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Push Technology & Knowledge Management |
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Push Technology & Knowledge Management |
In the beginning there was
information pull, and it was good,
because it gave people a choice.But it was also inefficient and unmanageable, as peer-to-peer architectures are wont to become as they grow. Ensuring the timely distribution of relevant content to a company's knowledge workers has proven to be one of the thornier problems faced by web architects. Vendors have advanced myriad solutions, assembled here under the rubric content management.
This is a market in flux. It includes products formerly described as "push" or webcasting solutions (terms that have now taken on a niche conotation); document managment systems that offer check in/check out and versioning; knowledge management (KM), which industry analyst IDC defines as "managing the value of information across the enterprise on a real-time basis"; and search engines, which continue to play a central role in content discovery.
Following is Intranet Design's independent listing of leading content management vendors and their wares. We've doubtless omitted some products, and others will have come to market by the time you read this. As with any software investment, check Cacheworthy for late-breaking news about products and company prospects, and do your homework before committing to a purchase.
Software Categories Web Application Development
Web-to-database connectivity software and site building tools
Content Management
Knowledge management products, "push" technology & search enginesThis is a market in flux. As with any software investment, do your homework before committing to a purchase.
| Product | Company | Platform(s) | Highlights | Price* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agentware | Autonomy | Unix & NT | Automated search, organization and delivery of content based on concept recognition technology | $5,000 per server application; $100/seat |
| BackWeb | BackWeb Technologies | Windows, Solaris | BackWeb service includes roughly 40 channels, deliverable as screen savers, wallpaper, or pop-up alerts. Supports both HTTP and the lighter UDP to ease LAN loading. Only product to support per-channel disk quotas to optimize storage. | $10,000 for 300 users |
| InfoMagnet | Compassware Development | Windows NT | Search & retrieval system based on intelligent profiling delivers personalized information from 200+ source formats. | $4,995 per server + $100 per user |
| Cambio [News (10.July.98)] |
Data Junction | Win 3.1/95/NT | Visual design tool for extracting and mining useful data from irregular text files, including printfiles, reports, OCR output, downloads, tagged ASCII, HTML, labels and multi-line records | $495/user |
| Castanet | Marimba | Windows, Solaris | Castanet Tuner (client) receives Java-based streams
from Castanet Transmitter (server) channels. Not a content |
$1,000 - $25,000 |
| ChannelManager [News (4.May.98)] |
DataChannel | Windows, NT, Mac, Unix | ChannelGuide (client) is a Java applet that runs in the browser. ChannelManager is a Java-based server that lets users subscribe to multiple channels and content sources including real-time feeds. | $7,900 for 100 users |
| Dataware II Publisher | Dataware Technologies | Windows NT | Information retrieval, management and publishing to web or CD-ROM | from $15,000 |
| Desktop News | Desktop News Corp. | Windows 3.11, 95, NT | Free Windows app pushes customized news and banner ads to desktops in a compact, low-memory, low-bandwidth toolbar 'ticker.' | Free (ad supported) |
| Diffusion Server [News (03.Aug.98)] |
Diffusion Inc. | Win95 & NT | Java-enabled client software receives webcasts from Diffusion Server 2.0, which supports a wide array of publishing media including e-mail, fax, pagers and network printers. | $75,000 per CPU |
| Documentum | Documentum | Windows NT; Sun Solaris 2.4+; HP-UX 10+; IBM AIX 4.1+; requires RDBMS Server | Enterprise document management system | Unavailable |
| Downtown | InCommon LLC | Windows 95/NT |
Downtown combines Internet content delivery and accelerated web browsing in a single product. InformationWeek's Jason Levitt found the client "cumbersome," but with strong features like support for disk quotas to conserve storage. | $10,000 |
| Headliner | Lanacom | See BackWeb | "July 8, 1997. Lanacom, creators of the Headliner product line, and BackWeb Technologies Inc. announced today that BackWeb has acquired Lanacom." | See BackWeb |
| Incisa | WayFarer Communications, Inc. | Win95 & NT | Proprietary protocol maintains stateful connection between client & server, ensures fastest delivery of time-critical content. Unique user/group-level administration will appeal to large installations. Client employs Shockwave. | $5000 for 100 seats |
| Intermind Communicator |
Intermind Corp. [Last Oct.97] |
N/A | "Intermind plans to leverage its extensive holdings of intellectual property through licensing and technology joint ventures," according to a statement. It no longer offers webcasting products. | |
| NETdelivery | NETdelivery Corp. | Windows (client + development), no server | Product line dormant since April 1997. Web-based delivery service that ties communities of interest (like showcased CyberSeniors) to providers of relevant content, merchandise, and services. | Free client + subscriptions |
| NETpresenter | NETpresenter (Update 11.11.97) |
Win95, NT; 16-bit (Q1 '98) | NETpresenter v3.0 is a lightweight push |
$799 (1 Editor, 20 Player) |
| PointCast [New Intranet tools (Oct.97] |
PointCast Inc. | Client: Windows, Mac/PPC Server: Windows NT |
New Intranet Broadcast Solution enables you to define customized, corporate channels alongside the PointCast Business Network's extensive public information feeds. | All channels and tools: free (ad supported) |
| Smart Delivery | FirstFloor | Windows 95/NT, Mac/PPC; Sun Solaris (Smart Server) | Smart Delivery is a line of Web-based notification and delivery solutions that streamlines the process of organizing corporate data and distributing it automatically to communities of users. | Varies by installation |
| Transceive | Caravelle Inc. (Update 10.97) |
N/A | Caravelle has dropped out of webcasting to focus on its award-winning line of Web-Based Network Management products. | N/A |
| WebCast Pro | Astound Inc. | Windows 95/NT 4.0 | Combines transport independence with dynamic HTML and
WYSIWYG authoring for high-impact delivery of business |
$1995.95 |
| * Push client software free unless otherwise noted. | ||||
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