero Enterprise

Use this product for medium to large projects/solutions (more than 50 users).

Alero Express

Use this product for small to medium projects/solutions (up to 50 users).

Xtorm

This product is discontinued and is only available in South Korea.
Testimonials

Product Description

Simplifying the Development and Integration of Composite Solutions

By combining Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Content Integration (ECI), and Enterprise Information Integration (EII) capabilities, Alero Technology's innovative product, Alero Enterprise Edition, orchestrates the disparate systems of an enterprise to act as one single uniform system. The result is a true Enterprise Information Management—EIM—environment that virtualizes the enterprise, allowing secure access to information, that may come from one or multiple systems, from any place at any time.

Built to be easily embedded within other applications or to be the foundation for building new or enhancing existing applications, Alero is ideal for developers, independent software vendors, systems integrators, and other organizations looking for a comprehensive, easy-to-use, modular development platform that can simplify the development or integration of composite solutions that are composed of one or more back-end systems and can deliver live information to users bi-directionally and on demand.

And by providing a myriad of built-in, integrated services for the management of information, substantially reducing the development efforts, Alero redefines what enterprise information management (EIM) and development are all about.

Alero Express is a limited edition of the Alero Enterprise Edition product. It provides small to medium businesses with a comprehensive solution (development framework) to meet their information requirements, without the price tag associated with products of this caliber. It gives customers and partners platform-independent enterprise content management (ECM), business process management (BPM), enterprise content integration (ECI), and enterprise information integration (EII) capabilities in a single solution with a consistent, service-oriented architecture (SOA).

With the ability to easily orchestrate disparate applications, regardless of platform, into one single virtual repository, Alero Express dramatically reduces the development, deployment, maintenance, and support for either customized or off-the-shelf solutions. Built to be easily embedded within other applications or to be the foundation for building new or enhancing existing applications, this product is ideal for small to medium customers that require a production, development, or testing environment. It allows our partners to surpass competitors by providing leading-edge solutions at a fraction of the time and cost required by others.

Customers expecting to see growth in the future, or corporations with greater, more complex requirements, can easily scale from Alero Express to the Alero Enterprise Edition without changing products or additional installations. Alero Express delivers most of the features and capabilities of the Alero Enterprise Edition in a smaller scale (up to 50 users). For more information about this product, see the description of Alero Enterprise Edition.

Alero Technology stopped the development of Xtorm in 2005 and is only maintaining this product for customers that have not moved into Alero yet. As such, no new features have been added to this product. All new features are added to the new product, Alero, which is the next version and next generation of Xtorm (version 4.x). Xtorm products are only available in the Asian market and are distributed by Alero Technology Korea.

Xtorm was originally built by WindFire Technology in the USA (now Alero Technology) in a financial agreement with Alliance Systems Co., LTD. (which merged into SpenoCom Co., LTD. in 2005, which merged into Inzent Co. LTD. in 2016). This product is used by fortune 500 companies in South Korea and Japan, including banks, telecommunications, insurance, government, and many other institutions.

Alero and Xtorm are very similar in concept, technology, architecture, and breadth. On the one hand, Xtorm is a proven technology characterized by its performance, reliability and manageability. On the other hand, Alero products are the next version of Xtorm, and the next generation. Xtorm source code was gracefully enhanced to extend the functionality of the product to a new level but still be 100% compatible with Xtorm.

Although these two products were exactly the same product (same source code), as time passes, the gap between both products will grow even larger. Alero Technology still maintains this product for our partners and customers in South Korea, but no new features are written for it. Every enhancement and feature written or fixed for Xtorm is also written or fixed for Alero, but any enhancement or feature written for Alero is only done to improve Alero.

Current Xtorm customers can swap the Xtorm software for the Alero software, gaining a myriad of benefits, and be running in no time without migrations, conversions, or application recompiling. All applications developed for Xtorm will run seamlessly in Alero. No changes in the applications are required. Alero Technology recommends that customers using Xtorm request Alero today and in the future. This product is far superior and provides a myriad of new features and functionality that Xtorm does not provide.

Integrated Services

Everything you Need Under one Roof!

Unlike other vendors in the market that have grown their product sets by acquisition, Alero’s capabilities are delivered as modular, integrated services of the framework instead of independent products that have to be installed, configured, and managed separately. Customers can buy and use only what they need. The advantage is clear: a consistent architecture that simplifies development and dramatically reduces deployment, maintenance and support.

Alero, in a single product (framework), provides a comprehensive set of pre-built repository, content, process, integration, security, and event services that can be applied to any data accessed by the product, delivering a comprehensive, uniform development environment that addresses most of the information requirements demanded by today's development and integration initiatives. Take a look at the description of the services provided by Alero Enterprise and Express in this section.

Imagine being able to control the flow of information among organizations, applications, and people, providing an efficient and productive environment in which employees, customers, vendors and suppliers exchange the right information from any system in the enterprise in a secure, reliable, and accountable manner.

Leveraging the vast array of enterprise data into meaningful information is no small task, especially when you consider that over 80% of that information is locked up in paper documents and unstructured data files. Transforming this data through traditional document management and workflow solutions clearly adds value, but at a very high cost.

Alero's repository services address this very problem. By providing a rich set of repository services, including services for capture, document imaging, document management, content storage management, records management, high performance import, and WebDAV, Alero simplifies the implementation of complex ECM initiatives, characterized by high-transaction, production-level business requirements capable of handling millions of documents in a day. And deployment is a snap: Alero's repository services can be used out-of-the box or embedded into a business application in a matter of hours or days, making ECM capabilities immediately available.

The Alero repository services implement the enterprise content management (ECM) capabilities of the product. Following is a brief description of the repository services provided with the product.

  • Capture services are NOT provided by Alero but by integrating with best-of-breed capture solutions in the market like Kofax Ascent. These services facilitate the capture of content and include services for scanning, re-scanning, form recognition, OCR/ICR, indexing, barcode recognition, etc.

  • Document Imaging services, or content management, facilitate the management of small (hundreds or thousands) to very large (millions) number of documents per day and include services for small to high-transaction, high volume document imaging (content management) environments, indexing, foldering, retrieval, storage (provided by the Content Management Storage service), security, and, in general, the management and storage of content.

  • Document Management services, or library services, facilitate the management of documents that require strict control, including the history of each document and its versions/revisions, and include services for checking-out/checking-in, version control, security, and revision history. These services are a layer on top of the content management (document imaging) services.

  • Content Storage Management services facilitate the storage and life cycle of content from its capture up to its destruction, and includes services for the storage, migration, retention, duplication, and optimized retrieval of content. It supports centralized or distributed storage; single, mirrored, or redundant copies of content (online backup and disaster-ready storage), and support for the following storage devices and appliances: disk, RAID, SAN, libraries (DVD/Optical), EMC Centera CAS and Hitachi HCAP.

  • Records Management services facilitate the management of physical and electronic records by providing a full range of record management services, including identifying, classifying, archiving, preserving, and destroying records. These services are a layer on top of the content management (document imaging) and document management services.

  • Full-text services facilitate indexing predefined document types (configurable) transparently as they are created so users can search for documents based on their content. Implemented as an extension to the already powerful Alero search engine, these services add a rich query language that supports queries based on terms, wild cards, fuzzy search, proximity, boosts, Boolean, grouping, etc.

  • Electronic Signature Management services reliably delivers confidence in business transactions, workflows, regulatory compliance, and records management by reliably capturing a person's intent to sign a piece of information or document, bounding him/her to its terms and conditions. It delivers electronic evidence by accurately capturing all the information needed to demonstrate signing intent, and reliably reproducing it so that an organization can prove exactly WHO signed WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and HOW.

  • High Performance Import services optimize importing large quantities of content and include services for batch-oriented import, statistics, error handling, graphical reports (using business activity monitoring), and customized data collection.

  • WebDAV services facilitate accessing Alero from other WebDAV-compliant applications as a WebDAV server. It also integrates Alero with Microsoft® Office applications, Windows® Explorer, and any other WebDAV-compliant application.

Although Alero's repository services can be acquired and used independently to meet specific content requirements, when used together with the other services provided by Alero, you gain the synergistic benefits of leveraging your entire enterprise information resources and data―objects, documents, records and transactions―into your enterprise processes, creating an integrated business environment in which employees, customers, suppliers and vendors can most effectively and securely exchange information.

When you consider that information does not reside in just one enterprise repository but, potentially, in any number of repositories (applications), searching for the right information one repository at the time clearly adds value, but at a very high cost in productivity.

Alero's content services address this very problem. By providing a powerful set of services that can be applied to any repository, including federation and notification services, Alero simplifies the implementation of complex initiatives, characterized by the need of integrating multiple disparate repositories. It allows integrating and orchestrating these disparate repositories as one, single, normalized virtual repository. And deployment is a snap: Alero's content services can be configured for a business application in a matter of hours, making these content capabilities immediately available.

Following is a brief description of the content services provided with the product.

  • Federation services facilitate the execution of federated searches and integrated views, where one or multiple disparate repositories can be invoked as one virtual repository. Using a simple mapping mechanism that hides the complexities of working with completely different types of repositories (data types, size, location of repositories, etc.), different search profiles can be built to allow users to search into these repositories as if searching into one virtual repository.

  • Notification services facilitate the notification of an event to one or more users using regular E-mail and other types of notification channels. Static and dynamic notifications can be generated automatically throughout the product, depending on specific events (configurable).

Although Alero's content services can be acquired and used independently to meet specific content requirements, when used together with the other services provided by Alero, you gain the synergistic benefits of leveraging your entire enterprise information resources and data—objects, documents, records and transactions—into your enterprise processes, creating an integrated business environment in which employees, customers, suppliers and vendors can most effectively and securely exchange information.

Managing business processes in an efficient and consistent manner is a core requirement for any enterprise organization—particularly in environments where thousands or millions of transactions take place every day. Although automating repetitive processes can help, the key is to implement a solution that is powerful enough to accommodate complex processes, flexible enough to handle ongoing change, and easy enough for users to embrace.

Alero’s process services address this very problem. Alero’s process services deliver immediate routing capabilities to any information available to the product, regardless of where the information is stored and managed (where the information comes from.) By providing a rich set of process services for data and processes, Alero simplifies the definition, configuration and implementation of complex BPM initiatives. And deployment is a snap: Alero’s process services can be embedded into a business application in a matter of hours or days, making BPM capabilities immediately available.

The Alero process services implement the business process management (BPM) capabilities of the product. Following is a brief description of the process services and applications provided with the product.

  • Business Process Management services facilitate the routing of information and include services for sequential, parallel, conditional and rendezvous routing; looping; deadlines; dependencies; absentee support; notification; delegation; forms support; event scripting; invoking applications and sub-processes; complete audit and trail; and eight different levels of exceptions.

Applications:

  • The Alero Process Designer application is a web-based application for designing processes graphically, including designing, configuring, validating, deploying, importing, exporting, and printing processes.

  • The Alero Process Simulator application is a web-based application for simulating processes graphically, including simulating scenarios based on what-ifs, reporting (projections, costs, etc.), importing, and exporting scenarios.

  • The Alero Process Monitor application is a web-based application for monitoring process graphically, including the number of instances and their status, queue levels, reporting, activity statistics, user statistics, etc.

  • The Alero Process Trace application is a web-based application for tracing a specific instance of a process graphically, including specific instance information such as the path taken, activity or step details, a complete audit and trail, reporting, data, etc.

  • The Alero Process Viewer application is a web-based application for viewing process graphically.

Although Alero's process services can be acquired and used independently to meet specific routing requirements, when used together with the other Alero services, you gain the synergistic benefits of leveraging your entire enterprise information resources and data―objects, documents, records and transactions―into your enterprise processes, creating an integrated business environment in which employees, customers, suppliers and vendors can most effectively and securely exchange information.

Organizations today are challenged with the management and integration of multiple different business applications and systems (content, ERP, CRM, Workflow, etc.) resulting from departmental investments or inherited through mergers and acquisitions. These challenges undermine key business initiatives and misalign IT from business objectives, trapping content and information in isolated silos, and starving employees, customers, vendors and suppliers of valuable information.

Alero's integration services address this very problem. Designed as a service-oriented Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) specifically for the management and integration of enterprise information, Alero delivers rapid integration capabilities through its integration services that let you concurrently and quickly connect, integrate, access, manage, and optimize large-scale information resources. And deployment is a snap: Alero's integration services can be embedded into a business application in a matter of hours or days, making ECI or EII capabilities immediately available.

By providing a dynamic, personalized, and secured view of the enterprise’s information resources for each individual user bi-directionally and in real time—regardless of the complexity or diversity of the IT infrastructure—Alero essentially virtualizes the enterprise as one single system without compromising existing IT investments, reducing the risks and costs associated with development and integration initiatives.

Based on a comprehensive set of pre-built connectors, which deliver dynamic, bi-directional access to individual or multiple underlying systems in real time, and a comprehensive set of pre-built services, which deliver services to the information accessed through the connectivity layer, Alero allows organizations to immediately shift the emphasis from data and application integration to information integration, simplifying the process of integration altogether.

The Alero integration services implement the enterprise content integration (ECI), enterprise information integration (EII) and virtualization capabilities of the product. The following tabs briefly describe the integration services provided with the product.

  • Content integration services facilitate the integration of content management systems, including FileNet, Hummingbird DOCS Open and DM, SharePoint, Xythos, and Tower Software.

  • Information integration services facilitate the integration of other types of systems, including databases, file systems, business application, etc.

  • Virtualization services facilitate the orchestration of multiple repositories as one virtual repository, hiding the complexities of working with complex systems (different vendors, platforms, locations, architectures, data types, etc.).

Note: Other content management systems, applications, and business solutions can easily be integrated by Alero or its partners using the Alero Server SDK. Alero's approach to integration is to build adapters as the business demands it.

Although Alero’s integration services can be acquired and used independently to meet specific integration requirements, when used together with the other Alero services, you gain the synergistic benefits of leveraging your entire enterprise information resources and data—objects, documents, records and transactions—into your enterprise processes, creating an integrated business environment in which employees, customers, suppliers and vendors can most effectively and securely exchange information.

Protecting information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, destruction, modification, or disruption is no small task, especially when you consider that information needs to be available, confidential, and integral when delivered to its final destination (employee, customer, vendor, etc.)

Alero's security services address this very problem. By providing a flexible set of security services, including proprietary, LDAP-compliant, and electronic signature management services that validate and authorize users and can capture a person's intent to sign a piece of information, Alero simplifies the security implementation of complex initiatives. And deployment is a snap: Alero's security services can be configured for a business application in a matter of hours, making these security capabilities immediately available.

Following is a brief description of the security services provided with the product.

  • Proprietary security services facilitate the validation and authorization of users, using proprietary technology. They provide a very granular security comprised of 26 different privileges, including privileges for users, BPM, RM, and administration.

  • LDAP-compliant security services facilitate the validation and authorization of users using LDAP-compliant directory services. They provide a very granular security comprised of 26 different privileges, including privileges for users, BPM, RM, and administration.

  • Aggregation security services reliably aggregate and synchronize users coming from different user sources (directory services) into one virtual source without one line of code.

Alero's security services can be used together with the other services provided by Alero, gaining the synergistic benefits of leveraging your entire enterprise information resources and data—objects, documents, records and transactions—into your enterprise processes, creating an integrated business environment in which employees, customers, suppliers and vendors can most effectively and securely exchange information.

In today's global economy, delivering integrated and secured information is just not enough. In addition to the pressures of increasing the bottom line, organizations need to be productive, efficient, and compliant, especially in this competitive global market place.

Alero's event services address this very problem. By providing a powerful set of event services, including audit/trail services, Alero simplifies the accountability and reporting of complex initiatives by auditing and trailing every transaction that needs to be recorded. And deployment is a snap: Alero's event services can be configured for a business application in a matter of hours, making these event capabilities immediately available.

Following is a brief description of the event services provided with the product.

  • Audit and trail services facilitate the capturing and logging of any transaction, depending on a specific event. Customers can easily configure the product to audit specific events or anything that happens on the system.

Alero's event services can be used together with the other services provided by Alero, gaining the synergistic benefits of leveraging your entire enterprise information resources and data—objects, documents, records and transactions—into your enterprise processes, creating an integrated business environment in which employees, customers, suppliers and vendors can most effectively and securely exchange information.

Connectors

The Path to a Complete New World of Information

By using intelligent, plug-and-play, bi-directional connectors/adapters that do not require programming, solutions can provide immediate access to disparate data. This means that documents, content, business processes, and transaction data residing in relational databases, storage systems, file systems, legacy applications and other silos of information can be accessed, integrated and delivered simultaneously in a secure, expedient and uniform manner.

Unlike the traditional approach to integration that requires customized programming each time that integration is required, Alero delivers a consistent, easy-to-use method for accessing and/or integrating the data resources of an enterprise. With "Build once, Sell many" integration connectors that are delivered out-of-the-box by Alero Technology or that can be built in days to meet custom requirements, Alero simplifies the access and integration of data, standardizes integration, and minimizes the time, cost and risk associated with custom integration.

These connectors can be classified into generic, application specific, and standards-based as described in the following tabs.

Generic connectors are basic or generic connectors built to access and manage information in a common target source. The following connectors were built as full production connectors and are being used by many of our customers.

Connector for Databases. These types of connectors allow connecting and managing information stored in any JDBC Type4-compliant database (tables and records) in a structured way, and include support for:

  • Adabas, CA-IDMS, CISAM, Clipper, Datacom, DB2, dBase, Domino, FoxBase, FoxPro, IDMS, IMSA, Informix, Ingris, MariaDB, MS Access, MS SQL Server, MySQL, OpenIngris, Oracle, Progress, SAS, Sybase, Tibero, VSAM, xBase

Connector for File Systems. These types of connectors allow connecting and managing information stored in file systems that are Java compliant (folders and files).

  • AIX, AS/400, AS/390, HP/UX, IRIS, Linux, MacOS, Netware, NonStop Kernel, OpenVMS Alpha, SCO, Sun Solaris/ SPARC, True64 Unix, UnixWare, VxWorks, Windows.

Connector for Federated Searches. These types of connectors allow aggregating information stored in multiple repositories for search purposes only. They orchastrate the access and retrieval of information performed by one or more instances of these and/or other types of connectors.

Application- specific connectors are connectors built to access and manage information in a specific application/solution. The following connectors were built as prototypes for specific migration projects and may or may not be demonstrable. However, if required for a business opportunity, they can be turned into product modules in days.

IBM FileNet P8 Content Manager. These types of connectors allow connecting and managing information stored in FileNet P8 systems (documents and folders).

OpenText DOCS Open, also known as Hummingbird DOCS Open or PCDOCS. These types of connectors allow connecting and managing information stored in Hummingbird DOCS Open systems (documents and folders).

OpenText DM, also known as Hummingbird DM. These types of connectors allow connecting and managing information stored in Hummingbird DM systems (documents and folders).

Microsoft SharePoint. These types of connectors allow aggregating information stored in SharePoint systems (documents and folders).

Tower Software TRIM Context. These types of connectors allow connecting and managing information stored in TRIM Context systems (documents and folders).

Xythos Web Content Server. These types of connectors allow connecting and managing information stored in Web Content Server systems (documents and folders).

Standards-based connectors are connectors built to be compliant with standards. The following connectors were built as full production connectors and are being used by many of our customers.

Dynamic SQL. These types of connectors performing dynamic SQL (select and non-select statements) to any JDBC Type4-compliant database.

DASL/WebDAV. These types of connectors allow connecting and managing information stored in DASL/WebDAV-compliant applications (folders and files).

Other Information

All you Need to Know About our Products

Alero's approach to development is unique in the market place. By providing a function-rich set of integrated products that virtualizes the enterprise, Alero allows developers, Independent Software Vendors (ISV's), and systems integrators (SI's) to shift a large percentage of the development emphasis from programming to configuration tasks. And by standardizing the approach to integration, you can now easily develop your own "Build once, sell many" integration modules, delivering consistent, easy-to-use, maintain and support integrated composite solutions in a fraction of the time and costs associated with traditional development and integration methodologies, while significantly reducing the risks associated with customized solutions.

With Alero, simple to complex development and integration projects can be accomplished without having to worry about many of the complex issues—such as communications, scalability, reliability, integration, fault tolerance, administration, operation, and matters of dependencies like operating systems, databases, vendors, and data types—that development projects must deal with. By taking care of these issues, Alero allows developers to concentrate on the logic of their solutions and core competencies.

Designed for development efficiencies without imposing proprietary technology or techniques, the Alero Software Development Kit (SDK) provides a complete set of programming interfaces that facilitate the creation, integration, and deployment of integrated composite solutions that can have an ECM, BPM ECI, or EII foundation. Unlike other products in the market, Alero lets you decide which programming interface best suits your skills, solution's architecture and/or preferences. Following are the programming interfaces supported by the Alero SDK's.

    - Web Services set for Windows or Java development

    - .NET Managed Code API set for C#, VB for .NET, etc. development

    - Windows 32-bit API library set for C, C++, VB, ActiveX development

    - Java API/JB/EJB set for Java development

    - UNIX-C API library set for C development

In addition to providing application programming interfaces, the Alero SDK also includes a Java-based "Server SDK", which allows you to extend the Alero framework to meet your own market requirements. Developing and deploying your own customized adapters services, security modules, filters, etc. in an integrated solution are just days or weeks versus months or years away.

Finally, Alero also provides extensive user, administration, and operation facilities to simplify the initial configuration, maintenance, monitoring, and troubleshooting of Alero services; and a technical support team that is available for development, configuration, integration, and implementation assistance.

Through any of these programming interfaces, developers can develop complete new solutions or interface Alero services with their own existing applications in a fraction of the time required with more traditional solutions.

Based on a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and a J2EE, XML, and Unicode foundation, Alero is an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) specifically designed for the management and integration of enterprise information.

By combining an innovative design and a powerful architecture based on multi-tier, web based, Service-Oriented architecture with a myriad of information services, Alero delivers a light-weight framework that provides unlimited scalability and distribution capabilities to meet even the most complex requirements; eliminates common software industry dependencies like the number of servers, platforms, databases, repositories, vendors, and data types supported in a single system; and reduces the time required to develop, integrate, deploy, maintain and support a complex solution to a fraction of the time compared to traditional solutions.

And with one central point of configuration and management, complex systems comprised of numerous disparate servers, sometimes geographically disperse, can be managed as a single centralized system. Alero truly enables organizations to change and evolve dynamically to meet market requirements.

+ Architecture:
Web-based, Multi-tier, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
+ Foundation:
J2EE, XML, and Unicode
+ Language:
Java primarily. Some .NET for some components on Windows.
+ Services Supported:
Repository (enterprise content management), content, process (business process management), integration (enterprise content and information integration), security, and event.
+ JREs Supported:
Following are the JREs supported by product version:

  • For Alero v2006 R1 (v4.1) and R2 (v4.2): JRE 1.3, 1.4, 1.5. Recommended JRE 1.4.2-1.5x.
  • For Alero v2008 R1 (v5.1) up to SP2: JRE 1.4.2, 1.5. Recommended JRE 1.5.
  • For Alero v2008 R1 (v5.1) SP3-SP5: JRE 1.4.2, 1.5, 6, 7. Recommended 1.5 or higher. JRE 1.6 or higher is only supported in Alero v2008R1 SP3 or higher.
  • For Alero v6: JRE 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 or higher. Recommended 7 or 8.
+ Platforms Supported:
Any Java supported platform. Currently, there are installations in Windows 2000/2003/2008/2012, HP-UX, AIX, SUN Solaris, and Linux. Although Alero is a Java product, it is completely Windows friendly. It runs as a Service and writes messages to the Event Viewer. Once installed, there are no traces of Java anywhere. The only prerequisite is the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).
+ Databases Supported:
MS SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, DB2, Tibero, and MySQL
+ Application Servers Supported:
Alero does not require an Application Server but can run in the context of one if desired. Alero provides its own internal transaction server.
+ Web Servers Supported:
Any Web Server that is compliant with Servlets specifications v1.1. The product is tested using Apache Tomcat.
+ Programming Interfaces:
Alero provides programming interfaces (toolkits) for:

  • - Web Services set for Windows or Java development
  • - .NET Managed Code API set for C#, VB for .NET, etc. development
  • - Windows 32-bit API library set for C, C++, VB, ActiveX development
  • - Java API/JB/EJB set for Java development
  • - UNIX-C API library set for C development
In addition to providing application programming interfaces, the Alero SDK also includes a Java-based "Server SDK", which allows you to extend the Alero framework to meet your own market requirements.
+ Standards Supported:
Alero is compliant with industry standards. As such, at the database level, it conforms to JDBC-compliant relational DBMS and standard SQL; at the server level, the SOA architecture conforms to JSR170, WfMC, BPMN, LDAP, XML/JAXP, XPDL, JavaMail, JCE, PKI/X.509, and Unicode; and, at the web level, it conforms to AJAX, Servlets/JSP, JSF, WebDAV, DASL, WSDL, SOAP, and .NET.
+ Support for Complex Environments:
Support for complex transaction and failover environments, including clustering, farming, and server virtualization (Active/Standby or Active/Active environments).
+ High Availability:
Native support for High Availability and continuity. Native failover support for storages, databases, and servers (server virtualization - Grid Compute).
+ Backup/Disaster/Recovery:
Compliant with any backup/disaster/recovery strategy. Product and information can be backed up, recovered with with any industry standard solution for backup/recovery. Provides native support for online backup and disaster.

Alero Technology’s strategy is based on delivering complete solutions directly or through its partners. By providing a comprehensive set of programming interfaces (SDK's) and building blocks for the management of enterprise information, Alero Technology and its partners can create and deliver end user applications and market specific solutions easily, reducing the time and risks associated with the development, deployment, maintenance and support of these solutions.

Alero’s end user applications deliver out-of-the-box, generic, front-end interfaces to the Alero services for organizations that require complete, end-to-end solutions. These applications allow organizations to gain instant enterprise content management, enterprise business process management, enterprise content integration, and enterprise information integration capabilities without having to write one line of code.

The result: a features-rich total solution that integrates Windows and non-Windows applications and systems into one unified, virtual enterprise environment. Users can now create a document using a Microsoft Office application, save it using Microsoft's SharePoint Services, route it using Alero process services, and integrate it with customer information from your CRM using Alero integration services.

And by providing users with secured, personalized, web access to all the enterprise information resources and data, these applications break the traditional workplace concept—that ties the users (employees, customers, vendors and suppliers) to the office—and create a "mobile office", where users can now perform their work from any location and at any time as long as they have Internet access.

Web Portal Application (for End Users)


+ Alero Web Client
In lieu of a portal such as Microsoft SharePoint, Alero Technology provides a complete, web-server independent application to interface out-of-the-box with the Alero repository, content, process, and integration services.

By combining the collaborative features of Microsoft Office' applications with the process, repository, content and integration services of Alero in one solution, customers will have one of the most complete, web-based, and off-the-shelf information management solutions.

If your solution needs to be web-based but not necessarily portal-based, then the Alero Web Client application is the perfect solution for you.

Administration and Operation Applications (for Administrators)


+ Alero Administration Application
By providing a single, central point of configuration regardless of the complexity of the system, including the number of servers, locations, platforms, etc., and by delivering only two web-based management applications regardless of the number of Alero solutions you decide to use, Alero virtualizes the management of even the most complex systems/solutions, simplifying the administration and operation tasks required to maintain and support a healthy, operational system.

The Alero Administration application is a web-based application for defining, configuring, and administering your Alero system regardless of the complexity of the system (i.e., number of servers, location, type, purpose, etc.). Based on Servlets/JSP standards, this application makes the administration of a complex system a simple task.
+ Alero Server Manager Application
By providing a single, central point of configuration regardless of the complexity of the system, including the number of servers, locations, platforms, etc., and by delivering only two web-based management applications regardless of the number of Alero solutions you decide to use, Alero virtualizes the management of even the most complex systems/solutions, simplifying the administration and operation tasks required to maintain and support a healthy, operational system.

The Alero Server Manager application is a web-based application for monitoring the system, starting and stopping modules, reporting, and tracing modules. Based on Servlets/JSP and AJAX standards, this application makes the operation of a complex system a simple task.

Alero Process Applications (for Administrators and End Users)


+ Alero Process Designer Application
The Alero Process Designer is a web-based modeling tool for defining, configuring, and creating business processes. Based on Java/Swing standards, this graphical process designer provides a simple, drag-and-drop way to design and automate complex processes.

And, with its drawing annotations capabilities, processes can now be easily interpreted and understood by anyone. The graphical process designer allows you to turn complex manual processes into semi- or completely automated processes. Saving, importing, and exporting fully configured process has never been so easy. You can now design your process at home, import it at work or at the customer site, tweak it, and bingo…it is ready to run!
+ Alero Process Simulator Application
The Alero Process Simulator is a web-based simulation tool for testing pre-production and/or post-production business processes, depending on predefined conditions or variables (“what-ifs”). Based on Java/Swing standards, this graphical simulating tool provides a simple, configurable way to configure and run different types of scenarios, according to predefined variables (what-ifs), and reports graphically the behavior of the process under the specific conditions.
+ Alero Process Monitor Application
The Alero Process Monitor is a web-based monitoring tool for monitoring, and reporting on, business processes. Based on Java/Swing standards, this graphical monitoring tool provides a simple, configurable way to monitor one or more revisions of a process simultaneously and reports graphically process and activity workloads, bottlenecks, exceptions, delegations, times associated with specific actions, and user and process performance. In addition, it provides a complete set of pre-defined reports, and allows plugging in easily your own custom ones.
+ Alero Process Trace Application
The Alero Process Trace is a web-based tracing tool for tracing specific instances of a process. Based on Java/Swing standards, this graphical tracing tool provides a simple, configurable way to search for a specific instance in one or more revisions of a process simultaneously and reports graphically the path taken by the instance, the status at every step (activity), the data associated with the instance, and a complete audit and trail. This tool can be easily embedded in custom applications as a “viewer” and custom configured to restrict the tools displayed to users.
+ Alero Process Viewer Application
The Alero Process Viewer is a web-based viewer tool for displaying business processes. Based on Java/Swing standards, this graphical viewer provides a simple, configurable way to display a process. This tool can be easily embedded in custom applications as a “viewer” and custom configured to restrict the tools displayed to users.

Company Background


1. When was Alero Technology formed?
The company opened its doors for the first time in 2001 as "WindFire Technology". In 2005, it changed its name to "Alero Technology" as the result of restructuring, retaining its management team, employees, and products. The short term goal was to create new relationships to help us deliver quality products and services worldwide, and the long term goal was to develop comprehensive, state-of-art and easy-to-use enterprise solutions for the management of information with world-class quality and service. Today, Alero Technology has many partners around the world, one of the most comprehensive integration and compliance platforms in the market, and hundreds of satisfied customers worldwide. Alero Technology is a privately-held corporation located in San Diego, California.
2. What does Alero mean?
The word "Alero" comes from Spanish and means "eave" or "edge" like the eave of a roof. Alero Technology basically means "edge technology". The name was chosen based on following principles: (1) the name should be short and easy to pronounce in any language; (2) the name should follow the new wave of names for high tech; and the name should be meaningful and appropriate to the company's mission.
3. What is your professional experience?
Alero Technology is the result of more than 50 years of combined experience between the two main partners in the area of high transaction, high volume solutions and more than eight commercial products. It is comprised of highly educated professionals contributing in all areas of the company, especially in the R&D, Sales, and Services divisions.
4. How do you sell your products, solutions and services?
We sell primarily through the Channel. We partner with Systems Integrators, Independent Software Vendors, Value Added Resellers, enterprise developers, and consultants worldwide. As we move forward, Alero will start making the transition from Channel sales to more direct sales. We are very strong in partnerships and work closely with our partners and customers, becoming an extension of our partners.
5. How do you differentiate yourself from the competition?
We differentiate ourselves from our competitors (IBM FileNet, IBM Content Manager, EMC Documentum, OpenText LiveLink, Alfresco, and Hyland OnBase) by having a 'lean and mean' technology that can be developed, installed, configured, maintained, and supported in a fraction of the time, cost, and risk compared to these and other traditional solutions in the market! The company's philosophy and mission is clear. We are not a company dedicated to push product. To the contrary, we work closely with our partners to become an extension of their organizations and to provide them with the best products and services possible. We make a difference for many of our partners and are key to their success!
6. What are your markets?
Alero has customers around the world. Its primary markets are the U.S., Asia, and South America. We also sell in Europe and the Middle East. Although most of the customers are in South Korea, due to a strong relationship with an ISV in Seoul, Korea, we can serve any country directly or through our partners. We look for strategic partners that are committed to our solutions and that are local to the markets that we, or they, serve.
7. Do you have references?
The proof is in our customer base. All our customers can be references. Currently, we have customers that scan and process in excess of two million documents per day (5TB of documents per month), serve in excess of 40,000 users per day, and process in excess of 85 million transactions per day. We can provide references worldwide.
8. Do you specialize in the financial sector? Most of your customers seem to be banks or financial institutions.
No. Alero products are horizontal and can be used for any industry or sector. Although our partners in Korea serve multiple sectors, they specialize in the financial sector for which they have developed multiple applications. They are also our primary partners. It is through them that our products run in 90% of the banks and 100% of the telecoms in South Korea. We also have multiple government installations in Korea and Colombia, South America.

Product Background


1. What type of products do you offer?
There are three products: Alero Enterprise, Alero Express, and Xtorm. Each of these products is a development framework that combines multiple technologies into one integrated product with one consistent architecture, helping businesses build solutions and manage their enterprise information easier, faster, and cheaper. The result: true Enterprise Information Management solutions that bridge the gap between disparate data, applications, locations, and people.

About Alero Enterprise: Alero Enterprise is the next version of Xtorm and the next generation. It has been greatly improved in all areas of the product, including the design, architecture, and features. Today, Alero and Xtorm are two completely different products but 100% compatible. Customers using Xtorm can migrate to Alero without tedious conversions, migrations, and/or compilations. Applications written for Xtorm should work fine with Alero.

About Alero Express: Alero Express is a limited version of Alero Enterprise (up to 50 users).

About Xtorm: Alero Technology stopped the development of Xtorm in 2005 and is only maintaining this product for customers that have not moved into Alero yet. This product is still highly used in South Korea and Japan.
2. What is the idea behind Alero?
The idea behind Alero is to provide a platform for the management of information that:

  • - is completely agnostic to the information managed--structured, semi-structured, and unstructured;

  • - provides a rich set of functionality to facilitate the management of information, including ECM, BPM, RM, ESM, integration, audit/trail, notification, virtualization, etc.;

  • - virtualizes the access, management, integration and security of information, hiding the complexity of the system, including the number of servers, platforms, vendors, data types, etc. managed by the system;

  • - can meet the performance, volume, transaction, scalability and distribution requirements of any organization today and in the future;

  • - can dramatically reduce the time, costs, and risks associated with developing, deploying, maintaining and supporting integrated composite solutions; and

  • - allows partners to compete with one solution regardless of their business' solution size (small, medium, large, and/or very large).
3. What is Alero?
Alero is a comprehensive development framework that combines Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Content Integration (ECI), and Enterprise Information Integration (EII) technologies into a single product, under a uniform service-oriented architecture. By combining these technologies in a single product, Alero can help orchestrate the disparate systems of an enterprise to act as one single uniform system. The result is a true Enterprise Information Management 'EIM' environment that virtualizes the enterprise, allowing secure access to information that may come from one or multiple systems or from any place at any time.

Alero is a next generation software product that takes enterprise information management (EIM) to a new level. Unlike other products in the market that are designed for specific functions (e.g., document management, process management, billing, reporting, etc.), that can only manage a single type of data (e.g., content, records in a database, XML, etc.), and that rely on older technologies or designs that still lock up information, creating 'Silos of information' or 'Stovepipe solutions', Alero was designed to be completely agnostic to the type of information being managed, facilitating the access, management, integration, security, and, more importantly, virtualization of potentially any type of information. Although Alero was designed as an open integration and compliance platform, it is commonly used in solutions that simply require content management, business process management, integration, or a combination.
4. How and why was Alero created?
Alero is the result of combining the current and future information management needs of large corporations with the combined experience of the Alero partners collected over the years from developing and working with high transaction, high volume solutions and customers.
5. How does it compare to other products?
Alero is similar to other products in functionality but extremely different in concept and architecture. It is similar in the fact that it provides common functions for content management, business process management, integration, compliance, etc., competing with other products that provide the same functionality. As such, if you are looking for one or more of these technologies, Alero is very similar to many other products in the same markets.

However, Alero differs from most products in the market due to the fact that:

  • - It was designed from the ground up to be an integration platform (Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)), making the product completely agnostic to the type of information being managed. All the functionality for ECM, BPM, integration, notification, virtualization, compliance, etc. is built on top of this ESB as a service (SOA). Most other products were specifically design for some type of purpose like document imaging, document management, etc., providing stove-piped solutions that exacerbate the current information integration experienced by IT and organizations in general.

  • - Most products in the market have grown by acquisition, struggling to integrate completely different technologies into a single product suite. Alero, on the other hand, is a single product with a single, consistent architecture (SOA). All functions provided by Alero, including ECM, BPM, Integration, virtualization, compliance, notification, federation, and many more, are built on top of this integration platform as a service (SOA).

  • - It uses the latest designs, architectures, and tools to provide an innovative, lean-and-mean, and easy-to-use solution that is modular, flexible, open, fast, reliable, and cost efficient.

  • - It is a true Enterprise wide solution. It has not known boundaries in terms of users, transactions, volumes, documents, etc. It can be used for simple (group, departmental) to very large, complex initiatives (corporate wide) regardless of the complexity, including the number of servers, locations, transaction volumes, number of users, etc.

  • - It drastically reduces the time-to-production or the time-to-market by drastically reducing the time, cost and risk associated with the development, deployment, and maintenance.

  • - It provides unmatched performance, reliability, manageability at an unbeatable price.
6. What can it be used for?
Alero can be used as follows:

  • - As the foundation for new solutions,
  • - To add value to existing solutions, or
  • - As a complete, off-the-shelf solution.
As a foundation, Alero can be used as the foundation of new applications or solutions, taking advantage of the flexibility, scalability, performance, reliability, continuity, and extensive features provided by the product. By providing 60% to 90% of what is required in almost any new solution, Alero dramatically reduces the development, time-to-market/production, costs and risks associated with these initiatives.

As a value-added, Alero can be easily integrated with existing applications or solutions, adding value to them easily and quickly without having to develop, maintain, and support technologies that may be out of your core expertise or that you just do not want to develop (reinvent the wheel).

As a complete solution, Alero can be used as a complete solution for partners that provide services but do not want to own or develop their own technologies. As such, Alero provides them with a suite of solutions in all the areas covered by the product, including ECM, storage, BPM, integration, virtualization, etc.
7. What is the market segment or target market the product was designed for?
Alero is a horizontal product designed for the management of enterprise information. As such, it can be used for any type of solution regardless of the market segment or target market you play in. Although it is currently heavily used for content management and business process management in the financial, telecommunications and government segments, it is not because of limitations of the product but because of partners' preferences.
8. What is the scope of the product?
The scope of the product is well defined throughout the Alero website and marketing materials. Alero is an enterprise information management (EIM) framework that facilitates the development, deployment, maintenance, and support of complete integrated composite solutions, reducing the time, costs, and risks associated with these initiatives.

Alero Technology took a proactive approach during the initial development phase of the product by developing all the products/modules needed in foreseeable future at the time as part of the product. Now, after 10 years in the market, Alero has taken a more reactive approach where new products/modules are incrementally added as the needs change, depending on market trends and customer needs.

Currently, the scope of the product comprehends the following services:

  • - Repository Services, which implement the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) capabilities of the product, including: capture/scanning (by integration ONLY), content management (imaging), document management (library services), content storage management, records management, electronic signature management, full-text searching and indexing, high speed import, and WebDAV support.

  • - Process Services, which implement the Business Process Management (BPM) capabilities of the product, including the BPM engine and web based applications to design, simulate, monitor, trace and view processes.

  • - Content Services, which implement services that are common to all the modules, including federated searches and notification.

  • - Integration Services, which implement the Enterprise Content Integration (ECI) and Enterprise Information Integration (EII) capabilities of the product, including integration with other content management product and application/solutions using connector/adapter technology.

  • - Security Services, which implement the Security Management capabilities of the product, including a proprietary security module, an LDAP-compliant module, and an aggregation module.

  • - Event Services, which implement the Event Management capabilities of the product, including audit and trail.
9. What is the value proposition?
The value proposition is simple:

"Unparalleled performance, reliability, scalability, and manageability at an unbeatable price"

Product Licensing and Price


1. How is the product licensed?
The Alero software is usually licensed by modules and users per module. However, there are other types of licensing based on transactions, OEM, volume licensing, and site/enterprise. Following is a brief description of the types of licenses available:

  • - Perpetual License: allows the licensee to install and use the software indefinitely. Technical support is included for a limited term (usually 90 days).

  • - Subscription license: allows the licensee to use the software for a specified time period. This license usually includes technical support and access to upgrades and patches released during the term of the subscription. At the end of the term the user has several options: (1) renew the subscription; or (2) purchase a perpetual license at a discounted cost; or (3) remove the software from the computer.

  • - OEM (original equipment manufacturer): allows the licensee to brand the software as its own. This license usually includes technical support and access to upgrades and patches released during the term of the agreement.

  • - Volume licenses: allows the licensee to install the software on a certain number of computers. The licensee usually has to satisfy a minimum purchase requirement and obtains reduced prices in exchange. When purchasing the licenses, the licensee usually receives one copy of the media and documentation with the option of purchasing more.

  • - Site/Enterprise: allows the licensee to use the software without limits inside of its site/enterprise. Typically, these licenses are individually negotiated between Alero and the licensee and vary widely in their provisions.

  • - Unlimited: See Site/Enterprise license above.
2. Is it based on "concurrent" or "named" users?
The current publicized price lists are based on "named" users. However, if you are required to provide estimates based on "concurrent" users, Alero representatives can easily help you to accomplish just that.
3. Is the price based on the number of CPU's per server, types of platforms utilized, number of servers required, type of database selected, etc.?
No. Alero refuses to nickel-and-dime its partners and customers by providing complicated price lists that charge for every single variable in a system. Alero's price structure does not care about the actual implementation details and does not charge for them, including the number of CPU's per server, the number of servers required by the system, the type of operating system chosen, the type of database selected, etc.
4. Will your price allow me to compete in the small, medium, and large markets?
Alero is a true enterprise wide solution. As such, it was designed with performance, scalability and distribution in mind. It can be used from small, group type solutions to very large, multinational ones. Alero Technology works with its partners so they can provide one solution for the different size businesses in their markets segments instead of having to carry different products for the different size businesses due to the cost of the solutions imposed by their vendors.
5. What do you mean by "value priced" products?
Although there are publicized domestic and international price lists for the products, under certain special conditions, Alero Technology may provide a different price, or discounts, to let our partner compete in their specific markets. For instance, partners in some countries outside of the United States may not be able to compete with the publicized international prices. The same may apply to domestic or international partners that compete under very specific market conditions. Alero Technology will work out a value priced structure for these partners as long as the business they are in makes sense.
6. We have special market conditions. Will I be able to use Alero for this market?
Please refer to the answer to the previous question (#5) in this section.

Technology Benefits


By providing an innovative, state-of-the-art, and service-oriented development framework for the management of information, Alero software offers comprehensive technology benefits:

+ One solution for any segment of the market
Unlike many vendors in the market that force their partners to use different solutions for different segments of the market due to price restrictions, Alero partners can start with Alero Express, which is a cost-sensitive solution for customers with small requirements or limited budget, and grow to Alero Enterprise Edition, which can meet even the most complex requirements in terms of transactions, volumes, and performance.
+ A single, unified information management framework
Alero has been designed and developed from the ground up using a consistent architecture that delivers a single, unified framework for the management of information.
+ Embeddable component software/Complete packaged solution
Designed primarily to be used as the foundation for complete new solutions, to be embedded into existing business applications, or to be used as a complete packaged solution, Alero’s innovative approach to information management and development shortens the development time and the time to market.
+ Designed for ad-hoc as well as high volume production environments
The same software that can run in a laptop for demo purposes can also run in a server, mid-range server or a mainframe to meet even the most strenuous performance and productivity requirements.
+ Integrates multiple technologies under one consistent architecture
Customers get a myriad of services and technologies in one unified, consistent framework, saving time in costly product developments, integrations, maintenance, and support, simplifying complex projects, and reducing the total time and costs associated with these projects.
+ Complete or partial Enterprise Virtualization
Organizations are comprised of multiple disparate systems (repositories), each of them addressing specific business needs. However, today's software solutions should not create silos of information but should integrate with existing solutions. Alero's integration capabilities can orchestrate these repositories and exposed them to users, programmers, and administrators securely as one virtual repository.
+ A true Enterprise Information Management
Alero was designed to deal with potentially any type of information under one single, uniform framework.
+ Unparalleled performance, scalability, and reliability
By design, Alero can span servers, platforms, databases, and locations to meet even the most complex performance, scalability and reliability requirements.
+ Reduces the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
By dramatically reducing the time and costs associated with development, deployment, maintenance and support of your solutions, Alero provides the lowest TCO of any solution, primarily if you are a solution provider in the middle and upper segments of the market.

ROI Benefits


By reducing information management costs and streamlining application projects, Alero software offers rapid return on investment:

+ Reduces costs, risks, and time-to-market/time-to-solution
By simplifying development and integration and by providing a wealth of services in a component based framework, Alero helps you meet business goals for critical projects faster, cheaper, and with less risks.
+ Improves efficiency and productivity
By eliminating the need for costly data or application integration and by unifying and standardizing the access, management, and integration of information, Alero optimizes and streamlines your organization, improving efficiency, productivity, and the levels of service.
+ Reduces complexity
By virtualizing the entire enterprise and by providing one central point of configuration for the entire system, Alero simplifies accessing, managing, integrating, and securing information and the system.
+ Accelerates business processes and improve decision-making
By facilitating the access to real-time data and by integrating on demand, Alero shortens business cycles and provides live information to decision-makers at all levels more efficiently.