EasyAsk Unveils EasyAsk Enterprise 9, Version 9.1
Enhanced Platform Delivers Enterprise Search Brokering, Contextual Navigation for Structured and Unstructured Content and Other Advanced Features to Provide Holistic View of Critical Business Information
LITTLETON, MASS. - March 15, 2004 - EasyAsk, a trusted provider of innovative information access software, today announced the general availability of EasyAsk Enterprise 9, version 9.1. With this new release, EasyAsk delivers a universal information access solution for the global enterprise. By extending its world-class precision search and dynamic navigation technology across business functions, such as selling, servicing, employee self-service and business intelligence, EasyAsk Enterprise 9 enables leading organizations to accelerate business decision- making. This, in turn, results in increased productivity, employee and customer satisfaction and competitive advantage.
"The need for unified access to all kinds of information is the first reason that enterprises cite in telling us why they are investing (and reinvesting) in better information finding tools like search and navigation," said Sue Feldman, Vice President, Content Technologies Research at IDC. "The latest version of EasyAsk Enterprise 9 pulls together both content and data from scattered locations across the enterprise so that users from any business unit can get a complete picture of what is going on within their customer relationships, their email, their e-commerce, or their internal processes. By enabling enterprises to connect any kind of information collection - database, documents, or external news feeds - to a single point of access, EasyAsk helps ensure that no vital nuggets of information are missed."
Among the new features in the new EasyAsk Enterprise platform is a unique enterprise-search broker technology. With this feature, EasyAsk enables users to search and retrieve answers transparently from multiple sources, without the barrier of having to understand where information resides. This ensures that workers can freely access records, documentation, reports and supplementary materials to get their questions answered. EasyAsk`s enterprise search brokering also translates into significant IT savings, since content stored in disparate sources does not have to be replicated to and synchronized with a single search engine index, as is the conventional approach used widely today.
Forbes.com Fronts EasyAsk Enterprise 9.1
Forbes.com selected the new EasyAsk Enterprise platform to enhance its popular search feature, which is used by a large portion of the millions of visitors the site averages each month. (See related announcement, "Forbes.com Selects EasyAsk Enterprise 9 to Enhance Search and Navigation," March 15, 2004.) EasyAsk Enterprise allows business analysts, academics, industry researchers and other Forbes.com visitors to intuitively search for specific content using queries ranging from a full question to a single word or phrase. With EasyAsk Enterprise`s support for both structured and unstructured data, visitors can comprehensively search through archives of articles, as well as Forbes` well-known annual lists, to find specific information.
According to Mike Smith, Chief Technology Officer at Forbes.com, "The new EasyAsk Enterprise 9 delivers a range of features and capabilities, such as real-time indexing and contextual navigation, that provides our online visitors with a quality and efficient experience. With EasyAsk`s search and navigation technology, they can be assured of finding the very latest information in a matter of seconds."
Unifying Enterprise Information
EasyAsk unifies disparate and distributed content, enabling organizations to dynamically respond to customers, employees and partners. Whether reflected in enterprise application databases, within corporate intranets, concealed in data marts or within company portals, EasyAsk`s powerful linguistic capabilities turns data into knowledge.
EasyAsk Enterprise 9 features an advanced J2EE-compliant and service-oriented architecture that enables EasyAsk`s ability to support any size organization.
Several key features in the EasyAsk Enterprise 9 platform include:
• "Direct to answer" highlighting - This feature allows employees and customers to "zero in" on the specific answer, which is highlighted in the resulting response(s).
• Results summarization - In instances where a single answer is not an option or a specific response is not available, this feature provides a summary of a document, revealing clues about the content of the results found so that users can identify the most relevant documents faster.
• Administration dashboard - New features were added in the latest version of EasyAsk Enterprise to support the requirements of today`s dynamic organizations.
EasyAsk Continues Innovations in Commerce
In the area of commerce, the new platform now provides the ability to display richly defined and varying product attributes - such as color, manufacturer, or material - at different levels within a product catalog hierarchy, as well as the ability to dynamically generate product price intervals and assign products appropriately. This provides merchandisers with great flexibility as they build online catalogs that mirror the capabilities of their most qualified sales and service representatives.
"Nimble organizations make decisions quickly based on information that can be in many different formats and locations," said Bob Alperin, president and CEO of EasyAsk. "However, the sheer volume of data and content immobilizes organizations and dilutes the potential impact of this knowledge. The latest version of EasyAsk Enterprise 9 removes this barrier and reveals insight, thereby enabling companies to make the right decision at the right time. This release will help drive a fundamental shift in the process of business decision-making. We believe that to be successful, these dynamic organizations will turn to EasyAsk."
About EasyAsk
EasyAsk is a leading provider of intuitive and precise information access solutions that empower enterprise users to quickly find and retrieve critical business information. Powered by a unique linguistic capability, EasyAsk`s Synchronized Search and Navigation™ platform accesses both structured and unstructured data, intelligently interpreting users` queries to find accurate and complete results with unprecedented efficiency. Leading retail, financial services and business-to-business companies such as Lands` End, Siemens Medical Systems (SMS) and GlaxoSmithKline use EasyAsk`s technology. Over 100 companies have acquired EasyAsk`s core technology. EasyAsk partners include IBM and SAIC. Leading investors include Sigma Partners and Flagship Ventures. EasyAsk is headquartered outside of Boston with sales and support offices throughout the U.S., and internationally in England and Belgium. For more information, please visit our website at www.easyask.com or contact us at 1-800-425-8200.
Kim McCrossen
RF Binder Partners
781.455.8250
kim.mccrossen@rfbinder.com
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