DAX, Hilgraeve Develop Secure Digital Courier

Staff -- graphic arts online, 2/1/2001

Digital Art Exchange, Inc. (DAX), an Internet service and applications provider headquartered in Charlestown, Mass., has entered into a strategic partnership with Monroe, Mich.-based Internet communication software firm Hillgraeve Inc. to develop a Macintosh version of the latter's HyperSend browser-based secure delivery service. It would be part of DAX's suite of graphic arts applications, the companies announced.

The file transfer product, to be called DAX-IT (DAX Secure Information Transfer), is still being field-tested and is slated for public release February 28. According to Katie Matrone, DAX's vice president of marketing communications, her company will sponsor a road show in March to demonstrate the system and offer educational seminars in Boston, Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia (for details, contact kmatrone@dax-it.com).

"In the graphic communications industry today, security is always the number-one concern when it comes to sending files digitally," says DAX chief executive Martijn van Steeg. "This [offering] addresses the security issues that most companies in the industry have with FTP [file transfer protocol]. Three layers of encryption and a very user-friendly interface [will be] available to our customers."

Hilgraeve president and chief executive Matt Gray says that the partnership with DAX allows his company "to extend the benefits of our HyperSend secure file transfer technology to the graphic communications industry. It offers many advantages over FTP, and is a perfect fit for this industry because of its ability to send large files over the Internet in a fast and secure manner."