Intranet access

Yahoo will team with Hewlett-Packard in offering corporate intranet services, the two companies will announce tomorrow. Corporate users will be able to access Yahoo's member service features, offered in conjunction with customized content behind a company's firewall, according to a knowledgeable source. The move comes as the leading portal tries to increase business services and the computer giant looks to emphasize its so-called e-services strategy. The initiative will be similar to a May agreement with software maker Tibco, according to the source. HP issued a press advisory saying an announcement would be made tomorrow at 9 a.m. but wouldn't confirm any details. Yahoo couldn't be reached for comment. The partnership comes as Yahoo looks to expand the services it offers to businesses. ***

LAS VEGAS--AT&T (T) announced a new service today for Net access customers that can guarantee levels of service on both sides of the connection. The new WorldNet Virtual Private Network (VPN) Service uses the company's IP-based network to provide uptime of 99.7 percent for customers, according to AT&T. A VPN allows a secure tunnel to be created across the public Internet between two connection points. The functions will allow remote users and corporations to access information on internal networks, or intranets, as well as tie elements of that data to third parties that need it--a process that has been dubbed an "extranet." AT&T hopes to garner a portion of this expanding market and outsource elements of network functionality normally supervised by corporate information systems departments. ***

Document management specialist Documentum (DCTM) is shipping a new version of its DocLink software that opens up SAP's R/3 system to a wider array of corporate data. The software addresses the growing interest at large enterprises for products that can store, manage, and link together data originating in the parallel worlds of client-server networks and corporate intranets. Documentum's DocLink for SAP R/3 adds the company's Enterprise Document Management System to R/3's own Document Management System 3.0 and SAP ArchiveLink to allow information stored in R/3 to travel beyond the system's architecture, and for documents in other formats be displayed by the R/3 user interface. "You live in SAP. You don't even see Documentum," said. ***