With a number of companies planning a foray into e-commerce, many of them are yet to plan a proper integration with existing databases and applications which complicates the scenario further.

Delhi-based AKS Software will soon start offering an application development tool offered by US-based Unify Corporation. Called Vision AppServer 5.0, it acts like a IT glue that can magically join everything together and make life easier for CIOs. Touted to be a genre advanced than the 4GL, AppServer has had Unify's stock price going up by eight times in last six months.

``To successfully enjoy the riches of doing businesses on the internet, IT organisations mustdeliver e-commerce solutions that bridge the gap between internet users, corporate users and transactional systems which run the business. And that solution must be fast, reliable and cost-effective,'' said AKS managing director SS Grewal.

``Vision will change your view about the application development tools. It is the ideal solution for these organisations. With this product, corporations can build e-commerce, supply chain automation and automated customer service applications by integrating custom-built, packaged and legacy applications with the internet,'' he added.

Vision AppServer allows internet and Windows-based applications to be natively integrated with application services running on Unix servers as well as Windows NT servers.

Its application services can be seamlessly connected with internet applications based on active server pages (ASP) and desktop applications based on products like Visual Basic, Power Builder, Delphi and even Microsoft C++. It will be offered in two modules of AppServer(for a deployment server) and AppBuilder (as a development tool).

The first allows the internet and Windows-based applications to be natively integrated with application services running on Unix or Windows NT servers, making it a e-commerce tool as it helps build solutions connecting the databases to the Net.

Vision has built-in Web technology which also generates Java applets that gives the programmer the power to build complex enterprise wide applications suited for the Web. It has a powerful client-server architecture that includes advanced application partitioning and an integrated application management. Besides, it has other advanced features like rapid application development. The company will offer the development version for Rs 75,000, while in the deployable or executable format, it will have a seatwise sale price tag of Rs 5,000. The prices, according to Grewal, have been highly discounted for Indian market by Unify.