Introduction
Secure Easy IM™ is a family of products and services enabling business-to-business data interchange and integration. Secure Easy IM provides the administrative controls and the communication protocol that enable dissimilar computers which may be operated by different companies to instantly interchange data and integrate applications over an IP network, e.g. the Internet.
Secure Easy IM™ is based on a client/server architecture whereby clients (sending/receiving computers) interchange data through a server. The client software is known as the Secure Easy IM Client™. The Secure Easy IM Client resides on the client computers and communicates with the Secure Easy IM Server using a purpose-built transfer protocol called Eforward™.
The Eforward protocol was develped by Greg Pringle to streamline the connection of applications on the web. Secure Easy IM has implemented Eforward and extended the capabilities.
Data is interchanged between and among the the Secure Easy IM clients via electronic mailboxes known as iBoxes. Trading relationships are established between iBoxes setting the rules that govern which iBoxes are allowed to interchange data. The Secure Easy IM Server typically but not necessarily operates on a host distinct from the Client Hosts. It acts as an intelligent post office transferring data to/from the Secure Easy IM clients using the Eforward protocol. The Secure Easy IM Server also provides the means for establishing and maintaining trading relationships between the iBoxes and for enforcing the trading relationship rules thus set. In addition the Secure Easy IM Server provides an audit trail for all interchanges as well as inquiry and reporting functions. The user manages the Secure Easy IM Server using a web browser.
The Secure Easy IM Server and the Secure Easy IM Client are all written in pure Java for cross platform compatibility.